[2020]

We are always looking for customer feedback on new releases and future releases, in an effort to provide meaningful improvements to 2020 Design.
Please post here your ideas and suggestions you want to have in 2020 Design. We will use your posts to form our future Product Roadmap.

[Kevin Roberts – CatalogPros.com]

Wishlist: It would be great to be able to have V10 and V11 installed on the same machine for support and testing purposes.

[Ron Russell]

Was there an article on sharing a Virtual Reality of designs? Is this part of version 12?

[Jim Knowles]

First – I rather like the 2020 V12 edition. However, I have found myself spending a massive amount of unnecessary time accomplishing relatively simple tasks that I’ve been able to do fairly easily in other more rudimentary kitchen design software programs. Some of the limitations are a bit astounding and very frustrating.

1. Moldings on walls which are different heights on two ends. For example, cannot show crown molding on a wall which is 120″ on left side, and 96″ on the other side. Crown and other moldings will only appear in a straight line at one up/down value above the floor.

2. Ability to edit trim, general shapes and lines in the elevation view. Can currently create a running line in an elevation, but cannot make it 3D, as would be expected for #1.

3. Calculations within a dimensions field – for a length (or width, or height, or depth, or up/down, in/out value) being able to type ” 36+25.5+3″ in the field and it calculate/populate the box with 64.5. This is possible and quite handy in Photoshop, InDesign, etc.

4. Please fix crashes while making changes while rendering window is open. Modifying or editing trims, countertops, walls, particularly the L/W/H/D of these items causes unexpected crashes.

5. Ability to select which walls will appear in a floorplan view when creating document layout, or ability to turn specific walls on or off (like other items) in the various floorplan display tabs. Case here is when laying out a kitchen and then trying to add walls around it for perspective/flooring/windows/etc. to make it look real. Those walls and added items are not needed for creating dimensioned floor plan documents.

6. Ability to select individual items to turn on or off in the rendering view.

7. Ability to save lighting presets, and low/medium/high render quality. Lighting presets in all of the rendering views appear unnaturally dark. Cannot save or re-load an “exposure” value, or type a specific decimal number in this field. Cannot save presets for ambient light levels, auto lighting, etc. Cannot adjust height or general placement/frequency of auto lighting. Without spending hours to create manual lighting/light sources, it is virtually impossible to have upper cabinets, which have auto lighting, show up in the same color family as base cabinets, without hours of work.

8. Ability to set contrast settings (white point, black point, shadows highlight/lowlight) in the rendering view. All white colors look unnecessarily dim and essentially a dark gray from the start. Under “auto” lighting, a bright white should appear as a bright white in a commonly lit room. The starting point in the rendering feels like a dark room in the back of a night club. Colors selected in any of the texture items for attributes appear 10+ shades darker in the rendering, but even with exposure and standard tweaking (before hours of adding custom lighting sources), items are either “flashed” out, very dark, or the color family is changed based on the lighting color temperature. It does not need to be that difficult.

9. When will export to .dxf and .dwg be added for 64bit version? Cannot modify / create fully custom cabinets or anything else for that matter if the import/export does not work.

10. Countertop wizard. Ability to add a custom overhang to a cabinet or edge, in the same way that appliance or finished edges are added. Ability to create custom-shaped tops using the same catalogs available in the countertop wizard. Difficult to create an oddly-shaped top with complex radiuses, etc. but very easy to do if you make one from scratch. Except that the countertop catalogs and textures are not available.

[Ron Russell]

Jim,
1) Use insert/trim vs. countertops and trims. In plan or elevation click on the cabinet or group of cabinets on the same level.

[Jim Knowles]

Crown Molding on walls with different heights. See the picture. Crown & base moldings are a huge part of our more upscale designs. Cannot show this customer what their new kitchen will look like against their 8″ crown molding at the ceiling.

Attachments:

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   Vaulted1.jpg
   

[Kelly Smith]

I would love tools that make it easy to create NKBA standard drawings, including layouts that function with 11×17 paper, the ability to create your own title block, proper centerline dimensions & etc (study the guidelines and make it easy). You guys are supposed to be the best. You are fine for pricing & rendering, but not for install drawings.  I have purchased another software (CA) for my install drawings in NKBA standards as 2020 doesn’t make it easy. We are WAY more efficient with it – even having to input the design twice!!! Many of my manufacturers have 3rd party pricing software that I am forced to use anyway. What will be the point of 2020 if I have to price there and do my NKBA install drawings in another program? You guys need to catch up.  You have been doing good for years, but you have new GOOD competition. Don’t rest on your laurels.

[Jennifer Stewart]

I 100% agree Kelly.  2020 needs to catch up in the standard drawing area.  I find it very annoying how the dimensions are so messy.  I will add my own only to have those deleted.  Multiple lines of the same dimension, dimensions on top of dimensions.  Very messy and time consuming.  Labels should not be on top of each other and having the ability to align them all at once would be nice.  One at a time to move dimensions and labels takes way to long.

What program did you purchase?  I might check it out for now.

 

Thanks!!

[Olcay Akkaya]

I agree 100%. I would also like to see decorative items such as plumbing fixtures etc. to be detailed on the elevation, instead of just getting a square or rectangle shape to represent the item. It would be nice to have common and up to date size editable plumbing fixtures, light fixtures, furniture etc. The items in the cloud we can use are  nowhere near what the current design trends are.

[VLADIMIR GAVRILYUK]

Yes Please!

[Dan Greve]

New user here -if there’s a way to do this – would love to hear it…

But, is there any chance of uncoupling an Items label background color from the Item?  It would be nice to have transparent backgrounds on labels.

Thanks!

[Kristopher Papaleo]

Hi Dan,

Unfortunately there is no way of changing the background color on the label of an item. The labels background will remain the same color you apply as the items color.

Regards,

Kris

[Doug Anderson]

I would really like to see added workbooks for a single project. I imagine it working a bit like excel, separate tabs at the bottom, used to create different spaces in the home while simultaneously allowing you to select the catalog style for that area. I would like to be able to name the different areas, so when I print elevations or layouts the name of the space will show below.

Printing overall is a nightmare. Sometimes whatever I’m printing is scaled way too small. I use the scaling tool to make it larger and then it runs off the page and there is no way to force it the direction i want it to go. Once you’re in preview you can’t choose, fit to page, or any other standard tool used for printing. I am frustrated daily because of this.

I’d also like to see the drawing layout have an option for landscape layout.

[Kristopher Papaleo]

Hi Doug,

Just to clarify, there is a way to move the drawing when in print preview. When you have the print preview open, click and hold on both the left and right clickers and your mouse will turn into a fist. When you see the fist, you can then move the image anywhere on the print page.

Also, you can print the drawing layout in landscape and portrait. When you have the drawing layout in front of you, click on File > Print > Page Setup .. From there you will be able to change the orientation of the page from portrait to landscape.

Hope this helps.

Kris

[Peter Dubay]

I’ve spoke to Tech about this and they thought it should be fairly easy to do…It would be great if dimensions would ‘snap’ to each other making alignment for user dimensions much easier to manage. And of course the shift key would be a temp override like normal snap functions.  THIS would make my day!

[Brett Nelson]

Install Points exported on Simple Export

We use install points to determine the price for installation and having that data when you export the design would help in other areas of our business. This used to be a feature in v10 but was removed and I’m not 100% sure why. Below is the only note I could find that referenced install points.

pubfilexfer2020prod.z20.web.core.windows.net/doc/v10/20-20_design_update_10.5.0_release_notes.txt

Install points and transportation should not list as line item

[Mike Langensiepen]

The ability to store custom textures for use with other designs
The ability to save the custom textures to share with other 20-20 Design users
A wizard to allow the setting of cabinets heights and styles on starting a new drawing

A fix for the damn wall issues that have plagued me since I started using 6.4

Example of what I mean is here:

http://www.ipprofessional.com.au/files/Example%20Wall%20Issue.jpg

I hate it when we get these odd bevels and joins in the wall instead of a simple butt joint.

[Ron Russell]

found it! It’s in the perspective window, under file.

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Ron,

I am not aware of such article and there is no additional work done on V12 related to VR unfortunately.

Today we can share the links to the created 360 Panos. What type of additional sharing are you looking for?

Thank you,

Santiago

[Ron Russell]

I found the 360 pano under file of the perspective window. I cant get past the rendering, it completes, but what is next for me to do? Is there a video showing the entire process step by step?

[Ron Russell]

patience, still have questions.
https://panorama.2020.net/view/xp8ppub6fko4lfpa9rxgpq/
Sometimes the ceiling shows correct, sometimes not.
see attachments.
The L shape wall group is not attached to the ceiling.

Attachments:

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   iso.jpg
   

[Kelly Smith]

Chief Architet

[Doug Anderson]

GAME CHANGER!! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[Mike Langensiepen]

Newer oven, steam, combi oven, cooktop shapes in the COMMON file so that Catalogue Tools users can improve the appearance of their catalogues.

Custom door/drawer design tool (can charge for this as an additional tool)

DXF/SKP importer for Catalogue Tools to enable us to bring in additional shapes

Splashback Designer that allows placing of holes and cutours with output to DXF (can charge for this as an additional tool)

Benchtop Designer that allows placing of holes, overmount and undermount cutouts with output to DXF (can charge for this as an additional tool)

I work with several manufacturers that have their own CNC equipment for stone and glass cutting (including CNC waterjets) and the ability to have a suitably formatted DXF file with different types of cutouts on different layers would allow us to manufacture directly from the 20-20 Design drawings.

These manufacturers are happy to spend money on additional software tools to do the above. You are almost there (I have exported DXF benchtops and splashbacks but they do not have enough info or shape control) so a little more work would see this available.

[Ron Russell]

!st let me say, it’s a pain using 2 programs to do this. You can draw the room in Sketch Up and import it. Then use construction lines for placement and elevations.

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Ron,

Thanks for the feedback. Can you clarify why you need 2 different programs? Why do you need to draw a room in Sketchup? This can be done in 2020 Design. Are there missing functionalities in 2020 Design that forces you to use Sketchup?

Thank you,

Santiago

[Ron Russell]

here’s a snap shot

Attachments:

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   bevel.jpg
   

[Kevin Roberts – CatalogPros.com]

Wishlist: It would be handy in Attributes if the Add-on tab displayed all of the add-ons and simply greyed out those that were not available.  (So Add-on Excludes would be visible, but not selectable)

[Ron Russell]

!st let me say, it’s a pain using 2 programs to do this. To avoid odd bevels and joins in the wall, you can draw the room in Sketch Up and import it. Then use construction lines for placement and elevations.

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Ron,

Can you be more clear as to what you mean by “odd bevels and joins”? If you have a snapshot this would help also.

Thank you,

Santiago

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Kevin, thank you for the feedback. We are taking note. We are also improving our Cloud Solution and we feed the selection of Add-ons will be a lot more intuitive.

Thank you,

Santiago

[Ron Russell]

Someone else mentioned this, I have had the same issues in the past. When you add a wall you get a triangle void at the intersection of three walls. Try it on a 270 corner, trying adding a 40″ pony wall. The only way I have found to avoid it is placing pony wall without snapping and leaving a small gap.

[Kevin Roberts – CatalogPros.com]

It’s great being able to have multiple items selected and be able to view shared Attributes.  It would also be handy if we could change the Display Setting of multiple items too!

[Michael Farago]

Would it be possible to have the drawing layout function be adjusted to have the stability that it had in V9.  Both V10 and V11 seem to have lost all stability with that aspect of the program.

[L A Cabinets]

So the hidden line rendering times are slightly better but it wastes a lot of time waiting on it.  I downloaded V11 in hopes that it would be greatly improved.  Keep working on it please.

[Robert LeBeau]

One thing id like to see is have the capability to add notes to individual cabinets from the attribute light window. alot of times when im designing and engineering something might pop into my head as im working on something  that i need to remember or modify on a cabinet and instead of having to go in to the attributes and then go to notes and write it out…if u could jus click on the item (attributes lite is already open ) and type away it would save time and also not mess up the flow ur in..tbh i think the attributes lite window has alot of time saving potential in general that people have yet to even start to trying to exploit..

[Mike Langensiepen]

Something I have been asked about by a number of cabbies is the provision of an accurate cutlist WITH edging information even if this was via a 3rd partysoftware company.

There are many small cabbies (200 within a 50 mile radius of me!) who still use Cutlists or have just one (cheap) CNC such as a Multicam so a simple, relatively inexpensive Cutlist and GCode option would increase your sales dramatically. I am still waiting for costs but I suspect the Insight route is just too expensive for smaller manufacturers especially considering that you can buy a competing package that goes from Design to Nested GCode from $3,000 to $10,000.

[Lori]

I UNDERSTAND THAT 2020 WAS WRITTEN WITH ONE DESIGNER WORKING ON ONE COMPUTER – BUT CAN YOU MAKE CHANGES FOR THOSE WHO PUT OUR DESIGNS ON THE SERVER SO MANY PEOPLE CAN USE?  1st PROBLEM is working on a design on different computer than it was created causes crashes.   2nd PROBLEM is when one designer has the design open, there is no way to prevent another designer from opening the same design, making changes, and then saving them over the other’s changes.  We have one person who does the renderings for all of the designers in our store and this can be a huge problem. 3rd PROBLEM is that the ‘automatic save every 5 minutes’ does NOT work!  We have crashed many, many times and what we’ve been designing has NEVER been restored to a saved point that was created by ‘automatic save’.

[Lori]

When changing materials on cabinets, the formula that is supposed to change all of the moldings and other finishes once you put what you want in the first one or two spots never works! It is a hassle to have to change each one, one at a time.
When changing materials on cabinets, the finish color is supposed to show in the “preview” rectangle, and it turns black instead.
Instead of adding the finish selection in ‘Styles and Pricing’, I have to use Global Attributes and change the catalogs from there because I have found finishes that more accurately represent the desired finish on my own than 2020 or the Koch catalog designer has picked.  I wish we could put the “V29135” (Birch Nutmeg) finish (just as an example) in there instead of Koch’s V50135 (Also Birch Nutmeg) – but the 2020 one is better.

[Lori]

When the light comes in a window and shines on the cabinets right next to it, it makes the cabinets all spotty.  I turn the light off each window, add a background, and even add blinds and it is still too spotty. Even when I render on Texture; high quality.
Metals: Also the stainless steel option for appliances is very spotty when rendered.  So are most of the metals. Can this be fixed?

[Lori]

<span style=”font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: ‘Calibri’,sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;”>Why can’t I do a finished ‘refreshed rendering’ of a picture in texture with edges mode? I used to use this in V9 to show raised panel details.  If the raised panels showed with Texture/Color, that would be awesome!  I wouldn’t have to use this feature if the detail of the panel on a raised panel would show up.  (It comes in fuzzy, dark and even black – on wainscot panels, too.) It must be 2020 glitch as it happens for Koch catalog AND the Dura catalog that we use. </span>

[Anonymous]

Lori,
I have found a workaround that I have been using to tone down that light coming through the windows. I go into the window attributes, change the glass to charcoal, then lower the ambient lighting to reduce the overall light coming through the window. You will need to add recessed lighting to light your design and I also use up-lighting to even out the ceiling light.

[Lori]

How can I change the ‘SCENE’ lighting to adjust for wall cabinets of different depths?  They are set pretty good for 12” deep wall cabinets, but when they are turned on and I have a deeper cab, like a 24” deep hood – the lights wash it out! 

[Lori]

2020 Flaw: 2020 does NOT add a finish on the ends automatically when we ‘add’ them on in ‘add ons’ to our cabinets.  We have to go in and add color to the ends that are supposed to be finished.

[Lori]

Sometimes items disappear.  For instance, when I move a cabinet out of the way using the Placement tool, it will move over. But when I move it back, sometimes it disappears instead.  Sometimes I have to move an island out of the layout so I can get a better rendering of a cabinet wall, so I just move it out 200”, then move it back when I am done instead of deleting it and risk the chance of forgetting to put the island back in.  What could cause it to disappear?

[Lori]

I’m not sure if this is a 2020 problem or a catalog problem, but when I choose a 30/70 door and want the top section to have glass, it won’t show it. I go into ‘Add ons’, and check “China Door-Prep for Upper W Glass” and it won’t remove the panel. If I check “Door-Prep for Wall Glass, it removes both panels so I can’t get it to show correctly for the customer.

[Lori]

Whenever we increase the height of a Wall or Tall Pantry Cabinet, the cabinet increases, but the panel stays the same, leaving a gap between the panel and the middle rail. (For instance – changing a 48″ cab to 54″ tall).

[Lori]

Whenever we add a fluted filler to a design, it renders all shiny and spotty, like a metal finish. Can this be fixed?

[Mark A Yost, Sr.]

Elevations that are standard to the industry, and by that, I mean specifically crown molding and light rails that show up as a correct shape, with returns back to wall, not just a line.

[Kevin Roberts – CatalogPros.com]

When using Catalog Manager and clicking on Delete, I would like to be able to select multiple catalogs at once and delete them.  (Plus it would be helpful to SHIP a catalog from V10)

[2020]

Hi Kevin,

Thank you for the suggestion.
I like this idea and I will add it to the consideration list for next Service pack.

[2020]

Hi Mike,

The texture feature is something that we are already working on it.
I like the Idea if Default setting for the next design (Cabinets heights, Door Styles, Floor and Ceiling textures, etc.)
Also I have reported the wall Issue.

[2020]

Hi Kevin,
The Add-on are catalogs driven.
I will make this suggestion to the catalog creation team

[2020]

Hi Lori,

I see that some of your issues are catalog issues and other are 2020 Design Related
I will validate them and add them to the candidate list for a future release.

[Jessica Von bargen]

I would love to see render times shortened. Having the 3D perspective take more than 15 minutes to render is crazy.

