Help Database

The following steps make use of image files that are not included with the program. You can use image files that are already on your computer, or you can create new ones.  These same basic steps can be used to import other images into your plans such as people, pets, cars, etc. 

 

Creating Plant Images:

In Chief Architect, image objects are more than just 2D pictures. Images have size and height attributes, and can contain transparency information. In floor plan view, they display only as 2D symbols; but in 3D views, the visual information that they contain is displayed.

To create a new plant image and save it to the library:

1. First, launch your Chief Architect software, and open the plan in which you want to place your custom plant image.
   
   
   
2. Next, select Library> Library Browser 
   
   
   
3. Right click on the User Libraries folder and select New> Plant Image.
   
    
   
   In Chief Architect Interiors, select New> Image.
   
   
   
4. This displays the the Image Specification dialog. 
   
   
   
5. On the Image tab, click the Browse button and browse to any image on your computer. 
   
   
   
   In this tutorial we will make use of a .png file which already has transparency information which is located on the Desktop, but you can use any image on your computer.
    
   Keep in mind that if you want it to display like the other plant images in Chief Architect that you may want to crop it appropriately and set the transparency information in a program such as photo editing software before bringing in the image.
   
   
   
6. Click Open to return to the Image Specification dialog.
   
   
   
7. On the Image tab, enter the Height or Width, adjusting one will adjust the other, maintaining the correct proportion, so long as you leave the Retain Aspect Ratio option checked.
   
   
   
   
   
8. Enter a Height Above Ground value to specify the elevation at which the image displays.
   
   A value of 0 inches works well in this case, but if we knew we would be placing this plant into a window flower box, for example, we may want to enter the height of this instead.
   
   
   
9. The Transparency tab allows you to either use transparency from the image file, or use a custom transparency color. 
   
   
   
   If you choose to use a custom transparency color, for example, a tree image that has mostly a blue sky background, you will want to use the Tolerance slider to apply the level of tolerance that you want applied to colors that are almost the same.
   
   
   
10. Select the Plant Information tab to enter information about the plant such as its common and scientific names, flower and leaf colors, bloom time, etc.
    
    Setting this information can be helpful if you are importing many custom plant images that you would like to be able to search for using the Plant Chooser.
    
    
    
11. Enter any additional information on the plant, such as a description, lighting or hardiness zone comments on the Plant Description tab.
    
    
    
12. Click OK to close the Image Specification dialog and add the new image to the Library Browser.
    
    
    
13. Now go to the Library Browser, expand out the User Libraries category where you created the plant image, select it, and click in your plan to place it.
    
    
    
14. Take a 3D camera view to see the results.