cadvilla Support Team

How to design your own a door

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In this Video-Tutorial we show you how you can design your own door with the 3D CAD house planning Software cadvilla. Some of the functions in this video are only available in the product versions cadvilla professional and cadvilla professional plus.

The basic workflow:

  • In the first step we open a new 2D-view. In the 2D-view we create with the help of guidelines (“2D & layout” – “2D guidelines”) a grid to define the width and the depth of the door.
  • After it we select “Construction” – “Extrude solid” – “Insert with polygon”. We make a left mouse click in the 2D-view to select a surface and after it we press the right mouse button – “Properties”. Here we select “Extrude solid” and at the point “Height” we can enter the height of the door. After it we press “OK”. We enter the polygon along the guideline grid and after the entry we press the right mouse button – “Complete”.
  • Now we create a section-view, therefore we select “View” – “new Section-View”. We select the area for the section- view and after it the section-view window appears. Now we open also a 3D-view, we deselect the layer “Environment” and we place the three views side by side.
  • If we would like to use a picture (for example the front view of a door) as an template, we select “2D & Layout” – “Insert bitmap” – “Rectangle”. We select a picture out of the directory and we confirm with “OK”. Now we define with the help of the rectangle, for example in the section view, the area in which we will enter the picture. To check the scaling of the picture, we select it – right mouse button – “Modify Scaling”. Now we select two points of known length. After it the dialogue window opens in which the target length gets displayed. If the target length is not correct we enter the correct length, otherwise we press “OK”.
  • Now we define, with the help of guidelines, the dimensions of the door moulding. Of course we can use therefore for example a picture as reference.
  • In the next step we define the moulding with the help of a sweep-solid. Therefore we select the section-view and we choose “Construction” – “Sweep-solid” – “Insert with polygon”. We select the surface in the 3D-view on which we will define parallel the moulding. After it we press the right mouse button in the section-view and we select “Properties”. We select the point “Sweep solid” and at the point “Catalogue” we can choose for example the folder “Decoration”. We select one of the profiles and after it we enter at “Width/Height” the dimensions of the profile. Finally we choose in the preview window the correct reference point and after it we can press “OK”.
  • We enter the sweep-solid along the already defined guidelines in the section view, after the entry we can press “ESC” to end the function. To copy the sweep solid for example to the opposite side of the door, we use the 2D-view. We select the sweep-solid and we choose the function “Copy with reference point”. Now we copy the sweep-solid to the new position. To change the axis of the sweep solid, we select the sweep solid again and we use the function “around Z-axis”.
  • To add a door handle we define in the first step the position with the help of guidelines. After it we select the “Catalogue” – “Component” – “Windows / Doors” – “Door / window handles”. We select one of the handles, we press and hold the left mouse button and we drag the handle into the 2D view. Now we position the handle in the 2D-view and in the section-view. Therefore we select the handle and we choose in the selection menu the function “Move with reference point” or we press the shortcut “r”.
  • To define the material of the door, we select the 3D-view and we choose “3D Functions” – “Edit material”. We select the part of the door which we want to define, the material editor opens and here we can define the texture, colour, transparency, highlights, etc. … . After we have defined the material we confirm with “Ok”. To transfer the material also to all the other parts of the door we can choose the function “Transfer material”.
  • To save the finished defined door as a 3D-object file we select the “Menu” – “Export” – “3D-Formats” – “3D object file”. We select the “Catalogue” – “AEC” – “Doors”, we create a new folder and we select the new folder as target folder. After it we enter a name for the object and we press “OK”. Please note the properties of the windows user account control when you save 3D-objects.
  • To use the door in a project we have to define the “Chunks” in the catalogue. Therefore we chose our door in the “Catalogue”, we select it – right mouse click – “Edit chunks”. After we have defined the chunks we can press “OK”.

This post is also available in: German