[Jeremy Leisure]

Jessica Render in a smaller window cuts it down a quite a few minutes.

[Jeremy Leisure]

I would like to be able to lock the walls down. It gets ridiculous when you grab a wall and it moves everything and then will not “CTRL Z” back.   A lock mode would enable you to stretch move and do whatever you want without having the effect it currently does when trying to move walls. The way that is suggested to manipulate walls seems limited. Just a thought

 

 

 

[Jeremy Leisure]

Maybe I  don’t know how to do this correctly but it would be nice to have a beam that you could set the height on so you can do vaulted looks in different directions. IE  follow  the vault lines on multiple walls.

[Diane A]

It would be nice if we had the ability to make openings in various shapes to floors, ceilings and counter tops.

 

[Diane A]

What would really be nice is if we could have different tile pattern options for the editable floor and wall tiles, ex. Brick layered, Herringbone, Windmill, Hexagon etc.

[Kevin Roberts – CatalogPros.com]

The REPLACE function in Design is certainly handy to be able to swap out one cabinet for a completely different cabinet.  However it can also be dangerous as the Add-ons from the ‘old’ cabinet carry over to the new cabinet regardless of the add-on relation.  For example, If you have a 3DB18 and add a cutlery tray, then use the Replace function to switch the cabinet into BFD15 the cutlery tray stays even though there is no drawer.

We recently had an issue where a cabinet with an implicit add-on was ‘replaced’ with another cabinet with the same implicit add-on.  The end result was 2 Lazy Susans ordered for one cabinet (and we couldn’t deleted it).

I would love to see it where if there was an add-on present, the Replace function would pop-up a window allowing the user to confirm and cancel any add-ons.

[Kevin Lima]

I’d like to be able to get more out of application integration.  It would be useful to be able to export the ‘Section Name’ variable.

Thanks,

Kevin

[Jordyn P]

It would be great to have the ROOM catalogs updated. There are often door/window items that I can’t recreate, such as a 3 door patio slider or a double entry door with one side lite to name a couple, and I tend to need these more and more as time goes on.

It would also be nice to be able to edit all available ROOM catalog items in any way, to give more customization. For instance, I might have a 59″ space for an alcove tub, but since I have no way to edit bath.alc.60, I have to find a different alternative, which is usually less attractive in the rendering.

Is there any possibility of being able to incorporate multiple levels without increasing the height of all of the walls and using the up/down feature to set items in place?

Finally, I’d love to see more options for the stairs. Maybe adding a feature that would allow you to choose how high up the railings go on the stairs, adding more railing post options, diagonal handrails that we can add to the walls, etc.

[Michael Farago]

I would love to see a some of the core functionality optimized.   We have 50+ users that use the drawing layout function and in V11, the named views are not functioning.  We’re losing drawings and a lot of time trying to band-aid the problems.

Also if you turn off a placement zone, can the overall dimensions stay turned on when you have the overall dimensions turned on with the auto dimensions?

Finally, in 11.3 i can’t properly close a running line.  Can you add an auto close feature to running lines?  Such as I’ve drawn 9 sides of a 10 sided polygon, and if I select the close line feature it would connect my last point with my first point and end the drawing function?

[Jeremy Leisure]

It would be GREAT!!! if we had more CAD functions as to make the paper space look more Professional.  Having the option to show door swings on doors as well as cabinets with dotted lines that you can change the color on would be fine. Having “CL” icon for center line not be so touchy and actually stay where you want to put it would be nice. The wall ID on the floor plan shows through on the renders as well. I would also like it you could print the whole paper space as one file and not have to print each file to PDF then put into one PDF. If there is a way to do this , Please let me know.  I would also love to see a “lock walls” option so if you move one wall it doesn’t move all the walls. I know you can go into an individual wall and modify wall but it sometimes still doesn’t do it. If you could also make it so when you make a “Poly line ” into a 3D object like a beam you could edit in an elevation view allowing the beam to follow the vault you created. These are just a few things that would help. Love the program besides the constant freezing….

[Lori]

Thanks, Chuck, for your help! I am not sure where you are changing the ambient light, maybe in rendering? I usually turn the light totally off in the Window’s light properties. I still have to play with each layout separately, noting their number of windows, walls, etc. that change the lighting.

[Lori]

It would improve our final renderings of our customer’s designs if 2020 had lighting catalogs so we could add up to date, better lighting in our designs. The selection in the Room Catalogs is pretty bad.  Until they offer light catalogs – does anyone else have an idea of what I could use? Thanks!

[Lori]

Jordyn, I agree with your suggestions and hope 2020 is listening! All of the Room Catalogs need updating with more current items offered. They also need to give us more freedom to edit or recreate items our customers want. PLEASE update the stairs, post & corbel options; flooring; countertops; backsplashes; bath fixtures; faucets; decoration items for kitchen and baths and add great lighting options or offer a catalog to install from a lighting company. If someone on 2020 could spend the time to create 10 really cool cars and garage equipment (which are items we seldom use), then why can’t they make cool coffee pots, small appliances, soap dishes for baths, curtains, current art options for pictures; background scenery for windows that looks realistic, etc. that the ‘kitchen and bath’ designers use regularly?  Thanks for listening!

[Jeremy Leisure]

Lori,

You can use SketchUp  and  get all the models you need the higher the Poly-line count the better the render will turn out on that item.  As far as the counter-top you can map any material to them giving you limitless possibilities. Other than the edge profile which you are limited on.  To do a realistic window scene go to the outside of the wall in say a 3 window run and use your SURFACE  tool to draw a rectangle  across all the windows which will result in a more realistic scene spanning across all the windows.

[Lori]

Sounds like all good ideas – however – I haven’t had luck importing SketchUp items. Either I can’t find something I want (like a pendant light) or something goes wrong importing it. I haven’t tried in a while so don’t remember my specific problems. I would LOVE to be able to bring in lighting and window treatments from Sketch Up! Where can I look for instructions on using this with 2020?

I always use Custom Material Wizard to make the counter top match the customer’s selection, but when I do this for patterned back splash tiles or flooring, they never come out just right – even using ‘seamless’ textures. Is that what you meant by ‘mapping’ them? Is there somewhere we can find detailed instructions for using all of the features of that WIZARD to customize textures? Such as – how to pick the correct size when asked? And how to use the tools inside the WIZARD program to get the best image?

For the windows, help me understand you exactly – I view the outside of the wall, add a surface rectangle and then use Wizard to import a photograph of an actual scene? Or use the City or other backgrounds provided in 2020? (I really don’t care for the ones in the catalogs.) I have also had trouble with the SURFACE tool when I use it for back splash that has to go around windows and objects. I will draw my shape, then go back to look at it through the camera and if I need to edit it, I can edit it, but then the surface disappears. Frustrating. I appreciate your getting back to me so quickly and hope you can point me toward a place to get detailed directions for using these features. Lori

[Jeremy Leisure]

Email me and I can send you my number I’ll walk you through it no problem. jeremy@ksmonterey.com   What version are you using? I use 11.2.0.60.  SketchUp is super easy to use. The problem is with the latest updates the import function gets corrupted on the 2015  model.  The work  around is simple select an older version. Click on the object >> select version 2014 or 2013  and it should import fine.  There are a ton of junk models that were simply created incorrectly. I would also stay away from heavy files (ie large MB) 20/20 doesn’t handle them too well.

To do a back-splash can be a big pain in the a$$. I use a full version of SketchUp  and create them mostly. You can also try and find from the manufactures of the tiles the tile you need and make a 18″ x 18″ block and map it out with  the SURFACE tool in 18″ segments, it works pretty nice. You can use a  simple picture editor to  make the 18″ block. I does work  it just takes time.

Windows and scenes take a time as well. When I go to my clients house I take pictures with my HD phone out each and every window in the room( I also take a 360 degree pic of the whole space for reference) .  I then do the math to shrink or expand the picture in a Photo Editor so I can then cut it into sections or leave it whole to span it across the windows.  I do this by using  the SURFACE tool instead of putting the pic in the window. I think it looks better.

The SURFACE tool does disappear a lot, it is glitchy… I just redraw a lot.

[Ron Russell]

this was real quick. a semi circle wall in sketchup with a glass texture back.

Attachments:

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   semi.jpg
   

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   semi-1.jpg
   

3. 

   semi-2.jpg
   

[Rindi Daniel]

Using newest 11.3. I feel comfortable with the new rendering tool, but I am not a fan of the the placement of the new camera.  I like the camera placement option so much better in earlier versions where you could just set the camera and its view by  scrolling through right clicking the mouse.

-More corbels and just general room catalogs in all decor updated—especially appliances..:) Nice to have a front load with a modifiable pedastal

-better generic appliances

-saving textures that you can use on all designs and truly be a user-defined texture to be used on other designs without having to re-use the wizard

-add barnwood flooring options-not enough color selections

-modifiable or larger selection of room tiles-alot of clients are going with a variable size floor tile or rectangular tiles and not your average 4×4/12×12 etc tile.  Nice to have  catalog of more current backsplash textures

-when writing notes, be able to adjust display settings / font size/ etc all at the same time in the window 

-application and selections of room crown

-larger selection of window trim and sizes (My clients typically use RB3 case molding which is 3.473″ wide and they sometimes use trim up to 5 1/2″.  It would be nice if the width of the molding would visually modify and not just allow you to change the width in the variable and it not actual change the visual. Doors as well

-easier application of base molding to room as well as a shoe molding or quarter round.  perhaps an auto design of these areas like when you set c-tops and toekicks and trim, but he capability to stack them as well. Then be able to delete or modify areas that you want to just like you do other trims. Even if it would place room crown and you could manually lower it would be fine.

-Thank you so much for your attention.  It truly means alot that our thoughts do not go unnoticed.

 

[Christopher Robles]

It would be nice to change the dimensions of imported objects from both the cloud and sketchup so that they may actually be used…

[Mike Langensiepen]

The ability in the 2020 Cloud to create your own collections.
The ability to import items from Sketchup Warehouse to your 2020 Cloud Collection

[Karlie Rouzer]

I feel like I have thought of so many things but now I cant think of any lol!

One thing that comes to mind is in the attributes box – add-ons tab – ROOM_PLU_1 catalog… if I am switching from one sink to another as soon as I uncheck one the whole menu collapses! It would be so nice if it didnt automatically collapse.

[Mike Langensiepen]

Probably mentioned before but:

When running the Panoramic 360 Dialogue, a subset of the Design Information screen comes up. It would be nice if we could have the Dealer/Designer section of the Design Information screen stored and for this info to populate the form every time the form comes up.

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Mike, I agree with you.  This makes a lot of sense.

Thank you,

Santiago.

[Chris Blackman]

Ok I am editing this  cuz I just realized Mike’s not on custom textures was 2 years old.

maybe i need to sort the forums by most recent posts.

arrgh. sorry

 

[Santiago Morales]

@Karlie, I have taken note of your suggestion and will prioritize it in upcoming releases.

Thank you,

Santiago

[Mike Langensiepen]

The addition of standard plumbing, electrical and other symbols that show distance to centre on plans and elevations. The FloorPlanCode ought to show on every symbol.

I appreciate that some symbols are in the ROOM catalogue already but most don’t allow the selection of the centre measurement nor do they show the FPC which would be very handy.

We would love to be able to use the elevations to plan our Glass Splashbacks and this would help so much.

[Chris Blackman]

I’d like the Snap Distance setting in Work Area to carry over to Elevations or a snap distance setting for Elevation views.

[Mike Langensiepen]

Elevation Display Schema option to show height and width to centre of an object (user shapes, floor and wall decorations).

This would be very handy for marking out waste, water and other outlets on an elevation.

[Santiago Morales]

Thank you Mike.  It has been noted.

[Santiago Morales]

@Chris,

Not sure I understand your suggestion.  We already have the capability to set the snap distance in the Elevation and the Floorplan area from the Display Settings.

Are you suggesting they should be combined into a single control?

Thank you,

Santiago

 

[Santiago Morales]

@Christopher Robles, since 11.8 we are now able to modify the dimensions and texture of decorative cloud items.

Thank you,

Santiago

[Christopher Robles]

Hi Santiago, I was experiencing a bug in the system that was resolved with customer service. Thank yo for the reply.

[Chris Blackman]

the snap distance option does exist, what I would like is to be able to set a DEFAULT snap distance for Elevations. I frequently have multiple elevations open and they should all,  I think, open to whatever snap distance I prefer. Closing an elevation and then re-opening it means I have to set the snap distance again.

I do NOT think that the work area and elevation snap distance should use the same preference, but I would like to have an elevation snap distance preference that would be static.

Maybe it is there and I just haven’t found it.

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Chris,

You can create an Elevation Scheme that contains your desired “area snap”.  From “Display Tabs Schemes” in Preferences, you can then select your newly created scheme as the default for all your Elevations.

Hope this helps!

Thank you,

Santiago

[Mike Langensiepen]

Hi Chris,
Whereas what Santiago says is correct, if you aren’t familiar with Display Schemes then it might be a bit of a learning experience. The simple way to have a specific default Elevation snap is as follows (I would start with a new drawing and WARNING, this will change your default Display Scheme for all future drawings):

1) Place a single wall and a single cabinet on that wall then create your elevation.
2) Right click in that Elevation and choose ‘Display Settings’
3) Make a note of the name in the ‘Scheme’ box – in my case it is 2020 (metric) Elevation
4) Go to the Work Area tab of the Display Settings and enter your preferred snap distance in. Note that as soon as you do this, the Scheme box will turn blank.
5) Change any other settings for the display scheme that you want set as a default. This might include the font size and type used to label the cabinets etc.
6) Click ‘Save As’ and scroll down until you see the name you made a note of in 3) then click on that name (a tick should appear) then click ‘Save’
7) Click ‘OK’

Your changes have now been saved and will apply to all NEW drawings. To apply them to older drawings, open the drawing and elevation, click on the Scheme down arrow and (even if the elevation scheme name is already showing) click on the name as in 3) above. Now click apply and your preferred Elevation scheme will be applied to that elevation. Repeat for all the elevations.

If you would prefer not to change this scheme then at 6) type in whatever name you want, click Save and then go to Preferences/Display Tabs Scheme/Elevation and from the drop down arrow, pick the new name you entered and click OK then OK out of the Preferences.

IMHO, the 2020 Display Schemes are super powerful and useful and I would recommend playing about with them. You can have as many schemes as you want and apply them to differing drawings and elevations. We use this feature along with altering the tabs at the bottom to give our installers customised installation work sheets – for example, our floor plans AND Elevations are actually broken up into ‘Floor (all)’, ‘Floor and Tall’, ‘Wall and Tall’ etc.

Before you start the above, I’d recommend taking a back up of the existing Schemes before you customise them. The easy way to do this is with my free little 2020 Settings backup script – get it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jbwkpx6h2ptp2rk/V112020SettingsSaver.zip?dl=0

Unpack to the desktop then double click on the V112020SettingsSaver.cmd icon. Follow the instructions for the backup option and this will create a directory on the desktop called 2020RESCUE with the display schemes and other data in it.

If you think the scheme instructions would be easier to follow in a video file, I’d be happy to create one.

[Chris Blackman]

@mike – excellent. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that! Thanks and great explanation on how to set that up.

 

[Pauline]

I would really like a J mould door profile with adjustments to be available for the DPLUSM01 catalogue. I have lots of clients wanting finger pull opening doors and drawers and nothing is really available currently.

An updated handle selection would also be great and more choices for left and right hand sinks.

[Pauline]

Also being able to have banks of drawers rather than just individual fronts would be good too.

[Mike Langensiepen]

C & J Sections are certainly possible – see attached image. We also used to have a couple of door styles that would show as banked rather than individual but I think that was a custom modification for us by 2020 a decade back and we no longer have it.

Both options would be very desirable.

A Sharknose profile (fingerpull) would also be good although shortening the door and having a visible divider behind the gap would be adequate.

Attachments:

1. 

   C-and-J-Section.jpg
   

[Mike Langensiepen]

The ability to send Private Messages via the forum.

[Christopher Robles]

Hello I wanted to request the ability to change the numbering in the legend tab. In the legend tab all of the cabinets get a number, on the side of the floorplan there is an unchangeable note box with a list of all the numbered items in order of their number. I would like to be able to go into the note box and change the order and number of each cabinet to mach the numbering on my order form.

[Chris Blackman]

Rendering module window

If you are rendering a saved view it would be helpful (to me at least) if the title of the window included (or had the option to include) the saved view name.

 

 

[Santiago Morales]

@Mike:  Thank you for your suggestion. I will share it with 2020’s web team.

[Santiago Morales]

@Pauline:  Thank you for your suggestion. I will share it with 2020’s Content team.

[Chris Blackman]

Maybe someway to pause auto-saving, if enabled, while rendering?

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Chris B,

We can definitely look into it.  What is the issue you would like to resolve?  Is it affecting the rendering performance?  Also, can you confirm which version of Design you are using?  Is is post V11.7 which has its high quality rendering done in the background?.

Thank you,

Santiago

[Chris Blackman]

I am currently using 11.8.0.53. Yes when design auto-saves it pauses the rendering module and sometimes crashes. Although I think the crash is related to a different issue.

I do not use the stand-alone rendering program because it does not seem to find views I save in the rendering module.

[Lin Hamilton]

A. I would like to select which catalogs will appear in my printed quotes.  It is very frustrating to click “save paper”, then have 14 pages printed list (1) everything from the Decorative Catalog, (2) everything from every appliance catalog used, (3) all the under cabinet lighting, and so forth.

Yes, I can select page numbers, but even that takes time.

B. Why does there have to be a final tally page?  If “paper saving” is checked, why put this on a separate page.

 

 

[Chris Setlock]

Please, please, please give us control over the numbering system.

