Openings
How to create a custom window
By Bill Wimberley
Feb 17, 2003

Creating windows in SoftPlan is a two part process. You need to create an Elevation Opening and then from there you create the wall opening.

Most of the time the Elevation Opening is reusable for multiple wall openings. You simply define the wall opening, select the appropriate elevation opening to go with it, and adjust the properties such as size, grills, trim, etc.

Sometimes there is not an appropriate elevation opening already defined and you have to make one. For this you use the Opening Shapes. Select Detail-->Opening Shapes. Select the appropriate basic shape such as door, casement, hung, slider, etc. and draw out what the opening is to look like. You might draw a door and then draw a window on it so the door will have a window. Or you might draw a round top window and define all the properties such as deflection, etc.

Once you have the opening looking the way you want it the next step is to turn it into an Elevation opening. You do this through the System Library and it works the same way as adding a symbol. Select File-->System Library. Select the Elevation Openings library type. Click on the library where you wish to place the new elevation opening or you can create a new library if you wish. Select Add (at the bottom) and draw a box around your new elevation opening. Give it a name and select OK.

Once you have your elevation opening you need to create a wall opening. From File-->System Library select Openings. Select the appropriate library or create a new one. Select Add (at the bottom). Give the opening a name and select either an existing opening to use as a template or select to create a new Custom Opening. If you select the Custom Opening option then fill in the information appropriate to your new opening. Select OK. Edit your opening to the appropriate specifications. Select OK. You have a new opening.

Occasionally there may be times that one of SoftPlan's opening shapes to not fill the bill. For instance you might want a twin arch top hung window. Since SoftPlan doesn't have this shape you can make one with lines and arcs. In this situation what I do is to take a round top opening shape and a hung opening shape and place them side by side. Adjust them to the correct sizes and then explode them. Remove the parts that are duplicated in both and them move one to be on top of the other. Finish editing to be the final shape.

Since you are using lines and arcs to create the elevation opening rather than opening shapes SoftPlan has to have a way to recognize what part is the glass. To define the glass you need to edit the innermost lines and and arcs and change them to be the first dashed pattern. Make sure all the corners are joined up correctly and then turn your new window into an elevation opening and then into a wall opening as outlined above.

Obviously the easiest method is to use an existing elevation opening. The next easiest would be to make a new elevation opening using opening shapes. And the most difficult is to make a new elevation opening from lines and shapes, preferably by taking an existing elevation opening or starting from an opening shape and exploding them down and then make your new elevation opening.

Elevation openings are reusable for different size windows so it is not necessary to create a new elevation opening for each wall opening.

Bill Wimberley