2 months ago, I had to make some changes to an order after I’d placed it with my cabinet vendor.  Making those changes in 2020 caused the program to renumber the legend and the order forms, so it was nearly impossible to cross reference everything.

I spent a full day highlighting, cross checking, and sweating bullets.  I thought I got it right.

I didn’t. I missed a finished side and an end panel.  Now that the cabinets have arrived, I have a hot mess I have to figure out, and a cranky customer, and an annoyed contractor, and I look like a bumbler.  I don’t enjoy looking like a bumbler.

So please, allow us to control the numbering.

[Colin O’Neill]

Admins: Is there any plan to add items from the old ROOM_FUR to the 2020 Cloud? There is a stool I used all the time that went away with ROOM_FUR. Thanks!

 

Colin

[Pete Faber]

Can I import the old ROOM FUR and other catalogs from an older version to my new 20/20 so I do not have to use the Cloud? In the Cloud there are not any wood stoves or fireplaces with wood mantles. I sell alternative heating products and use 20/20 to show the new heating appliance or fireplace as they would look in the customer’s room

[Mike Langensiepen]

You certainly can install the older catalogues into the latest version – I’ve done that for most of my Designers. I mainly use (being Metric) ROOM_FUM, ROM_DEM and a modified ROOM_M – all of these came from the V9 days.

[Chris Setlock]

Has anyone asked for dual monitor support?  I work on a laptop, but when I’m at my desk, I plug in to a 24″ monitor.  I’d love to drag all my toolbars and trays down to the laptop screen, and save the big monitor for my workspace.

[Chris Setlock]

A potential time saver, especially on baths:  Allowing us to group surface areas, similar to cascading tile sheets.  If a client wants to see a different tile, I can change “tile 1” and each of the surface areas using that pattern will change.

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Chris,

Thank you for your input. You can currently move all the docked windows controls onto a separate screen. Moreover, you can also move all the perspective windows. What additional controls would you like to move as well?

I took down your request for the grouping of surfaces.

Thank you,

Santiago

[Robert]

Renderings would look better if the light properties for windows and doors could be adjusted, dimmed or turned on/off. And the scene lighting needs some help. This setting should adjust the brightness of the room instead of it looking like there are a bunch of  recessed ceiling lights that are too close to the cabinets and the top of the wall cabinets are shaded.  Your door styles could use some updating, most of them are not even usable. Same goes for your hardware. While your at it group them better, all slab then all raised- square/arch/ then  recessed and so on. Group all handles, then all knobs. Some better backgrounds for windows would be nice, pool decks, backyards, beach, lakes etc.  Same for the doors, living rooms, dining rooms, hallways etc..

I recently purchased a 34″ wide monitor and it would be great if  there was an option for the work area, floor plans & elevations to be divided vertically

Also a predetermined wall option like the  closed square but with cathedral ceilings would be nice. Even better would be a way to import the floor plans into 2020 right from the blueprints.

[Mike Langensiepen]

34″! 4K resolution I hope – I’m jealous.

Good points although I must admit that I would rather be able to detach the elevation window and move it around – preferably (as others have mentioned) onto a different screen.

I agree with the lighting comments – this often takes longer to get good results than I would prefer. Similarly, most of the standard stuff like knobs/handles and door styles (not to mention the default appliances) could definitely be updated. We often use patterned drawers  in both banked (pattern through the whole set of drawers) or individual (pattern per drawer) formats and this would be superb.

Still, development is ongoing so hopefully if enough people ask…

[Mike Langensiepen]

One that I would dearly love to see

New (from template) so that we can save some configs as .tpl files and then not have to set everything up from scratch each time.

Also that the installation automatically assigns .tpl to 2020 Design rather than having to do it manually.

 

[Travis Davies]

+1 Mike. This would help tremendously!

[Ariana Thompson]

Hey Robert!

Yes – I ended up creating a jpeg sheet of photos of my fave pulls and knobs with their numbers, so I didn’t have to scroll endlessly! LOL!  And I definiately use my own scenery…agree!

FINGER PULLS for doors and drawers – something that appears on the LIP of the door or drawer would be great!

As to the light coming in from windows and doors, you can turn it off by going to the window/door’s Light Properties and changing the colour of the light to black.

Sometimes I’ve added a little ambient light coming through the window by turning off the light, then placing a couple of pucks behind the window pointed in – but that’s a pain – and you have to be careful you don’t get a proximity glare on your Scenery Panel/Background.

Ariana

[Gregg Meyers]

Would love to be able to move Elevation views to a second monitor, as we can with Renderings, to free up visual workspace.

[Robert]

Hello Ariana,

Thank you for the window lighting tip, changing the color to black helped tremendously!

And Greg, I agree. being able to move the elevation to another monitor would be spectacular.

[Santiago Morales]

Hello,

Thank you for the Elevation undocking suggestion. Would moving the whole elevation pane (containing all active elevations) be sufficient? Or would you require the capability to move every elevations independently?

Thank you,

Santiago

[Mike Langensiepen]

For myself, having the pane on a separate screen would be OK. Most of my users have 3 monitors so have a full floor plan on one screen, elevations on another and leaving the last screen for Outlook etc would be fine. No need to split off individual elevations.

 

[Travis Davies]

Having the elevations on separate screen would be a great feature IMO. Having the elevations work with a layout open at the same time would be even better.

Some other wishes…..

1. Better way to add And format text across all elevations and floor plan.

2. Better renderings. This has already been discussed but something has to be done here ASAP. This worked better in V9. Builders and Installers need clear B&W renderings not photoshop. No way of doing it in V11 that I’ve seen so far

3. The ability to group and price rooms  separately on same drawing. If separate catalogs are needed then there needs to be a way to rename a room and not be separated by catalog.

4. Favorites section for things that are used all the time, especially annotations/notes. A way to drag a simple note like “1 ” filler”

5. Update all the outdated fixtures, sinks, hardware, windows, doors etc.

6. Rendering performance improvement- Lighting that looks natural, white cabinets that actually look white.

7. Huge wish list item. If at all possible, having a way to set up settings to print all elevation, front views, Layout etc with one or two clicks as a package.

 

[Mike Langensiepen]

1. I don’t find this a massive problem but I agree that it would be nice if Notes could be part of the display schema settings in the same way as other items – it’s listed there but each tab seems to have it’s own ‘notes’ layer. I can understand that this is an advantage if you want different notes on the countertop tab compare to all but maybe have Notes (All), Notes (No Dims) etc so you can choose what shows and where.

2. Never had a problem with builders – they get plans and elevations and hidden line renders. I do agree however, that the render engine could be speeded up – there is little render speed difference between a PC with a basic graphics card and a PC of the same spec but with high end graphics card.

3. This would be nice but would be very memory intensive. Perhaps when the 64 bit version comes along, this can be considered.

4. Favourites everywhere would be nice but you can already have standard notes etc stored and selectable quickly. Worst case, keep an open word/wordpad document elsewhere with all the notes you want readily available for copy/paste. See picture.

5. 100%!!! If they updated the shapes in the COMMON catalogue, this would be a very worthwhile change that could apply to everyone easily! Also whereas the cloud is good, it’s too slow for many users who design lots of kitchens and have limited time to spend on each design.

6. Yes, very true. Perhaps a new Lighting Wizard would help as well as render engine ‘tweaking’

7. Never had a problem with this so not sure what the issue is. The only thing I would like is to be able to select the floorplan section BEFORE the elevations. Currently we have to print the floorplan section on its own to PDF, then we print the elevations and have to add it to the back of the PDF and then we can print all of these together (in actual fact, we usually just send the PDF to the trades etc). See picture.

Attachments:

1. 

   Notes-example.jpg
   

2. 

   Print-Selection.jpg
   

[Travis Davies]

I should have been a little clearer on a few of these.

Favorites- This is not just “notes” but say appliances you have tweaked, plumbing fixtures, lights – anything used all the time.

Renderings- just need the ability to clean them up like V9 so they don’t look like something made in an etch a sketch

Priting Packages- Say you could set the order and what was printed in a nice clean package. Layout, Renderings, ISO, Elevations etc.

9. Improved Countertop Wizard

[Mike Langensiepen]

Favourites – well this is what the Idea Centre is supposed to do but you have to remember to back it up and restore it when updating your 2020- version. Personally, I keep all mine in a couple of .KIT files as they stick around no matter what! Here’s an idea – why could 2020 not not tie the favourites to the Designers’ Cloud account as this would sort that issue!

Renderings – again, not really had a problem. If we send out the paper copies to the trades, we use hidden line or occasionally Colour+Edges. Clients get to see a high res render in Texture mode and/or a Panoramic render.

Printing Packages – well the only thing you can’t include automatically are the renderings and as I said, it’s easy to tack them on to a PDF.

9. Improved Countertop Wizard. Yes, too many bugs in this one but it generally works OK for the most part but when it does go wrong…hoo boy! Also they need to make sure that Cloud benchtop items don’t cause issues – I have a few cloud sinks that don’t seem to do the cutout correctly.

And I’m sure this has been mentioned before but a better Sketchup import! Too many Sketchup items cause issues. Agreed that it’s usually the bigger file sizes with too many Polygons.

More control over the print layout borders/content would be nice (I hate the Drawing Layout setup and never use it but I believe they are working to improve it). There is no reason to have such a severe limitation on logo size etc. That said, again we can solve this by using an overlay option in the Print to PDF software (we use the PDF X-Change package which is awesome and allows us to edit/annotate PDFs as well).

 

[Ariana Thompson]

Yes – I also store my “tweaked” stuff in a kit file.

I find that custom textures get lost when you put something in the Idea Centre.

Also – if you really liked something from V9 (like my fave: the tray of artichokes!), you can open a copy of the kitchen in V11 – and copy/paste the old item to a new kit file – but if you put it in the Idea Centre, it will never come out again! LOL!

I’ve created a lot of “custom” plants, light fixtures, etc from hacking and combining existing Cloud or “old” catalogue items – live-edge wood counters, etc – but they turn concrete grey if I put them in Idea Centre.

Kit files.  Big fan.

SketchUp items are not modifiable once you hit SAVE on the kit file – so I make as many copies as I can – in every colour I think I will ever want before I save! LOL!

If Idea Centre “held” mods better, I would use it more.

😉

 

[Ariana Thompson]

Here’s an odd wish!

Could the Cloud chairs be made so that when you mod their height, it’s the legs that grow?

Right now, it’s the chairback that gets longer – which isn’t helpful – but if one could adjust the leg length, then ANY chair could be a counterheight OR barheight stool!

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Ariana,

I like this idea. Most likely this could be implemented with our Cloud Configurable solution. I will pass along this request to the Cloud Content team.

Thank you,

Santiago

[Ariana Thompson]

Cheers, Santiago!

[Erik Tornquist]

Man, Mike, many great options there!

My opinions/ideas mirror others as well and maybe one not mentioned:

-Better rendering process. My 1080ti gc & high end cpu renders as slowly as the old computer i had worked on in the showroom, which ran like a poor mans laptop. The “Scetch” looks really bad, even in High.

-Floating Elevation window. Would be extremely helpful!

*Side note* I used v.9 at the old showroom, and although it was a slower computer for the most part, I’ve experienced more bugs in v.11.

-Can’t move architectural elements in the rendering module  like cabinets can be. That needs to change.

-I haven’t found this in the program, so I’m guessing its not available: auto square footage “calculator”. Whenever a floor plan/backsplash is created, maybe have an option in attributes that calculates the square footage/inches/etc.. between specified points. Not sure how feasible it is and although not extremely necessary (falls in the “would be nice” category), it would make some calculations much quicker.

-Multiple countertop selecting:  Whenever selecting multiple countertops and changing the texture in attributes, it makes the countertops all disappear when going back to the layout.

-Some weird lighting coming from windows, even with sun & ceiling lights off. Don’t know why there’s an external light source but this needs to be removed in the next update.

-being able to move items in a wall space much more freely as they would move around the rest of the floor plan. Having them move just left/right and having to constantly click the right mouse button to move in/out is extremely inconvenient especially when needing to place in a tight spot. Again, this was not an issue with v.9

-Less graphic/memory usage when it comes to floorplan/elevation. Having items like Kohler fixtures cycling through their item every time there’s some movement to the elevation is frustrating, even with a higher-end pc. Not like we need high graphic settings in an elevation but it may be related to something else I’m not thinking of.

-Fixing Countertop/trim wizard. Also not requiring generic catalog to use a brand name countertop.

I think that’s all for now- all that I’m thinking of at least.

And if there’ something I requested that is already an option that i missed, please let me know.

[Ariana Thompson]

Hi Erik,

I believe Surface calculates your square footage – and to “turn off” the light coming in the window, I right click the window and choose the Light Properties, and change the colour of the light to Black.

Your other points, though – I don’t think they exist in the program yet – I too notice the V11 crashes a lot.

I try and shut it down completely when I leave my desk – if it’s open too long – even doing nothing – it gets crashy.

 

 

 

[Erik Tornquist]

Thought of another one!

-Being able to select between different wall groups within one wall properties window

[Erik Tornquist]

-When opening up a design with elevations, the design space shrinks instead of being at the size where left off.

Also, creating a new elevation while double clicking on the wall space, often can’t find the design space; Having to zoom far out in the hopes it shows up in the window. Or what happens more often: if there are no elevations, after creating a new one and increasing the elevation window size, have to search around for the design space. It would be awesome not having to do that anymore.

-Also opening more than one design would be very much appreciated

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Erik,

Thank you for your feedback.  I took note of your suggestion.

In the mean time, I suggest you double click the middle mouse button on an elevation.  This should automatically resize the content.  Please note you can also use this capability in a perspective view.

I am not sure what you mean about opening up more than one design.  This is possible within 2020 Design.  You can even tile multiple opened design by clicking the “Arrange All” button in the “view” tab.

Thank you,

Santiago

[Travis Davies]

I think what Erik was asking is having the ability to having more than one design open but having the ability to easily click between designs without multiple steps. Either hovering over it or Control Tab to toggle back and forth would be amazing.

For lots of us, simple steps like this would save us tons of time. Especially when you have a production builder and you have to reference or copy information from a “Master” plan. Also, when you have to take a “Master” plan and draw it in several different configurations.

[Erik Tornquist]

Thank you for that middle mouse tip- All this time and had no idea!

Exactly, Travis. I have multiple versions of a design, with various door styles (multiple styles within a design as well), it would be so much more convenient to jump between them and copy/paste changes. Also, as you said, referencing from a “master plan”.

And now I’m receiving alot of “run time” errors, shutting down the program. Go to start it up again and says it’s open already. Have to go to Task Manager to shut the process down. Oh well.

 

 

[Robert]

I would like to see more info in the information box, such as…..

what catalog the cabinet is from

door style and color

dimensions for available space L&R to closest cabinet

center from both L&R of cabinet

pretty much would like as much info as possible

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Robert,

Thank you for the feedback.   We took note of this request.

Santiago

 

[Ariana Thompson]

Another odd request!

I sometimes like to highlight an area of the design to the attention to the client – perhaps a potential collision issue, perhaps a bad sight-line, etc – and right now I use the Circle or Rectangle in a bright colour – but I would love to be able to FILL those geometric shapes with a translucent, soft colour – like a virtual highlighter pen –

At the moment, if I flood the shape with colour, it blots out anything beneath it – but I’d like a soft, transparent colour overlay.

A gal can wish, right?

Cheers,

Ariana

[Lin Hamilton]

Ariana,

I take everything (floor plans, elevations, renderings) into Snagit, a screen capture program.  There I can add notes, great arrows, high-lighting in different colors and transparency and so forth.  I can match colors to cover up minor color flaws.

Spoiler alert: I am related to the CEO of the company which sells Snagit, but I was using it long before she took the job.

If I did it correctly, I attached an example.

Attachments:

1. 

   Sep-15-2018-Master-Overview.pdf
   

[Ariana Thompson]

Wow!

We primarily work directly with the 2020 file open when the clients are here – but that’s a great idea!

Thanks!

 

[Erik Tornquist]

A nuance that I’ve always experienced since v.9 atleast: when creating a Line or Running Line, the selecting of it and items around a line created is all FUBAR. Normally, in order to select an item, moreso in the elevation area, you would click on the item and all would be right with the world.. but in this case, the selection area of a created Line goes way beyond that Line, making it very difficult and some ways impossible to select any items around that created Line. And forget trying to click on a dimension associated with that created Line.
This needs to be fixed in whatever update is next. Give it about 1/8″ beyond that Line’s selection area.

Hope you all know what I mean.

[Travis Davies]

Making any kind of notes is much easier and faster with a pdf editor, then 2020 is currently set up to handle. I have Acrobat, Nuance and Nitro and they all have their pros and cons with each. Acrobat is more user friendly but is limited to what it can do compared to the others. Not to mention it costs significantly more.

I mainly print the front views of each wall where cabinets are going then add notes with arrows as needed. You can make notes all over the pages in a matter a few seconds.

Good luck!

[Mike Langensiepen]

For PDF creating, annotation etc, I recommend PDF X-Change – we have been using it for years, have a company license and it is awesome. Quick, easy and so many features.

However, for general 2020 work, most of my designers use the 2020 notes feature and have lots of standard paragraphs saved as individual notes with file names like:

1. Plumber – Sink & Tap
2. Plumber – Dishwasher
3. Plumber – Laundry
4. Sparky – Rangehood

and so on. It’s easy and fast.

 

[Ariana Thompson]

So – I’m not sure if this is the right thread for this….

My wish for the latest incarnation of 2020 would be that older appliances from the cloud not be “invisible” in an elevation!

I have an Idea Centre called “Matching Appliance Suites” – so I pull, let’s say, the Stainless selection – and what drops on my floorplan is electric slide-in, electric range with head, standard hood, decorative hood, OTR micro hood, two different dishwashers, a 30″W, 33″W, and a 36″W fridge (all french doors so I don’t need to worry about swing).

I delete the ones that don’t apply and I’ve got a quick, easy set of common appliances that look good – and all the stainless colours match.

Problem is, many of them have been living in my Idea Centre for awhile – so I get that “update” pop-up.  I click “do it now”, but the speckly dots remain on the appliances, and then when I do an elevation they’re invisible.

I love the Idea Centre for this – rather than hunting down the appliances every time – then finding the colours don’t quite match….. but the invisible thing is super frustrating!

Cheers,

Ariana

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Ariana

This looks like a bug. We will follow up with this accordingly. An agent might contact you if we are not able to reproduce in-house.

Thank you,

Santiago

[Lin Hamilton]

Back to Robert’s request. I need a way of distinguishing between catalogs on the floor plan and elevations. I am often using two-three manufacturer catalogs to create a an island in a different style/color than the perimeter. When I am in the zone designing, I often forget to note which catalog I am using and cannot catch it until I see a texture perspective. Then I have to go back and change cabinets to the other catalog.

Another long-gone design program (Autograph?) I used years ago allowed you to assign colors to each catalog (like the blue for appliances). That feature saved time.

[Lin Hamilton]

Older appliance models need to remain available in 2020. In reality, homeowners do not replace a functioning 5-year old refrigerator when purchasing new cabinets. Having that model graphic available to stick in a design helps eliminate appliance sizing issues and impresses customers.

Putting appliances in the cloud may help for interesting color effects, but the manufacturer catalogs should remain. It is much easier to search for specific model numbers in the manufacturer catalog than scroll through pictures. Because you moved the GE French-door refrigerators to the cloud, I am forced to use a very old GE catalog to find what I need.

[Ariana Thompson]

Regarding the recessed lights – I use a TON of them – and I have to put a little note next to each one consisting just of the “>” symbol.  I then rotate the note until the > is pointing like an arrow to indicate where that particular spot is pointing.

For awkward or tight kitchens, I often have very manipulated, targeted lights specifically pointing in directions that, admittedly, would never be true in real life, but lights the cabinets up nicely for a rendering.

If the spots just automatically had a little, subtle arrow that pointed in the direction the spot was pointing (no arrow if straight down) as soon as I set the Horizontal – that would be really helpful!

Ariana

[Charles Seyferth]

• Sinks that can have their dimensions modified – L, W, and D
• Selectable interior & exterior walls in the ribbon, and default settings for them (like thickness, materials, etc.)
• Ability to lock items & walls in place to avoid accidentally moving them.
• A generic door/window catalog that has set sizes (ex. Doors D2668, D2868, D3068, Bifold BF3068, BF4068, BF5068 / Double Hung DH3430, DH2446, Fixed FX4046 / etc.), or even get with popular manufacturers like Andersen, Pella, or Jeld-Wen for actual catalogs of their products.

[Denis Perez]

I have the best idea to bring the graphics on the rendering and 2020 design overall to the next level. Why dont you guys scrap your render engine all together and incorporate Unreal Engine as your rendering solution. Not only your renders will look incredibly realistic without constantly refreshing, but also you gain access to realtime raytracing on clients who have the RTX video cards! That would be amazing. Like if we could have the same control over cabinets, parts (flexibility of scaling, rotating and moving like in  the UE Editor) would make making adjustments, adding decorative elements so much easier. Or if you would like to continue using your render solution then bring it to UE kind of level of quality and bring raytracing at least. Just my humble opinion maybe I am dreaming or asking for too much…

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Ariana,

Thank you for your suggestion regarding lights orientation indicator. We have noted it.

Thanks again.

Santiago

[Mike Langensiepen]

Hi Denis,
There may be commercial reasons why the Unreal engine is not feasible but certainly there are faster/better render engines out there. I did have a quick look at exporting designs to Unity but ran out of time. I also played with exporting the whole design to Sketchup and using one of the Sketchup render engines but the learning curve was just a pain. I think we just have to keep the pressure on but also to bear in mind that improvements in hardware are one of the best ways to improve render speeds. One of my designers is about to take delivery of an i9 system with RTX video card and I can’t wait to see how it does on 2020 renders!

 

[Travis Davies]

I built a machine a desktop that can handle about any game on the market just for 2020. You still have to select a high quality rendering to make it look halfway decent. The hardware does help but not really the main reason why renderings take so long or have poor quality.

Why would they look better with V9 then V11………

[Ariana Thompson]

Wow.  Either we have really terrific computers, or we have much lower standards than than others – I keep thinking how great our renders look with V11!

 

[Lin Hamilton]

Ariana,

I agree. There are people in my showroom still using V9 and their renderings are much lower quality than my 11.x ones.

Rendering quality (especially textures) depending on the manufacturer catalog being used. Some of the cabinet companies (UltraCraft) have excellent renderings. Others such as lower-end builders grade have horrible color or texture renderings.

Kohler, Stanisci, and a number of non-cabinet manufacturers have such detailed renderings that use up so much memory I sometimes just put them in a design copy for graphic purposes and leave them out of the working file.

[Denis Perez]

I think its a matter of maximizing the usage of the available graphic card. I dont know why it has to be constantly refreshing like that. And definetly realtime raytracing will be amazing. Like if they incorporate game engine features you will get something that looks like its prerendered and close what VRay its capable of. That is why I suggest they should explore changing their rendering engine all together and letting us have more control over objects and textures (rotate textures easily, scale objects in the perspective 3D view, add drag and drop textures, do some polygon modifiers (add bevel to surfaces more more realism, UV adjusting etc) will make 2020 a monster and it will shake the industry all together. Hopefully this things could be implemented soon…one mor thing realtime measurements (when I scale objects in the 3D view measurements get adjusted). I love 2020 and hope to see this features soon.

[Ariana Thompson]

Yes, Lin.

For one of my cabinet suppliers I create the textures for all their cabinets myself – and I know what you mean about Kohler!  I ended up creating my own modern sinks and storing them in my Idea Centre….  I look forward to the 64bit version of 2020 coming out for the FAUCETS I’ll be able to get from SketchUp if nothing else! LOL

 

[Ariana Thompson]

Denis, apparently the constant need to close the program to clear the cache is due to how Windows allots memory to a 32bit program.  They’ve said the 64bit version should solve that issue.

So – a solution to that is on the horizon! Yay!

[Ariana Thompson]

Hi 2020 Genies!

My wish is the ability to assign different colours in the floorplan to different catalogues, so when I’m designing with more than one catalogue, each cabinet, filler, etc in the second or third catalogue shows as a different hue on the floorplan –

Currently I am doing it manually, one item at a time, in both the “All” and the “All (no dims)” tabs.  The ability to do it en masse would be AWESOME.

 

[Tyler Kehl]

When applying a custom texture to an object, allow us to overlay the texture onto the object – instead of 2020 automatically applying it. This will help with multiple things –  such as getting that vein just right on that countertop, aligning and image correctly on a TV screen, lining up tiles correctly, etc.

[Ariana Thompson]

Hi Tyler, when I want a TV image or the front of a custom microwave or something VERTICAL to stay exactly where I put it – I use a Scenery Panel (ROOM Generic – under Windows) and if your image is the same proportion WxH as the panel – it will place exactly and never drift.

I would LOVE the 2020 gods to create an equivalent Scenery panel that was HORIZONTAL for just as you mentioned: ctops with character, or a special feature rug, etc.

Ariana

[Ariana Thompson]

What about:

Panorama and High Def Image *light optimization*?

I find a nice level of lighting in “Medium” or even “High” in Textures…when I launch a HiDef, or do a Pano, the light looks WAY brighter – sometimes blown out.

It would be great if there was a little window that popped up that showed your image with optimization engaged – and you could inch a slider to make it a little brighter or darker than optimal if you want, THEN initiate.

If that’s possible.

I tend to think of 2020 Central as Hogwart’s – I realize that.

Ariana

[Mike Langensiepen]

Can we please get a full selection of architectural symbols including plumbing, electrical, HVAC, construction (e.g. insulation, new wall) etc in 2020 Cloud.

 

[Erik Tornquist]

Not sure if it’s been recommended but I find it fairly annoying not being able to increase window sizes such as “Obstacles & Openings”. Not as important but it would be great to have a “sample” image of what each selection looks like.

 

And exactly what Mike just requested about having all of those symbols available in the cloud

[Erik Tornquist]

Oh, also in the “Placement” window, there should be a ceiling & floor value that could be set.

[Mike Langensiepen]

Can the Legending PLEASE be changed so that add-ons show as an offset item immediately below the cabinet they have been added to. Currently, they show in the order they were added.

We use (for example) an add-on for when we scallop/notch the left or right side of a cabinet for a sink/coopktop. Ideally we would want the legend to be similar to this:

1. F7502D
1.2  NOTCH.LH
2. F600LD
3. F600RD

Attached is a pic of how it happens at the moment.

 

Attachments:

1. 

   Annotation-2019-08-06-105219.jpg
   

[Mike Langensiepen]

Please add the ability to use system and predefined variables in the print layouts (specifically warnart, warndes and warndim.txo). An example would be date/time options and name of user.

[Travis Davies]

100% agree Mike!

[Ariana Thompson]

Erik, your 2020 doesn’t give you images of what the windows look like before you drop them??

Weird.  That would drive me crazy.

Ariana

[Mike Langensiepen]

V12. How about adding some kind of memory status to the bottom bar. Just a % indicator of how much is used.

[Kayla Herrick]

1. I would love to have a way to organize my custom textures in the texture library. It would also be helpful to be able to delete textures in the current design tab. When I import models from either the cloud or SketchUp, I usually change the textures, swapping a basic grey color for brushed nickel, etc. The amount of unused textures that are in the current design are often duplicated and takes a really long time to load.

2. It is not easy to create annotations in elevations. I like to give our contractors detailed notes and am often frustrated when annotation lines disappear or move themselves 900 feet from where I put it. The ability to copy and paste on an elevation would save a lot of time.

3. Realistic doors would be cool, the flat weird knob isn’t doing it. I don’t like using the wizard because selecting “Undefined” makes the frame lime green, and you can’t change the header color.

Attachments:

1. 

   Texture-View.jpg
   

[muhammet isik]

Give us the control of angle while we rotating items and notes. Notes stuck most of the time and we cant place it 90 degree angled notes! (Im at 11.10.1.1)

Attachments:

1. 

   rotate.png
   

[muhammet isik]

1)When we mirror a cabinet, finish end doesnt change. I wish it changes by mirror prompt.

2)I need to see finish ends in layout. Can you just highlight the side just that side may draw with a yellow line, I don’t want any notes if it just highlights it will save 20% of my review time.

I really pray for you If you fix these issues.

Thank you,

Attachments:

1. 

   FINISH-END.png
   

[Jacob Dacey]

I can’t find this info anywhere, but maybe it already exists.  I’m also positive this used to exist, but maybe I’m imagining things…

If I click a “placement zone” in my open design that I have already created an elevation for, can the tab for that elevation be highlighted?  When I have a complex design with many elevations open and I need to find a specific one, I’m clicking through a lot of tabs to find it…

Thanks!

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Jacob,

Correct, the elevation tabs do no get highlighted when a placement zone is selected. We have take note of this request.

Thank you for your feedback.

Santiago

[Kayla Herrick]

I haven’t know it to highlight a specific tab, however, you can double click on the tabs and rename them something else like “range wall” “island” etc. it will help take the guess work out.

[Jacob Dacey]

That helps a lot, thank you.  I’ve been doing this for long enough that I couldn’t tell you if I was never shown that you can rename the tabs or if I just forgot it a long time ago!  It’d still be nice if it highlighted when I clicked the placement zone, just for quick reference, but renaming is a lot quicker than what I have been doing!

 

[Jennifer Jacob]

Hi,

I am wondering if the Base dimension lines on a design view can include anything that is below 36″ (As well as doors, windows, and tall cabinets)…. and the Wall dimension lines can include anything above 36″ (including doors, windows, and tall cabinets).  Currently I can not figure out how to make that happen.

It would be a HUGE time saver and very helpful to have the distance from a wall cabinet to the tall cabinet or window that is on the left or right show up, or to have the distance from a base cabinet to the door show up. without having to check it manually or calculate it.

Please see attached print.

Attachments:

1. 

   Dimension-Chart-Suggestion.pdf
   

[Jennifer Jacob]

I am wondering if the Base dimension lines on a design view can include anything that is below 36″ (As well as doors, windows, and tall cabinets)…. and the Wall dimension lines can include anything above 36″ (including doors, windows, and tall cabinets).  Currently I can not figure out how to make that happen.
It would be a HUGE time saver and very helpful to have the distance from a wall cabinet to the tall cabinet or window that is on the left or right show up, or to have the distance from a base cabinet to the door show up. without having to check it manually or calculate it.
Please see attached print.

Attachments:

1. 

   Dimension-Option-Suggestion.pdf
   

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Jennifer,

Thank you for this feedback. We took note of this request.

Did you have a chance to try out the Multi-Dimension tool? Many users have reported that this is a huge time saver to annotated the desired dimensions quickly.

Thank you,

Santiago

[Jennifer Jacob]

Hi Santiago,

Thank you! I Soooooooooo  hope that change will be made.  I’m not sure what you mean by the multi dimensions tool…. Do you mean the “point to line” , “line to line”, or “Angular” dimension tools and the annotation tools??  If so, I do love them, I just think the plan’s outside dimension lines could be improved and would be a HUGE time saver when designing, not to mention it would be less confusing for the contractors who are trying to read them.

Having a “Base” line of everything that is below 36″ (Including doors, windows and tall cabinets)… and a “WALL” line of everything that is Above 36″ (Including doors, windows, and tall cabinets) will make the space between these items automatically show up on the line so I don’t have to stop and look up the space.

Not having to stop what I’m doing to use a tool or calculator to calculate the space that is left would make my design time FLY!!

I’m ADHD and any time I can reduce a distraction from my train of thought, I’m advocating for it. :O)

So please, please, please look into this. It used to be a feature on Planit Kitchen Design Software.

:O)  Jen

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Jennifer,

I am referring to the Multi Dimension tool introduced in V11.12 (available in V12 also).

Here is a link to the knowledge article about it:

https://knowledge.2020spaces.com/articles/en_US/Getting_Started/How-to-add-Multiple-Dimensions-in-2020-Design/?q=multi&l=en_US&c=Product%3AX2020_Design&fs=Search&pn=1

 

Not sure if it will help, but if you are looking for the space that is remaining, there is extra data available in the Information Box when you hover your mouse in the specific area on the FloorPlan or the Elevation.

Let me know.

Thank you,

Santiago

 

Attachments:

1. 

   Multi-dim.png
   

[Kelly Ladd]

-Arrows or leaders.  They are necessary when you move the label of a smaller item like a filler and then want to use an arrow to show what that label goes to, etc.

-More customization in the title block

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Kelly,

We can add arrow head by editing the lines (right click menu). Please see attached image. Is this sufficient to you?

For the Title Block, what additional customization are you looking for?

Thank you,

Santiago

Attachments:

1. 

   Arrow.png
   

[Sanoma Kitchens]

Please allow for input of rotation angle when grouping items. The option is there but its just greyed out. (extremely infuriating when trying to move islands)

Dimensioning still has a ton of work to do.

Allow for handle placement on other catalogues

For the love of god bring the file size of cloud items down. adding 2-3 items will make my file jump from 1000 kb to 10,000-15,000 kb.

allow for multi axis rotation.

Please bring back the catalog viewer as well. I used that to look at appliances and plmubing without having to click on each one. (major time saver)

Overall this is a massive improvement and I’m glad you guys are listening. But there is still a ton of work to do on it.

[Ariana Thompson]

Yes, I’m another person that relies heavily on the Catalog Viewer for Plumbing, windows, doors, etc because I can scan all the designs by eye quickly.

Ariana

 

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Sanoma,

• Group Item Rotation:
  • We took note of this request.
• Dimensions
  • What type of work would you like to have done wrt the dimensions?
• Additional door handles:
  • We are currently working on the 2020 Cloud which will allow the use of additional catalogs (appliances, sinks, faucets, pulls and handles) on any cabinets. Please stay tuned! : )
• File Size:
  • We are currently working on optimizing our Cloud Solution.  Please stay tuned ; )
• Multi Axis Rotation
  • I assume you are looking to rotate item in the Elevation view.  This comes with a couple of challenges in 2020 Design, especially when we are performing calculations of colliding items .  We are considering allowing it for Decorative items.  Would this be sufficient to you?
• Catalog Viewer
  • We took note of your request.

Thank you for your feedback,  please don’t hesitate if you have more!

Santiago

[Sanoma Kitchens]

Hi Santiago,

For dimensioning, I would like to be able to change individual dimension attributes.

ie. for plumbing I would like to do my dims in blue, while the rest are in black.

as far as multi axis rotation. decorative items would be a benefit. I apologize for the delay in response. Feel free to reach out to me directly @ daniel@sanomakitchens.com for a quicker response

[Ariana Thompson]

I would love appliances I can give ANY texture to.

My client has chosen the new Whirlpool appliances in “Sunset Bronze”.  I don’t have those in 2020, so I’m using the generic appliances.  The range will allow me to choose a paint colour (The Sherwin-Williams “Faint Coral” is pretty close to perfect) for the control panel – but for the DOOR of the range –  I HAVE to choose a metal.  Why?

I can choose CARPETING for the coil elements, LOL!  And fabric for the sides (yes – I like to colour all the parts crazy so I know what colour tag is assigned to what part of the appliance – makes customizing them faster).

But I can only choose a metal for the door. Gah.

I LOVE that I have so much control over the colours on the generic stove – I can recolour the knobs separately from the control panel backround, the glass, there are TWO colours I can change on the coils – and I don’t want to give up that level of control – just allowing ALL options for all the components so I can create suites that match.

Now I have to build a stove from scratch using CUBEs and CYLINDERs.   🙁

Cheers,

Ariana

[Chris Setlock]

Hi Ariana,

I’ve been disappointed by the selection of “official” appliances in the cloud catalog.  Some manufacturers have been better than others at adding things.  It’s especially frustrating trying to do a complete kitchen in “Slate” or “Black Stainless”.   Still, I can understand why you cant change the texture on “official” models, i.e. those modeled by manufactures to resemble their actual line.

If you are looking to customize, download and import models from sketchup.  You’ll probably find a model that’s close to the shape you want and you can apply any textures you like.

Some years ago I won a really nice high-end job at least partially because I was the only designer who took the time to find the client’s imported Lacanche range, and render it in the custom color she’d ordered it in.

[Ariana Thompson]

Hi Chris,

Yes – I miss SketchUp a lot! We haven’t upgraded to V12 yet – and the “alternative” way of downloading SketchUp items for V11 does not work for us.  Our company’s computer system has a very hardcore firewall – and a lot of downloads and websites just don’t work.

I should also mention that not every business that has managed to afford 2020 as a piece of software has the money for cutting edge computers.  We have relatively new ones, but it will probably be 5 to 6 years before we are upgraded again.  SketchUp items that look good chew up a LOT of memory.  I always found that one SketchUp item in my design would cause a lot of lag, and two would basically grind the design to a virtual halt – and I would have to save after every little thing I did, because I didn’t know when 2020 would just go poof.  An entire matching appliance suite? No possible way.

If SketchUp appliances cause that kind of lag in V12, then I’ll be stuck with making my own appliances with Cubes and Cylinders, or colouring generic ones.

I can’t imagine it would be THAT difficult for the 2020 folks to create one electric range, one gas range, one French door fridge, one top freezer fridge, one dishwasher, and one OTR microwave that are all W/H/D adjustable, hinge switchable, and all the components can be coloured individually.  We’re ALMOST there now with the standard 2020 generic appliances! SO CLOSE!  Just open up the colour options and we’re there!

Cheers,

Ariana

[Travis Davies]

I agree! It would be amazing to have some basic appliances and plumbing fixtures that wouldn’t require sketch up.

let’s cross our fingers those at the top make some real changes this year.

[Christopher Robles]

It’s kind of a pain but if you can’t update 2020, you can always import the assets into sketchup and save them as an older file type and import them into 2020 from your pc. I personally sometimes make my own models in blender then import them to sketchup, and then to 2020. It would be really nice to get a uv texture editor window though in 2020. I don’t only use 2020 for cabinets  but also for tile.

[Scott Parker]

Is there scope to create a mobile app that you could use to conduct a home survey with, that would sync with 2020 once back at the desktop? So your floor plans and dimensions taken on site are ready to work with.

There are a few decent floorplanning apps that are great for paperless surveys however they dont transfer into the cad software feel its a missed opportunity.

 

Naturally this can be done on laptop, but majority of time it’s pen and paper then cad up once back at the office.

[Scott Parker]

Does anyone have a table or list of render times based on different hardware.

I’m trying to demonstrate how much time a fully specced desktop can reduce render times vs a laptop that’s barely above minimum required spec.

Our design office produce hundreds of renders per week, and unless a special case the majority are medium quality without the trims, designs look OK but don’t pop like a high quality with full lighting would.

For me it would be preferable to have every plan looking the best it can.

Or if any one has a beast of a machine set up could post an image with a render time it would be appreciated.

Many thanks

Scott

 

[Chris Setlock]

“Magic Plan” does that.  It’s available on iOS and Android.  I use it on every project.

By itself, it’s not accurate enough, but it integrates with any Bluetooth capable laser disto, so confirming critical dimensions is quick and easy.  I use a Leica that I bought for $150 on Amazon a few years ago.

Importing into 2020 is pretty easy too.  Earlier versions used to get window and door types mixed up, but that’s been corrected as of v12.

[Kelsey Krupski]

Would love to see more lighting options. The ROOM_FUR catalog is extremely outdated and the cloud only seems to have very interesting lights. Where are the normal 2/3-sconce light fixtures? Or the typical bowl ceiling lights?

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Kelsey,

We have added additional lights in the Cloud Catalogs. If you can’t find what you are looking for let us know through this link: https://www.2020spaces.com/2020-decorative-items/

Also, you should know that the Cloud lights don’t emit “light” yet unfortunately. I know… The work around is to add the light sources from the ROOM_FUR catalog: Light Fixtures – Light Source.

Thank you,

Santiago
2020 Design Product Manager

[Jennifer Newton-Bateman]

As a general designer coming out of a job as a K&B designer, I am using the generic catalogs for plans and renderings, therefore I do not have access to the manufacturer cabinet catalogs. Is it too much to ask for the sample F (and 2 & 3) catalogs to be updated and made more user friendly? I often use multiple catalogs for different color and style cabinets within a single floor plan.

1. The new shaker cabinet is only available in Sample F and not the extra catalogs why?!

2. An update of the door styles generally… Some of the styles in sample F are ridiculously outdated! More options with flat panels in a variety of widths would be fantastic. They could seriously whittle down the number of doors to reflect more contemporary offerings. At the very least add the shaker style to all the catalogs and maybe also give us a wide rail shaker.

3. PLEASE ADD PAINT COLOR SELECTIONS TO THE STYLE & PRICING OPTIONS for the sample catalogs! And please make texture changes automatically match to default to one thing like the door or frame texture, then we can change individual texture settings if we want a contrasting color somewhere. It often requires me to change colors in both the global attributes AND on EVERY INDIVIDUAL CABINET because a number of texture attributes on the cabinets don’t automatically switch when you change the door color. This is an enormous time suck!

4. The drawer pull color does not change when you change the pull color in the global attributes, so again I have to go into EVERY INDIVIDUAL CABINET with drawer hardware and change the drawer pull texture to match the door pull texture! Another time waster.

5. Ability to change pulls separately on upper and lower doors of tall cabinets, like you can with doors and drawers, would be nice.

6. Any chance there is going to be an update of the generic plumbing catalog to get rid of  forty year old plumbing fixtures that are found nowhere in nature? How about for both kitchen & bath faucets give us a streamlined selection of a few each of traditional, transitional, and modern styles with a variety of finish options or the ability to choose the texture. Also, the shower heads & sets… Maybe update those to reflect modern versions? Especially more options for shower only with no tub spout and rain shower heads that aren’t only on the 16″ -24″  straight arms! At least the ability to change dimensions on the shower heads and arms. Something! Also,  how about some floor mount tub fillers? Again, even just three options (with finish texture editing) would be fabulous to have SOMETHING for the freestanding tubs.

Finally, is there really no farmhouse/ apron front sink base in the sample catalogs or am I just utterly blind?!

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions on these items,

Jennifer

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Jennifer,

Thank you so much for your detailed feedback. Here are a couple of answers and questions for you:

1. Correct, we have added the Shaker doors to the Sample E, F and M. To which other catalogs are you referring to?  Of course, the Manufacturer catalogs will have the doors styles they support.
2. Could you provide us with a list of doors styles you think are outdated?  We are currently working on the next generation of Generic Cloud Cabinet Catalogs. The styles available should be more in tune with the current trends.
3. The next Cloud Configurable items solution will provide such capability.  It will be much easier to set the color of the cabinets of a kitchen.
4. The next Cloud Configurable items solution will provide such capability.  It will be much easier to set the color of the pulls of a kitchen.
5. This also will be possible with the Cloud Configurable item solution.
6. This is a very good point.  We will look at creating a new plumbing Cloud Catalog with more current items.  I will relay the information to the 2020 Cloud Team.
7. We will look at also Manufactures of Farmhouse sink in the Cloud.  I will relay the information to the 2020 Cloud Team.

Thanks again Jennifer.

 

Santiago

Product Manager of 2002 Design

[Mike Langensiepen]

Can we add to the wishlist the ability to disconnect walls from each other so that they form a new group and/or to be able to move a wall from one group to another.

This would allow us to colour code walls on the floorplan via display settings.

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Mike,

Thank you for this.  We will add it to the list of Features to consider.

Thank you,

Santiago

[Jordyn Pennyfeather]

Something really simple – I’d like the ability to move the Idea Center catalogs up or down in the catalog preferences tab. Being able to have those catalogs first where I have all of my pre-configured stuff ready to go would be great.

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Jordyn,

This is interesting.  Thank you for the feedback.  We will add it to the list of Feature for consideration.

Thank you,

Santiago

[Kayla Herrick]

Version 12 Wishlist:

I’m sorry it’s kind of long, I’ve been adding to this list for a while. I finally had a chance to upload…

1-A: Easier method of annotating. If I use some of the draw shapes like a line to a cabinet, a circle or rectangle, they are in the forefront (and the click range is wide), so when I try to move a dimension or cabinet, I have to move the annotation out of the way. In an elevation, lines are selected first and shoots 20’ away from the drawing. I try to move it back, but I have to zoom out because there is a very large gap between the line and my curser, so I have to overshoot my curser from where I am placing it to get it to the right spot.

1-A.1: To be able to copy and paste in an elevation. It defaults to the floor plan.

1-B: To be able to change the color of a specific dimension to help draw the contractor’s attention or color code a set of dimensions to coincide with annotations.

1-B.2: A better way to show moved or removed windows, doors, and walls in a construction plan. I spend a lot of time creating one by hand or using a supplemental program drawing the 2D plan in Sketchup. It would be great to do it all within the program.

1-B.3: New shapes for revision clouds, 2D shapes for construction plans and other call outs. I create construction plans for contractors, so the ability to call out revisions easily in the program would be helpful.

1-B.4: A way to adjust line thickness on annotation shapes/lines. Additionally, the dashed lines don’t show as dashed when printed.

2-A: A way to lock walls, windows, and doors in place would minimize a lot of headaches. So many times, I will go to move something, barely touch a wall and the whole room moves. All the openings themselves shift, but the doors and windows go back to their original locations, so I have holes behind kitchen cabinets. I have to drag my doors and hit escape fix every door and window opening.

2-B: Perhaps an added “Layer” feature similar but not as complex as AutoCAD is the answer to 2-A? To be able to turn on and off, lock and unlock certain elements, would be amazing. I do different things on the plan tabs, as intended. I annotate one tab and group my annotations together (safety measure), and I switch to a different tab and move a cabinet or dimension, the “invisible” annotations from one tab become selectable and show up on the current open tab I’m working in.

3-A: So excited about the updated the doors, but windows are still generic. A way to change the style of window (ex. a different casing texture from the window insert, a way to show it with sheet rock returns versus encased etc.), and different operating mechanisms, and straight casings, not the angled bottom piece.

3-B: When changing the texture of new doors, not all the parts of the door are changed or show up in a different color. The top and bottom rails of the door change to gray when I choose an off white for example. Door wizard doors have a light property that puts a spotlight on it that cannot be turned off. Undefined doors are bright colors and not all colors are editable. The top of the casing remains lime green, and the rails on the door remain red. Window wizard doesn’t change to a different texture at all.

3-C: Can you adjust the attribute to set and dimension the size of the door and window without having to include the casing? Ex. to properly show a door opening as 34″, I have to add for the casing, so it needs to be 39″ and gets dimensioned as such, which confuses contractors. To be able to insert door at 34″ and 2020 adjusts for the casing would help a ton. Even more so if the casing width shows correctly on the plan. I find that although the property of the window says the frame width is 2.5” (which you can change, but it doesn’t visually show thicker), when I dimension from the casing, it only shows as 2” on the plan, so my window width (when I dimension from the inside) is an inch wider than I need it to be.

4-A: PLEASE! A way to manually delete textures from “Textures in Current Design” tab. As selections change, I add and change textures of cloud items, and import Sketchup models (also the ability to change Sketchup textures is removed when I reload the program, which means I have to re-import the model and do it again). The amount of textures that are in the current design get ridiculous mostly because it duplicates the textures. The more textures there are, the longer it takes for the tab to load. I get a “Not Responding” message until it finishes loading – taking sometimes up to 15 minutes. I usually copy my design into a new program, but that means changing all my textures and changing global attributes for cabinetry. It would be a time saver not to have to do this.

4-B: The ability to catalog and organize custom textures in folders like the common textures!!!

5: For some reason, if I edit a user shape, countertop, or mouldings etc, close the edit shape tab, and I undo something I recently did (like undo a cabinet selection) or hit esc., the program decides it is going to undo everything up to the point I last edited the shape countertop or moulding, and I am right back into the edit shape tab. That’s frustrating.

[Ron Russell]

I would like to see the option to change the number of cells in the title block.
Also, it would be great to be able to determine the line width of the block. Any drafting class teaches that the block should be the widest line on the page. What I would like, shape wise, is shown on your print preview, am I missing something?

Attachments:

1. 

   print-preview.jpg
   

[Erik Tornquist]

Oooo man, there are some good ones listed recently!

-I second Mike’s request regarding grouping walls, although what I had in mind is being able to create a new “Wall group” under Wall Properties and moving walls into those created groups within the Wall Properties window. Similarly to how a new folder is created in Windows and files are dragged to that new folder. This would be awesome!

-Kayla’s 2-A!!! To be able to lock Architectural elements (walls, doors, windows, soffits,etc..) would be incredible! Can’t tell you how many times i’ve accidentally moved the whole wall structure; I would safely say most of us have done that and often even when selecting ‘redo / Ctrl-Z’ there would be some sort of new issue created that wasn’t there before (colliding items, etc…).

-Kayls’s  3-A & 3-C are also really good ones. Oh, and 1-A & 1-A.1.
Selecting an item when there is an annotation, measurement or line “close” is very difficult. I feel like the selecting point on any annotation is much further than the annotation itself which, in some cases, makes selecting something like a cabinet awkward.

-A huge one for me -aside from my normal request of being able to have floating elevations- is to be able to have 2 or more catalogs open. At the moment I’m working on 3 designs that are 2-toned and having to jump around the catalog list makes the process a bit tedious. I’m sure we could think of a million situations where having multiple catalogs of anything open simultaneously would be helpful- docked or floating.

-Oh and Jennifer’s request for updated generic plumbing fixtures (I’m looking at YOU floor mounted tub fillers!). And to be able to change their dimensions would be just gravy!

[Ariana Thompson]

Hi Erik,

You *can* have two catalogues open at once.

Switch to your second catalogue and drill down to a cabinet – any cabinet. Instead of dragging the cabinet into your design, right-click and choose “Add Drag & Drop List”.

An additional Drag & Drop window will appear, floating, in your workspace.

You can then switch your standard Drag & Drop window to the first catalogue.

Presto!  You have Catalogue One open in your usual Drag& Drop window, and your second catalogue open in your floating one.

Cheers,

Ariana

 

[Erik Tornquist]

HOOOOOLLY CRRAAAAAAAAAAP!!!

All this time….and I never knew that. Amazing. Thank you for this!

[Ariana Thompson]

Clickety-click, Barba-trick!

😉

[Kelsey Krupski]

I would love to be able to modify the title block

[Kristopher Papaleo]

Hi Kelsey,

You actually can modify your title block! All you need to do this is the Title Block Editor.

Click HERE to view an article that will allow you to download the title block editor and also provide a step by step on how to use it including a video as well!

Kris

[Kelsey Krupski]

Wow, thank you! I still wish I was able to change the size of the title block, though. I think it is too thick

[Travis Davies]

100% agree. Especially printing to 11×17 it makes the title block obnoxiously huge. Your only alternative is to use the layout tool and its got several formatting issues as well, at least in V11. Thats why lots of people save everything as jpeg and import to something like powerpoint so you can control how things are displayed.  Kind of pain to do, but sure looks sharp when done correctly.

[Ariana Thompson]

My wish would be for all the Light controls to be together.

As it is, when I use a recessed spot (from the old catalogue obviously), I need to control the colour of the light and the style of the ray pattern in the Light Attributes box – but adjusting the Horizontal and Vertical (to control where the light is pointing and how high it’s hitting) and switching on and off whether the fixture is visible in the render are both done in the Attributes box.  While the angle of beam and wattage can be controlled from both the Light Attributes AND the Attributes boxes.

I am forever bopping between Attributes and Light Attributes until the light has the right look and is pointing as far up or down as I want.

Cheers,

Ariana

[Erik Tornquist]

I think I read somewhere in here once before a request of being able to change display settings of an individual measurement-  man o’MAN, I’m wishing this was an option already! Hadn’t really had much of a use for that before but now offering contracting services and using these plans for the subs, it would be so helpful. It would be cleaner & easier having just 1 plan with everyone on it in an organized fashion.

Just my 2 cents.

 

ok, maybe my 5 cents.

[Erik Tornquist]

Sorry, I just realized how cheesy that was.

Another thought: Not sure if this is possible currently, but a button that clicking it would automatically measure everything in the elevation or plan.

Final thought: I see it’s possible to select multiple measurements but it doesn’t seem possible to move the measurements when more than one is selected. Am I missing something?

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Erik,

Can you provide details as to which dimensions would be adequate aside from the ones already available automatically?  Also, have you had a chance to try out the Multi-Dimension tool?

Thank you,

Santiago

[Ariana Thompson]

Just popping on here to second the motion that it would be WONDERFUL if we could drop in windows and doors as per rough openings (without casing), including the up/down.

We could then click a button to include the casing (for our design work) – but chose either/or for printing dims.  Homeowners that are doing their own install in an existing space with existing casings would want dims that SHOW casings, while contractors don’t.

So even if we had the option to have rough opening in one TAB and dims with casing sin another?

For design work itself – I just got a blueprint for a new project.  The windows are ALL different sizes.  One window is listed as 48×42, I have to enter it as 54×48 to account for standard 3″casing.  The TOP of the window is noted as 7′ off the floor.  So 84″, minus 48″high window gives me an up/down – BUT that’s with the bottom casing. So I then have to take off 3″ to get the bottom of the rough opening.

Gah.

Anything you guys can do to make that easier is great appreciated.

 

Cheers!

Ariana

 

[Ariana Thompson]

** How about the ability to adjust the Up/Down of Grouped Items?**

I store vignettes of ctop dressing (like pitcher of orange juice, two glasses, some loose oranges, and a cut orange on a cutting board with knife – this person was making orange juice) etc – and being able to group them and adjust the Up/Down to standard ctop height versus bar height would be great! It would also be good for stuff grouped together on a shelf that you want to copy/paste to another shelf – but that shelf is higher or lower.

Cheers!

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[Willesa]

It would be nice to either have Moen or Kohler showerhead faucets with an option to add a shower arm diverter and handheld attached (the type that does not require a transfer valve). We don’t always use the slide bar or drop el options in real life.

 

Another is artwork, it would be great to have a set of two offset canvas paintings (where the paintings coordinate but one is positioned higher than the other and right/left options). Additionally, it would be great to get some wall decor items that one would use for gallery walls. Or a set of three again not all the same size (example, right/left paintings smaller than the center one)

 

Plants: It would be great to have more options for succulents, Sketchup has good options but it seems like most often, the nicer looking ones bog 2020 down so badly that I can’t use them.

 

Tables: Kitchen/dining room tables with a more transitional pedestal base (not 4 table legs), transitional tables and chairs, sofas, end tables, ladder bookcase that is already decorated!

 

More transitional items are needed across the board. Especially for lighting, maybe try teaming up with Kichler, Seagull or Hinkley lighting and get more of their style on the cloud. Everything is either super contemporary or super traditional, there’s not much available for in between those two styles.

 

Semi-frameless sliding shower doors, the options available have bulky metal, it doesn’t look the greatest.

 

Decorative grab bars would be great too! Something that doesn’t look so institutionalized.

 

Teak shower seats, this is a trend now for us. People no longer want built in benches because they do not function!

 

Freestanding tub teak caddy that lays across the tub, they have some with places for wine/cups, book stand, etc.

 

Shampoo/Conditioner bottles. We need more items to decorate bathrooms and laundry rooms.

 

Windows: Double hung options with mullions (where you can change how many mulions there are). Double hung options that consist of more than one window together too. You have the option for casement windows, but not for double hung. If we could add additional sections that would be awesome!

 

Framed arched doorways, frameless arch doorways are needed.

 

Corners of walls: When you have a 1/2 wall at the end of a 96″ wall, it creates a diagonal on the taller wall, in real life this would still be square. It looks bad, I get around this by not connecting the two walls, but it would be nice not to have to mess around with it.

 

Tile: We need herringbone/chevron options or anything that is “decorative”, squares and rectangles just don’t cut it all the time and it would be nice to have an editable version to some of the new patterns out there. Using the surface tool is ok, but we don’t always present our designs in color and visually seeing the shapes in hidden line would be helpful.

 

Washers and dryers, I wish we could change the size. We used to be able to long ago, but not for the past couple of years. Sometimes customers are reusing what they have and I can’t accurately depict them in the design to match the exact size that I need. Same with fridges too.

 

 

[Ariana Thompson]

I don’t know if this has already been mentioned – perhaps even by me  LOL- but it would be great to be able to adjust the Up/Down of a set of Grouped items all together.

Sometimes I create vignettes of plates, cups, etc for inside glass front cabs etc and I always have to Ungroup, then adjust the height of each item individually to make them sit on the shelf.

If I could bring up an elevation, grab the Group and just raise or lower them all – that would be a real timesaver.

Cheers!

Ariana

[Ariana Thompson]

LOL!  I *did* post this already!

Can I mod please delete the repetition?

And if you know any good brain surgeons…I could use one of those too, apparently.

😉

[Karin Abston]

It would be nice if we could modify the height of the Z-Line products. I mean really…. do most people need a 50″ tall range hood? or even a 36″??!!

[Daniel Rankin]

We offer to our designers two identical catalogs named “A” and “B” catalogs so they can design two different combinations of cabinets in the same design.  With this ability they sometimes place or “Replace” cabinets out of the wrong catalog in which puts them in the wrong catalog when they send it over to be ordered.  Sales is asking if there is a way to color code the outline of the cabinets based on the catalog?  I was suggested to create a custom Scheme but all I have found that does is for the whole design, not catalog specific.  Our request is that this be an attribute that I can program from catalog tools for each catalog specific to be a different color or at least a Global Attribute in Design that can be changed for the specific catalog and not the whole design like the Scheme does.  Going through a whole designs two catalogs and setting each individual cabinet’s outline color is not something we expect a designer to do.  Also, once set if the catalog changes for that cabinet, say they “replace” it with a cabinet from the other catalog, it stays that color no matter what catalog it is from.  We do suggest to our dealers to view their perspective to catch the different colors but that is not always going to obvious depending on the color choices made, and I am sure not always done.  Plus reviewing the reports before submitting the order!!  Thanks.

[Ariana Thompson]

I would love to be able to drop any generic 2020 knob or pull onto the floorplan anywhere – NOT just attached to a cabinet! Oriented either horizontally for drawers or vertically for doors.

I often use Rev-a-Shelf filler pullouts that require a filler strip mounted as an ersatz doorfront – and then I can’t put a pull on it.

There are also instances when the client wants a phony pull on a doorpanel.

Right now, I am choosing very simplistic pulls – so I can float a cylinder half an inch from the cabinet and it kinda looks ok.  I would RATHER be able to float a matching pull right against the filler/doorpanel!

Sometimes a client wants an unusual pull placement – or the pull placement is not a default offered on the drop-down (like putting fingerpulls RIGHT at the edge of the door/drawer)

It would be handy to be able to turn OFF the pulls for that cabinet and manually “float” a pull against the cabinet.

Cheers!

Ariana

[Mike Langensiepen]

Hi,
<p class=”MsoNormal”>Is there a log of changes to a drawing? If not, can we add this to the wishlist please. We would not mind if the log is for the Design program as a whole or just for drawings (e.g. if drawing is fred.kit, log would be fred.log)</p>

[Kevin Lima]

Force Checkout for Cloud Users

I’ve switched over 30 users over the cloud and ditched the USB dongles.  I know have an annoying scenario where users are forgetting to sign out from their work computers when they are at home.  I then have to log in to their workstations and sign them out manually so they can use 20-20 at home.

I understand that this is a feature to ensure the user can log in even if there is no internet connection.  However, forcing users to log off everyday kind of defeats that purpose if the internet is not available.

This only affects users who vary from home and work, which is almost everyone now.

I would like to see a message pop up saying you are logged on another computer.  Do you wish to force checkout.  If that’s not possible then an option in the cloud admin to force people out.

 

Thanks,

Kevin

[Willesa]

Kevin, I use the soft key as well and have found this to be a real pain. However, your employees can call 2020 from home and have the support person force them to log out. This will help so you don’t have to do it all the time!!

[Kevin Lima]

Willesa, thanks for the tip!  I’ll let them know that.  I’m sure once they get tired of calling they won’t forget.

[Kelsey Krupski]

Please add more light options! There are a decent number of options, but the styles are just outdated and most can barely be modified for me to try and make it anything like the selected fixture. More modern designs for sconces and pendants, please!!!

[Pauline Ribbans]

1- The ability to stretch and split cabinets.

2- Change the Numerical of a Dimension without changinng the Dimension

3-Set up Room and cabinet heights etc at the beginning of a job.

4- Let me rotate labels again.

5- Fix the way Cloud items move

6- Stop it crashing when you make too many changes to a cabinet.

[Pauline Ribbans]

I would also like to have the ability to set up different rooms within one job, eg a tab for a kitchen and a tab for a laundry.

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Pauline,

Thank you for sharing these requests.

The ability to stretch cabinets is possible depending on the catalog used. Some manufacturers prevent the resizing of cabinets.

Changing the numerical dimension without changing the actual dimension is unfortunately not possible. We recommend placing a label for these purposes.

Setting the height of cabinets is possible through the “Top Align” field of the wall properties.

The rotations of labels is possible on the latest release.

We would need more details regarding the movement of Cloud Items.

We would need more details regarding the crashing you observed. Reproduction steps would help.

The capability to setup different rooms per tabs is not possible for now. We will note this request for a potential future implementation.

Thank you,

Santiago

[Jennifer Stewart]

1. would be an Align tool.  This would really help when needed to set things up to align with other items.

2. Browser for Plans, Elevations and 3D views that would keep views stored instead of deleting them.  This seems silly that I have to adjust a window to hide a view when I don’t need it.

3.  Having the ability to select items in 3D so I can work between 3D and plans or elevations.

4.  Having dimension lines move together when selecting multiple.  Trying to add and line up dimensions is painful.  Have a dimension highlight when I select an item and be able to move it by typing in the dimension instead of having to use the wheel.  Much quicker way to move items and fix unwanted dimension fractions.

I come from 15 years of using Autodesk Revit as an Architect and these are just some of the simple thing I have seen in just using 2020 Design for 2 weeks.

[Willesa]

Hi Jennifer, you can right click on items, click center and then select the item you want to center the new one on or you can center it on dimension lines.

 

You shouldn’t have to delete any elevations or plans. there are tabs at the bottom for the difference floor plan versions and when you add your first elevation, it creates tabs for those as well.

 

In 3D you can right click on most objects to go into attributes to change settings, the up down/side to side feature does not work well in perspective.

 

As for the dimension lines, if you right click over the line you want to move there will be different options that pop up, you can move the whole line or just the dimension you selected.

 

I hope that helps a little 🙂 I don’t work for 2020, I just saw your thread. I only used Revit/CAD prior to 2020 and I had the very same thoughts you have.

 

2020 does have quite a lot of features, but it’s tricky learning to use them!

[Jennifer Stewart]

Wishlist – Walls . . . Walls . . . Walls.

Please make drawing walls easier.  Is it just me or does anyone else loose work when the walls delete themselves?  I spend more time trying to draw walls then I do the entire kitchen design.  It is so frustrating!

Why do they have to all be connected?  Why do we have to draw in clockwise direction.  Need to make walls where we can draw them in any order and then select which side the placement zone will be.  Have the ability to select whether we draw a wall as a chain or just a single wall.  Move them without having to edit and go into the entire group to do so.   Have the ability, when you click on a wall to have temporary dimensions pop up and walls can be moved by typing in the exact number on the temporary dimension.

[Kayla Herrick]

Jennifer, I saw your post and thought I’d offer some tips I learned over the years.

“Is it just me or does anyone else loose work when the walls delete themselves?  I spend more time trying to draw walls then I do the entire kitchen design.  It is so frustrating!”

I hate when I try to quickly move a cabinet or something and I grab a wall and the whole room moves instead. I found that if you keep your mouse clicked and press ESC, the walls return to it’s original position. If I didn’t do it correctly, the “ctrl z” or undo button is my friend. HOT TIP, limit your undo actions. If you undo too many times, the previous saved actions will refresh to the last auto save. That still catches me off guard.

One habit I have is to save a file “Client Name Walls” as a back up structure file, then ‘save as’ a new file and start designing. At least this way, if things get jacked, you can copy the interior elements (cabinets, ctops, etc.) into the backup structure file and ‘save as’ again.

“Why do they have to all be connected?

There are little buttons in the bottom right hand corner of the yellow status bar. If this bar is blank, right click on the yellow bar and check the Drawing Control. There is a button that looks like a chain link. Turn this OFF! It will allow you to select a single wall versus the entire group. Just make sure the wall you click, you select the red square of the selected wall or the group will still move as one.

“Why do we have to draw in clockwise direction.  Need to make walls where we can draw them in any order and then select which side the placement zone will be.”

You can select which way a placement zone faces on a wall by right clicking/double clicking on the wall to open the properties window. In the “Type” tab, there’s a placement zone setting to choose inside, outside, or both.

“Have the ability to select whether we draw a wall as a chain or just a single wall. ”

If I only need one wall, you can hit enter twice or right click after entering your dimension.

“Have the ability, when you click on a wall to have temporary dimensions pop up and walls can be moved by typing in the exact number on the temporary dimension.”

I think I understand what you’re saying here. If you mean move in a direction (24″ to the left) I use the offset feature. If you don’t have this turned on, do so! You can find it in the “View” tab in the top ribbon. You can offset by clicking the square with the green left arrow to turn it on, type your offset dimension, click the wall/object so it pops up in the center of the placement wheel thing, and click the direction you want it to move. I use offset copy function A LOT for copying can lights 48″ apart.

If you mean changing the dimension of the wall, open the properties and type the dimension you need. Select the “Lengthen from beginning” or “Lengthen from end” depending on whether the wall is connected to another wall and the wall will grow in the direction you need it to.

I hope these tips help! Switching to 2020 was a big change for me as well. I’ve been using the program for 10 years, and I still get frustrated by things…

[Jennifer Stewart]

Thank you so much for the reply.  Yes it is a big change I have only been using 2020 a month.  I am used to Revit to do entire building designs.

I will try and use your tips today.  Maybe I won’t get so frustrated.

On the Temporary dimensions  I have attached a couple images from Revit that show what I mean.  It is so simple to move any object any distance with these dimensions.

 

Attachments:

1. 

   TempDim_Moved1.png
   

2. 

   fp-revit_5-3_4_sejbdw.jpg
   

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Jennifer,

I agree, this makes for an easier modification of displacement of items. We will note this for future consideration.

Thank you,

Santiago

[Ariana Thompson]

Walls are frustrating Jennifer, I agree!

I NEVER draw walls in that “daisy-chain” way – I find it so frustrating.  I usually choose the “L” or the “U” wall formation and just drop it.  Then I add one or two walls to complete the general shape, then change the length of each wall to correct.

I have mentioned in the Wishlist before I would love a LOCK POSITION option on things – especially walls and custom shapes – as I often use custom shapes as walls, chimneys, posts, etc.  You could then unclick the LOCK if you DID want to move it.

Happy New Year!

Ariana

[Erik Tornquist]

Ohhh  maaaan…. Why hadn’t I thought of that before? I’d LOVE to have a “lock position” available for walls or whatever else:  Click an object, right click, drop down menu has “lock & unlock” selections.

Locking an object is now one of my all time favorite suggestions (along with floating elevation windows)

[Gregg Meyers]

CATALOG MANAGER:

I would love to see the Full Catalog descriptions and the complete list at one time.
Pipe dream, I know.

[Kristopher Papaleo]

Hi Gregg,

To see a list of the catalogs you have installed as well as their descriptions, open the Catalog Manager and then either select ‘Rename’ or ‘Delete’. These options should show you the names of the catalog as well as the manufacturer whose catalogs they are. See the image below for example.

Regards,

Kris

Attachments:

1. 

   Catalog-Manager.jpg
   

[Gregg Meyers]

Hi, Kristopher,

I know that I can see these in either “Rename” or “Delete” functions.
However, in Ver. 11.12, the names are all truncated.

I’ve avoided moving to newer Versions until we are no longer “Beta-testers”
and 2020 truly provides us a stable product that many of us have been paying decades for.

Thank you for a nudge to move to a newer version.

My appreciation,

[Kayla Herrick]

Gregg, V12.3 user here. I don’t know if the set up is different in V11.12; check if the following works for you. Open the 2020 Design program (not catalog manager). In the file tab, select preferences. Open the “Catalogs” tab the dialog window.  In that tab, select “Show catalog description” and “Show by manufacturer”. This will organize your catalogs in a hierarchal list in the Local Browser tab. I hope this helps!

Attachments:

1. 

   Preferences-Catalog-Description.jpg
   

[Margaux Bangs]

It would be great to be able to create a set shape for notes. In both the design and drawing layout, if you have a long sentence or paragraph, it would be helpful to be able to create the shape you want that note to stay within.

[Mike Langensiepen]

Hi Margaux,
My users have a lot of notes either set up as text notes using the Save/Open option or (as in your case) stored in a drawing.

It is extremely useful to have all your most used stuff including standard text notes shaped as you prefer and specific cabinet configurations and most used accessories (chopping boards etc) stored in a drawing that is easily accessible. From there you can just copy and paste into your current drawing.

My people usually save the drawing as AAAAccessories.kit or something similar so that it shows at the top of the file list. They also have such files on the desktop so they double click it to start 2020 Design up and it’s immediately available for copy and paste.

[Kayla Herrick]

1: LOCK WALLS! PLEASE! Probably four times a day I accidently grab a wall instead of an object and the entire room moves (especially if you have collision on) the windows and doors shift from their locations. I have to go back to my field measurements to make sure openings haven’t shifted. TOP PRIORITY!
1.1: Place windows and doors according to inside frame dimension or rough opening and dimension as such. I have to add 2.5 per side (default trim size) and remember to change the up/down. Even if the homeowner’s trim is a different size – sometimes you change the trim size, but it doesn’t show.
1.2: Window visual for sheetrock window returns. Not all windows show without trim even if you select it as an option.
2: Add a default to set countertops to 1.25″ (3CM) would be cool. 99% of the time, we’re using 3CM granite or quartz.
2.1: Add an option to change the thickness of countertop trims. No one probably uses it, but it’s my favorite thing. The countertop trim addon is helpful to show finished edges when getting a countertop estimate. I’m all about the renderings though. It looks more realistic. However, if I want to show a 2CM countertop the trim remains at 1-1/2”. (I don’t like the wizard, so I don’t bother to use it anymore.)
3: Ability to create 3D shapes in elevation or an option to rotate a 3D user shape drawn in plan view. If I want to show a piece of glass that notches around a bench, I either have to just run the shape straight through, or draw it in sketchup and import it. If I need to make a slight modification to it, I have to go back to sketchup to fix it, and import it again.
4: Ability to categorize user textures. EX – Tile – Tile Company – Tile Collection. This would be soooooo nice.

[Erik Tornquist]

I still don’t understand why locking walls hasn’t ever been an option. I’d dare say we all have accidentally dragged the walls in most of our designs. To me personally it would be a no brainer. 🤷

Also rotating/flipping objects vertically and horizontally. So for instance, that 3/4″ vertical wall panel we want to use as a horizontal panel elsewhere can just be rotated instead of having to go into the attributes and change all the measurements. In some cases, a cabinet catalog won’t let you make those adjustments.

 

100% agree on the countertop thickness!

[Ariana Thompson]

Locking walls – or anything – has always been a fave idea – but I think whatever default you set for countertop thickness would displease someone – unless we could customize that ourselves.

80% of all the countertops we do are 1.5″ so I like the preset the way it is.  😉

The next most common thickness for us would be 1″.

 

[Kayla Herrick]

If 80% of your sales is laminate, the current setting is great for you.  3cm (1-1/4”) is primarily what I design with. And I don’t know how adding a user preference setting would displease someone… it’s a user preference setting?  “UGH I’m so pissed there’s and OPTION for someone ELSE!”, said no one ever 😒

[Ariana Thompson]

LOL!  That’s why I said “unless” it was a User Preference! Haha!

Yes – we all like to customize, don’t we!  😉

[Mike Langensiepen]

Re default countertop thickness or indeed any variable that you can set via global attributes, you can just use the template function to make life easy.

Once you have a template configured and saved with a sensible name, double clicking on the template opens a new design file but with the attributes you previously selected already applied. You could name the template sensibly such as “Shaker-offwhite 30cm-whitemarble.tpl

I am writing a little guide on this as I speak.

 

[Mike Langensiepen]

Tried to edit the  above but no luck. It seems that Global Attributes shows a very limited variable set and in my catalogs at least, benchtop thickness does not appear. Templates are still handy but mainly limited to textures and styles it seems.

[Mark A Yost, Sr.]

It was so easy years ago when we all has access to at least a little of the Catalog Tools.  1 1/4” or 3cm, or 2cm for that matter should not be a difficult issue in a Professional Kitchen Design program.  Just my opinion.

[Mike Langensiepen]

Hi Mark,

I have Catalog Tools and my customised catalog has an item you drop in which immediately allows you to set many attributes such as wall heights, cabinet heights and depths, textures, benchtop thicknesses etc. It’s about time we had a room wizard and a template option that included this.

 

[Mark A Yost, Sr.]

Room Wizard would be awesome!  Do you offer your catalog for sale?

[Mike Langensiepen]

I’m afraid not – it’s owned by the company I work for. It’s honestly a bit of a kludge anyway as Design doesn’t like being forced to work this way. My Designers like it though and put up with the odd issue. Pic attached and I’m just about to release a later version that has more options.

Attachments:

1. 

   Screenshot-2021-02-15-084804.png
   

[Mark A Yost, Sr.]

It’s a shame we have to spend our time working on program workarounds rather than using that time to design and sell.  But it  is what it is.  Have a great day!

[Mark A Yost, Sr.]

I don’t know why I did not check this earlier, but the Underground catalog has a selection under Countertops for Granite top, that is 1 1/4″ deck!

[Erik Tornquist]

In Chief Architect, there’s the ability to follow whatever lines of an object(s) and show each measurement of the lines you follow. For example, you want the total & individual measurements of all the cabinets? Follow the outlines of all the cabinets and when you’re done, a measurement will appear next to each line. It’s an over simplification of it but that’s pretty much it.  That would be extremely handy.

I realize the software is different than 2020’s but there are other options as well (such as quick color/texture changing cabs/tops for example) that make render adjustments instantaneous and convenient. Again, not sure how possible it is with 2020 but would be awesome if any of those are possible in the future.

[Mike Langensiepen]

Hi Erik,
2020 Design has a Multi-Dimension tool that is superb and easy to use and the Display Schemes can be used to give you very powerful control over what is displayed including dimensions.

Also, texture/colour changes are also very easy to accomplish as well as being able to very quickly and easily adjust lighting, exposure settings etc in renders. Now I’ll be the first to say that the lighting tends to need some more work to get it right but you can really get some very realistic renders. I’ve used Chief Architect and IMHO, the renders come nowhere near 2020 Design.

So, not sure what you are asking for as the things you have commented on are already there but perhaps in a slightly different format/operation?

[Erik Tornquist]

Mike, in the meantime check out EarTrumpet. I use it on all of my computers. It gives you the option to adjust volume on ALL apps that are running. Love it! But I agree, it would be great not to have to use an app like that.

[Erik Tornquist]

Mike, Yeah I use the multi-dimension tool often but that’s not quite what I’m getting at. Basically, to click on every line you need to create an outline of measurements; measurements would show up on each one of those lines whether parallel or perpendicular to each other. I’m sure it would involve quite a bit of coding to create but it’s an awesome feature that CA has.

[Erik Tornquist]

I, as most, would certainly agree that 2020Spaces has superior rendering techniques over CA, among other offers… It’s the dimension tools that CA has available that is superior but again, alot/all of it has to do with how the program is coded. It would be awesome to have dimension tools like CA has but not sure if it’s possible based on the 2020’s structure. Same as their instant item color changer. They would be awesome features to have but not sure how practical it is currently.

[Jennifer Jacob]

Hi Mike,

We have been BEGGING for the following changes to the dimension lines:

A. Everything on a wall below 36″ to show up on a “Base Cabinet” line. This would include doors & Tall cabinet.

B. Everything on a wall above 36″ to show up on a “Wall Cabinet” Line. This would include windows, doors, and tall cabinets.

Currently, This does not happen and we then have to waste A LOT of time using the multi-dimensional tool to adjust the dimension lines for our contractors, or we have to calculate it.

We are looking for time saving option of already having the appropriate numbers show up on our dimension lines.  If you can make this happen, we all would greatly appreciate it.

Please see the attached example.

 

Attachments:

1. 

   2020-Dimension-Line-Request02172021.pdf
   

[Mike Langensiepen]

Hi Jennifer,

I have a display scheme that allows me to show floor plans where JUST the base and tall  measurements are shown and one where just the wall and tall measurements are shown. I also have the ability to show elevations with just base and tall and then wall and tall cabinets and dimensions (complex designs sometimes means that the installer needs the split detail).

You could also change your display scheme to use different colours for your base, wall and tall measurements. In the attached example, the wall unit measurements are in Fuschia (red for most men!)

You can get close to what you want if not perfect.

Attachments:

1. 

   Screenshot-2021-02-23-085842.png
   

[Mike Langensiepen]

Please find a way of including 2020 Design in the Volume Mixer on Windows 10 – this would allow selective muting. As you can see from the attached, Design does not show up whereas the other apps I have running do.

Attachments:

1. 

   Screenshot-2021-02-23-090743.png
   

[Jennifer Jacob]

Thanks Mike,

I am really hoping they will find a way to include everything above 36″ (all wall, tall, windows, and doors) on one line, and everything below 36″ (All Base, tall, doors, low hung windows) on one line….   It would just be so much easier for everyone to read it, and save me a lot of time trying to adjust all the dimension lines that show up on my plan to be readable and less confusing.

 

[Michael Anderson]

I would like to see hidden line drawings scalable (and vector).  The current line drawings are pixelated and mediocre; not to mention showing up as wireframe in the high res render.

[Michael Anderson]

I would like to be able to (middle wheel) move my current view while drawing with the running line tool.  Currently, running line tool locks out the move view function.

[Michael Anderson]

I would like to be able to hide individual walls from view without having to move them; nor adjust the camera to the point of an oddly skewed perspective.

[Mike Langensiepen]

Hi Michael,
You can use the Clipping Tool in the render view to ‘disappear’ walls.

Attachments:

1. 

   Before-clipping.png
   

2. 

   After-Clipping.jpg
   

[John Nelson]

I have a list of over 1000 possible improvements, but I’ll start with just one. Make the legend numbers match the item list numbers.

[Santiago Morales]

Hello John,

The item list number and the legend number are 2 different numbering schemes filling 2 different use case. Why do you need them to match?

Thank you,

Santiago

[John Nelson]

The legend on a floor plan or elevation should DEFINITELY match an item list or any BOM report to prevent confusion (which reminds me of a second point I’ll bring up at the end of this response). I have had many conversations go like this… CLIENT: “I need you to make a change to number 4 on the floor plan which I think is number 37 on the order report. Can you verify that this is the same cabinet and make the appropriate changes. If not, can you tell me which cabinet number 4 is on the cost report and how much it is?” This results in a lot of wasted time on my end and the client’s end with emails.

Second note. Every time I change a cabinet or save a file after making any change, the legend numbering changes which causes all sorts of confusion when comparing past revisions. The numbering no longer matches. Cant, it just stay the same? Example: Wall cabinets>Base Cabinets>Tall Cabinets>Accessories moving in a clockwise direction

 

 

[Ariana Thompson]

Morning all!

This is a random one, but I would love it if the French Doors had light coming through, like the windows and entry doors.  They are really popular here for onto patios and decks, and it’s always a little odd that they throw no light.  If a person *was* using them as an interior door, they could also black out the light source.

Cheers,

Ariana

[Ariana Thompson]

Could we get a GLASS textures in the Common texture catalogue that is only about 25% as reflective, but still transparent?

Often I get a LOT of glare in glass fronted cabinets – and removing the glass makes it looks like….it has no glass – obviously.  So I end up dialing down my Ambient light etc and then I have to drop a whole bunch more lights to compensate.

I don’t necessarily want frosted glass – just clear glass that is not as reflective.

Cheers!

Ariana

[Willesa]

In 2020 training, we learned to “dirty” the light to make less glare. This can be done by manipulating the lighting settings in perspective. Also, do not render an open room. If it’s open, add walls around, it will help with stainless appliances too.

[Ariana Thompson]

Hi Willesa,

All done – and both excellent tips.  Though I do like a bright, sunny room.  While I ADORE the renderings I see some gifted folks do with 2020, I do find most too dark for my taste.  I want my renders to look like a design magazine – and they’re bright!

This photo for example – I had to dial down all the windows to almost black, and dim the ambient light to the point where – while usable – I do not like how dark this render is. All so the glass in those uppers weren’t blinding white with reflection.

 

 

Attachments:

1. 

   Example-scaled.jpg
   

[Willesa]

My notes are at work so hopefully I remember this correctly.

set the brightness to 75% on that screen there are two bars, set them both to 75%, use 40w/60w ambient. Turn off sun. Set exposure to 1. Don’t use the ceiling light. Add cabinet lighting, recessed cans, decorative fixtures etc. this should help some.

[Chelsea Winkelman]

Hi everyone!

I am newer to this chat but have been designing with 2020 for about 4.5 years now.

I am still having a hard time figuring out how the design contest winners get their pictures to looks so amazing! Mostly with the furnishings. I do use sketch up sometimes but that just seems to make my files large and hard to work with. Are there catalogs I can download. I am also looking for maybe flooring catalogs. Sniping pictures and bringing them into the textures does not seem to line up right.

Thank you!

[Kristopher Papaleo]

Hi Chelsea,

SketchUp is a great alternative for you to use if you aren’t able to find what you are looking for in the 2020 cloud. It is possible for SketchUp items to bloat your design as they can range in size (ex: ranging from 1mb to 1000mb) generally you want to look for items that aren’t very large.

I don’t believe we have any flooring catalogs but I did find a pretty cool website that offers free seamless textures. The website is called 3djungle.net, all you have to do is find the texture you want to use, download it and import it to the program!

Hope this helps,

Kris

[Mike Langensiepen]

Hi Chelsea,
Further to Kris’s comments, it’s not just the size of the Sketcup items that can cause issues but also you will find that items with lots of Polygons are likely to cause more issues/slowdowns that items with fewer Polygons. Also, the lack of assigned materials can also cause 2020 to ‘choke’ on a Sketchup object.

Another issue is that the Warehous frequently goes through a cleanup where objects get deleted so I have had a few occasions where I have lost access to items.

Accordingly, I recommend that you access the Warehouse OUTSIDE of 2020 in a normal web browser. I then download the items I want – multiple versions if available and store and organise them locally on my computer. I can then test them in 2020 to see if they work well and if they cause crashes or slowdowns I either delete them or see if I can use Sketchup to ‘fix’ them by assigning materials or simplifying them or whatever.

You can still get Sketchup Make 2017 for free and this is normally adequate for playing and fixing up shapes. Get it here (needs a Trimble ID which is free) – make sure you get the Make 2017 version. https://www.sketchup.com/download/all

Hope this helps!

[Chelsea Winkelman]

Kris,

Thank you so much for that website! I have already downloaded a lot of new flooring, that was perfect!

 

Mike,

Thank you for that information about SketchUp.

Once I have gotten that all downloaded, how do you bring them into your 2020 program?

Do they get saved in 2020 somehow or do I have to bring that item back in every time I am wanting to use it?

[Kristopher Papaleo]

Hi Chelsea,

When you downloading to your computer, all files will be found in your Downloads folder. To import these sketchup files into the program, you want to go to File > Import > From Local Storage. Once the little window comes up, you want to change the ‘files of type’ to look for .skp files (there are attached images below) and then you want to go to your downloads folder to bring up the sketchup items.

Hope this helps!

Kris

Attachments:

1. 

   importing.jpg
   

2. 

   to-the-downloads.jpg
   

[Mike Langensiepen]

What Kris said re import. I recommend importing to a blank design and just moving them around to see how much of an issue the shape is. Ones that are slow I just delete.

For other stuff such as seamless textures and a lot of independent help, I’d suggest joining the unofficial facebook forum – we are at 2.4 thousand members and growing. We have some amazing people in the forum and a few 2020 employees too! Some of the renders people are producing are absolutely mind blowing.

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2020PUG

 

 

[Chelsea Winkelman]

Thank you for all the help!

I have already put all of it to use and I am loving it!

 

I will be joining that Facebook group

Have a fabulous day everyone!

[Aron Graus]

1. It is quite annoying that it’s not possible to change multiple Cabinets width, at the same time wheres the depth and height is possible.
2. It would be great if there would be a possibility to change in the global attributes the texture of an entire kitchen with one click instead of going into each item separately to change the texture.
3. Please change the default colors of the kitchen, it would be great if it could just be white, (especially the countertop texture right now is awful).
4. There’s a big need to be able to build custom shapes, (for instance when doing waterfalls on Islands in interesting shapes.

Overall 2020 is a great program!!

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Aron,

The good news is that we have address a couple of these requests with our Cloud Solution. Through the Cloud Configurator it is possible to change the dimensions, material and finishes of a selected group of cloud items.

2020 Design Live already supports the creation of custom shapes. Are there limitations that you have witnessed?

Thank you,

Santiago

[Lawrence Walsh]

Managing 2020 Users:

A few days into all 40+ users on 2020 Design Live and I have noticed an annoying issue.

Some users in out locations swap desks and forget to sign out of 2020 Design Live on the desk they last used. Not a big issue when they are in the same location. But this is vacation season and the sales people cover for people on vacation in other locations. We’ve run into an issue where a Salesperson could not sign into 2020 in location B because they were signed in on a PC in location A. I had to remote into the PC they were using the day before , and sign them off.
It would be nice to have the ability to just go to the 2020 Account Administration User admin page and sign them off. Will save a lot of time, and aggravation.

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Lawrence,

Thank you for your feedback. Unfortunately having an administrative web page to remote sing off users could open a door to security breach in the licensing mechanism.

The good news is that the next version of Design Live (v13) will include a preference to automatically sign out upon application close. We feel this will greatly help with your situation.

Thank you,

Santiago

[Lawrence Walsh]

Automated Updates :

Can I suggest a way to turn off the prompts for 2020 Updates in the 12.5x version.
I heavily customize the 2020 preferences ( kit file location, tab .shf & .she files, tab names to name a few) and I know when I update 2020 versions those settings get overwritten, forcing me to manually configure them after an update, I have 40+ licenses in use and if I allowed the users to install , their configurations would be lost and I would not know about it until they complained (usually with a customer in front of them). For now I am telling them to click the wait 7 days button on the upgrade popup whenever it appears. I will have to spend a few nights after hours to install the update, and reconfigure.  If we could turn off upgrade suggestions for all but admins it would help.

A few versions ago I was able to export a registry file that had the preference settings and just un the .reg file to get the preferences back. Since Version 11 came out I have not been able to do that. It would be nice to have that back. Being a single person IT dept., it would make my job easier.

[Kristopher Papaleo]

Hi Lawrence,

If you have created your own schemes and wish that the other 40+ users have that scheme as well, you can give them your scheme.

Schemes live in > C:\ProgramData\2020\Design\12\Config

Simply copy the scheme into the same location on your colleagues computer.

Here are the steps for exporting the v12 registry files.

To export your reg, follow the below.

1. Make sure the program is closed.

2. Click on the windows button in the bottom left of your screen and search for Regedit.

3. Once in Regedit, you want to expand the folder for HKEY_CURRENT_USER and then expand the option for SOFTWARE. Here you will find a folder called ‘2020’. Right click on it and Export it to your desktop.

4. Close all expanded folders and then expand the folder called HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and then expand the folder called SOFTWARE. In this location, again you want to right click on the ‘2020’ folder and Export it to the desktop.

My suggestion would be to first put the schemes in their default location and then to run the reg files.

If you follow these steps then all should work properly!

Hope this helps you out a bit,

Kris

[Lawrence Walsh]

Here’s the problem with exporting the registry to import settings into another PC. It does not work , see attached imgae, my registry export side to side with 2020 Preferences for the tabs. The registry shows the default settings for imperial. My custom preferences are completelyt different. Where exactly does 2020 store the preference information. It sure is not in the registry.

Attachments:

1. 

   2020RegvsPreferences.png
   

[Lawrence Walsh]

Found the correct registry section, HKEY_USERS->Software->Current user instance ->Software->2020.

[Ariana Thompson]

This may seem small, but I would LOVE the ability to position the default pulls on cabinets on the TOP EDGE, BOTTOM EDGE, or SIDE EDGE to create the look of fingerpulls.

Fingerpulls are very popular here, and I end up either eliminating the pulls and drawing them on after, or creating DOZENS of thin, flat, shapes and floating them at every door and drawer!

Cheers! Ariana

[Willesa]

I believe you can change to tab pulls using the Amerock catalog.

 

 

Here is a link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fSa-4EU1uM

[Ariana Thompson]

Hi Willesa,

Not that I’ve been able to find. – And Amerock only works for one of the catalogues I use.

I basically use the default pulls 99.9% of the time.

But thanks Willesa!

[Willesa]

I’m not sure which catalog you’re using, but most of the cabinet catalogs I used allows me to change the size (width/height) and X Y positioning of the default pull. That feature isn’t available with all cabinet manufacturer catalogs though 🙁

[Ariana Thompson]

I can change the height and width, and for positioning all my cabinet company catalogues give me a dropdown with choices like Side/Top/Horiz, Side/Top/Vert, Centre/Top/Horiz, etc

Because all my cabinet companies are like that – I figured that was a 2020 thing.

 

[Willesa]

Nope, I think it’s per manufacturers, but I agree, it should be available as default to be able to move these, because in real life they can go wherever we choose. See my image, my main line allows repositioning anywhere on the door.

Attachments:

1. 

   Pull-Position.png
   

[Ariana Thompson]

Interesting!

BOTH my cabinet companies; one a national brand, and the other a smaller local maker, have an identical dropdown for pulls.  It must be an option offered to programmers from 2020 for them both to be identical.  Oh – and the option “Custom Place” does nothing. -sigh-

If 2020 is *offering* this generic dropdown as an option for catalogue makers – can Door Edge or Drawer Edge become one of the choices?  that would be great!

 

Attachments:

1. 

   cabPull.jpg
   

[Jacob Dacey]

Maybe this has been requested somewhere and there’s a reason it hasn’t been implemented (or maybe there’s an easy way to accomplish it that I just don’t know about?):

It would be super helpful (at least for the way my company uses 2020) if we could select individual catalogs to include when we run “quote reports.” 

The quote report is a very concise way to see every cabinet and part on a design, as well as showing pricing and cabinet modifications, so we typically use that report as part of our order form to cabinet manufacturers.  The biggest problem comes when we want to use two or more catalogs on a design (to include two different colors, for instance).  Our cabinet manufacturers want each catalog listed separately to avoid confusion, but that creates confusion on our end because we have to maintain multiple designs for one kitchen (For example: we need one design in catalog “A” for a blue painted island, another design in catalog “B” for a white painted perimeter, then a third design combining them both “for show” to the customer).  That’s just asking for mistakes, because it’s too easy to make a change on one design, but miss changing it on the other.

Similarly, it’s a hassle when we use certain catalogs to show something visually on a design that we don’t want priced.  We don’t sell appliances, for instance, but I often want to use the Sub-zero catalog to show my client the kitchen design with their actual selected appliance… I can add a 100% discount to the Sub-zero catalog so it doesn’t change my cost numbers, but it still shows on the quote report and clutters up what I want to send my cabinet manufacturer.

So we want to be able to have multiple catalogs on one design, but somehow print them out separately in the Quote Report. Two options might be:

• A check-the-box style choice in the “quote options” screen to select which catalogs you want included on the quote report you’re running; or
• A simple choice in the “quote options” screen to automatically list each catalog individually on its own quote report.

Thanks!

[Kristopher Papaleo]

Hi Jacob,

When creating a quote, it will automatically split up the multiple catalogs that you may use in a design.

For example, I’ve created a design using 3 catalogs.. SAMPLE_E, SAMPL_E2, and SAMPL_E3. I have also added an appliance unit from the subzero wolf catalog on the cloud to show how to not make the pricing appear in the quote.

I used sample_e for all of my base units along the wall, I used sampl_e2 for the wall units along the wall, and I used sampl_e3 for the island. Below I have attached a PDF of the quote to show how the report splits all catalogs into their own groups and how it provides pricing for every individual catalog. Not only that but it will also let you know the styles and finish per catalog.

In the report you will notice that you cannot see the pricing for the Appliance. I have attached an image to show you where in the Quote Options you can remove the pricing for them. I have also provided an image of what all 3 catalogs and the appliance look like in the rendering.

Regards,

Kris

Attachments:

1. 

   Removing-Price-From-Appliances.jpg
   

2. 

   3-Catalogs-with-Appliance.jpg
   

1. Seperated-Catalogs-In-Quote.pdf

[Jacob Dacey]

I know it separates the catalogs on the report, but it would be easier for us if we could only print one catalog at a time or print them on their own reports.  I have work-arounds, but I’d like the option to only print the report for your “SAMPL_E2_1” catalog, for example, and to print the other two later.

As to the sub-zero catalog or other no cost catalogs (like plumbing items) showing on the report, I cannot un-check everything you’ve taken off the report.  We need it to show no charge cabinets, accessories, and attachments.  Unfortunately, sometimes those categories pick up extra items and will display a toilet or a sub-zero/wolf appliance on the quote report.  Again, not a huge deal and there are work-arounds, but it would be easier for the way we use the report if we could select just the individual catalog/s we want to include on the report instead of printing everything and sorting it out later.

Thanks!

[Peggy McIsaac]

Hi,

I am using Design Live 12.5. I pulled a Sub Zero refrigerator from the cloud browser. When I opened the configurator to select a cabinet style door panel there are only 5 piece door styles in a handful of colors. The door styles have different names but they all look the same except the color. It would be wonderful the configurator could allow up to access the cabinet door styles and colors of whatever cabinet catalog we are using in the design. At the very least, more door styles (including slab) and access to the original 2020 attributes textures to select a custom texture would be better than what is offered currently.

 

Attachments:

1. 

   sub-zero-configurator.png
   

[Lin Hamilton]

I totally agree.  I hate wasting paper when printing a report.  Using a manufacturer catalog, I want to be able to print or export just the items on that catalog.

 

 

[Santiago Morales]

Hi!

I agree that printing only items from a single catalog would be helpful.  We will add it to the list of features for consideration.

Thank you,

Santiago

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Peggy,

Thank you for the feedback.  I will forward your request to the content team.

Thank you,

Santiago

[Kristopher Papaleo]

Hi Peggy,

The configurator was created to make sure that you follow the catalog guidelines made by that manufacturer. They will only provide options that they offer.

If you want to add custom textures to appliances, then you can download the file based catalogs from 2020spaces.com or 2020.net and that will allow you to make the changes from within the Attributes section.

Regards,

Kris

[Alex]

Feature request:

For the 2D shapes in the floor and elevation plan, it would be nice to be able to change the color of all the shapes belonging to a catalog instead of having to do it individually. For kitchens with two or three cabinet colors, it makes it easier for the installer if catalogs are color coded. Please see the attached image.

Thanks!

Attachments:

1. 

   Color-by-catalog-1.png
   

[Kristopher Papaleo]

Hi Alex,

I think this could definitely be useful for clients using multiple catalogs and will forward this to our Product Manager.

Regards,

Kris

[Lin Hamilton]

Color by catalog would also be very useful for floor plans.  Easier to keep track when designing.

[Ariana Thompson]

Yes! This!

I have to manually change the colour of each cabinet, filler and panel individually in both the All and the All-no dims tabs, and it’s such a time suck!  Being able to do this either in global Display Settings would be amazing.

[Mike Langensiepen]

Sorry Alex, Lin and Ariana but I have to disagree. I would much rather see 2020 introduce plan & elevation layers as per pretty much every CAD program I’ve come across. Layers would allow the above functionality but also a heck of a lot more (e.g. hide a layer etc).

Rather than them work on a half hearted solution, I’d prefer them to provide a much better system that allows so much more.

 

I’ve never understood why 2020 Designs did not have this as it is pretty universal to drawing program.

 

[Alex]

Hi Mike,

If layers would let me easily color by catalog and also do much more, than I’m all for layers.

If it means I have to wait several years though, then I would like a simple color by catalog option in the meantime.

Additionally, it would be nice to be able to select multiple cabinets at once and change the “Display Settings” colors. For whatever reason, you can only change the display color (outline, back, fill) of a single cabinet at a time right now.

 

[Kayla Herrick]

HOTFIX! ASAP! PLEASE! Could you PLEASE fix annotations as it relates to industry standards? Dashed lines are shown correctly within the design and print preview, but DO NOT PRINT! You have a design tab for NKBA as well as NKBA Planning Guideline flag. But we aren’t able to meet NKBA Graphic Standards. Our firm provides construction and mechanical plans to translate our rendered concepts so our contractors can CONSTRUCT what we designed. Not only do these plans aid our contractors in acquiring permits, it answers many jobsite questions allowing us to focus on designing a new project. Respectfully, I think we’ve seen enough program development on renderings. Would you please spend a little more time making 2020 correspond with NKBA Graphic Standards to take our amazing rendered concepts to project completion??? I understand that this improvement will take time, so a quick hotfix to the dashed lines in the meantime would be much appreciated. I am losing my mind merging dashed lines for every plan set. HOTFIX! PLEASE 😀

Attachments:

1. 

   Print-Preview.jpg
   

2. 

   As-Printed.jpg
   

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Kayla,

We will try to reproduce the printing issue. An agent might contact you if we need additional details.

Thank you,

Santiago

[Kayla Herrick]

Thank you so much!!!

[Erik Tornquist]

Hey folks! Been a while since being involved but getting back into it.
There’s been a couple issues I’ve found, not so much as ‘bugs’ but just nuances.
At the moment just want to highlight 2:

-Clicking a measurement is all well in good but to select a whole line of measurements is not possible. It would seem double clicking a measurement would highlight the whole line, allowing them to move closer/further from the measured items (walls, in this case).

-Placing a line -straight, circle, curved, etc…  Try clicking on any item that’s within 12″ of that line and it’s impossible. The ‘line(s)’ are always selected no matter what you click.  Same thing goes for items around measurements. If a measurement line is within 12″ of a item, that item can not be selected.

-Placement within a space issue. To give an example:  If there is a space between (2) cabinets of 12.5″ and you try to bring over a 12″cabinet into the space, you’ll see the ‘magnet’ icon show up and when attempting to drop the item into the space, even if there’s enough space for it, it won’t place there but place on the otherside of the kitchen layout. This happens often with even bigger spaces that gap >2″ of the item that’s being placed.

 

[Willesa]

Hi Eric, hopefully this helps.

When you place a line or a circle, etc. Instead of left clicking to select an item, right click over the item you need and select it that way.

You can move dimension lines that have more than 1 dimension, right click over one of the dimensions you wish to move and select the longest length, it will move all of the dimensions on that row together.

The only issue I’ve had with not being able to place a cabinet in a space where I show I have enough space is where there is another item interfering with the placement. You can avoid this by turning off collision (bottom right corner).

[Kayla Herrick]

Eric,

For dimensions, you can select each dimension using the ctrl key, then use the arrow key to move it in or out as needed. I changed my general preference setting in “Work Area – Item Move with Arrow Key” to a finer measurement than default (1″ with shift and 1/2″ with shift+ctrl).

You can turn off annotations in the display settings under “General- Plan Elements”  and make your design adjustments, then turn them back.

Your third issue, do you have “collision” turned off?

Kayla

[Erik Tornquist]

Thanks Willesa & Kayla, I had NOT turned collision off. Consider it absolutely done!

The other issues with the measurements still are an aggravation but whatayagonna do. Although I can’t believe that for ALL THIS TIME I didn’t even consider multi-selecting via ctrl key. Kinda feel like a dunce for not even thinking of it.

The pressing-the-right-mouse-button thing works sometimes but even still, my mind is still slightly boggled as to why it should be that way; especially when trying to select anything within a foot of a line or linear shape. The line may not even be touching an item i want to select and it’ll still select the line (or measurement, but mostly the line).

Love the support here.

[Ariana Thompson]

Yeah – the line/shape thing drives me MENTAL Erik!

I use lines and circles a lot – and I wish they had a smaller “area of affect”.

I’m surprised my Tab button even has any lettering left on it considering how many times I have to hit that thing!

Ariana

[Erik Tornquist]

More shelving options in Cloud

[Brandi Falkman]

The ability to click on a measurement and type in what you want it to be and it moves the object to that location

[Sandra Golds]

I would LOVE to see the ability to print all of my saved perspectives views all at one time. Once I go thru and make all the views I want if I could just hit the print button and send them all it would save time (esp. when working in color). I don’t even need the program to re-render them since I already know what they are when I saved them

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Sandra,

Thank you for your suggestion. Question, are you referring to printing all the “Named Views”. We kind of have this functionality through the Drawing Layout. Are you familiar with it?

Thank you,

Santiago

[Kristopher Papaleo]

To add the ability to set a shipping charge per cabinet.

[Sandra Golds]

Santiago –
I am familiar with the drawing layout but that would mean extra steps for me since I just print off the perspective itself. What I’m ultimately looking for would be a print all saved views option in the print range. I make a design and then save all of my views, but when the customer makes changes I don’t necessarily need to re-render the view before I print it off for the customer…

[Nicky Claridge]

Hi… there are a few functions and features that would really help speed things up for me and improve the quality of the designs (renders of) I create

1. WINDOWS! The generic windows in 2020 are such a pain to use and need an overhaul. The attributes are too rigid and of the things you can change, some of those doesn’t actually change the window at all (frame width & inset colour for example). The windows in the renders never look the way they should.
Addressing this has been on my wishlist for the last 10 yrs 2020!!

2. I use the Multi Dimension tool (brilliant addition!) for my final production plans but it would be great to be able to ‘delete all’ rather than having to delete each measurment

3. Fix the ‘disapperaring placement wheel’!! PLEASE!! Another bug that i’ve been complaining about for the last 10 years 🙁

4. Why does 2020 crash when changing the attributes of a ‘copied’ item? It doesnt happen all the time, but often enough for it to be a common complaint

[Erik Tornquist]

Woah, You hit the nail on the head!

-The window attributes problems as mentioned have been a pet peeve.

-You should be able to select all measurements by pressing “shift” or “CTRL” then delete them that way. I think you used to be able to move all selected measurements at one point too but that doesn’t seem to work anymore.

-Didn’t realize the disappearing placement wheel was something others found annoying; thought I was the only one. I’d also like to add, in Coordinates (Placement), adding height coordinates to be able to input how high an item is to be from the ceiling or floor

-Personally, the only time my  program crashes is when I copy/paste an item already taken from Cloud (crashes almost 100% of the time) or changing attributes from any Cloud item (happens occasionally).

 

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Nicky and Erik, thank you for your feedback.

We have added new windows in V13.3 with additional controls. Are you looking for additional attributes? If yes, which ones?

As for being able to remove multiple dimensions at once, I have added this request for future consideration.

We did address the disappearing placement wheel in one of our earliest version of V13. Is this still happening for you? If you have a sequence to reproduce it, please share it with us. That would help us greatly fix the issue.

Not sure why the system would crash when changing the attributes of copied items. If you manage to get consistent reproduction steps, don’t hesitate to share it. : )

Thank you,

Santiago

[Ariana Thompson]

Hi Gang!

Am I the only one that has this problem?  I have a devil of a time making my Notes on the Floorplan STAY in the Countertop and Architecture Tabs.

We have a “New Design” kit file that has a bunch of standard Notes on the floorplan already in the various tabs, as well as having a cube, a sphere, some cylinders, etc.  We keep it saved with “1” at the front of the filename so it stays at the top of the kit file list, then when we start a new design, we open it, rename it, and start to design.

Those tabs ALWAYS seem to have no notes, until I leave a new one, copy and paste it, then the old ones start popping into existence again.

My “Wish” would be for Notes that don’t disappear! LOL!  Now we ARE using  V12 – so maybe this is addressed in V13 already? Or we’re the only one with this issue?

Cheers,

Ariana

 

[Rick Cheski]

Would really like a feature to use the countertop wizard then drag the shapes onto a slab (where we input the slab size) for planning how many slabs we need for a quote…

[Erik Tornquist]

1. YES! Slab size calculating would be a big help.

2. Better Camera clipping in the render window. Object clipping is so much better, slider is easier but that camera clipping slider is a pain. Not only is the whole design clipped after moving the slider 1/4 of an inch, but the points of clipping jump way too much between each other.

[Sabrina Carrier]

HI,
I’m new to 2020, I’ve been using Cabinet Vision for years but I started with a new employer and this is the software they’re using. I’ve been exploring it for the last month and so far I’m not impress with it. The 3D are beautiful but that is it. Cabinet Vision is way more advance and friendly user.

Here are my suggestions to improve the software. It’s just little things to make it less time consuming.

1- Ability to calculate within the dimensions field for width, height and depth as well as the placement field.
2- Adjust the precision of the scale in the work area.
3- Cabinets adjust their size themselves when inserting between cabinets.
4- Nametags adjust themselves with the dimensions of the cabinets. We have to do it manually for every cabinet which could take a while when you have a big kitchen.
5- Do multiple rooms in within the same project. Ex: Kitchen, bathroom, etc.
6- Ability to turn on/off which wall appear on the floorplan and 3D views.
7- As another user said, the dimensions are quite messy and on top of each other which make it hard to read. This need to be simplify by choosing which dimension appear on the desire view.
8- I don’t know if this exist already but I haven’t found it yet… to be able to add, delete, modified in CAD on the plan and elevation view. I like to do my plans the architectural style with symbols, etc. Is there a way to do my own ”catalog” of symbols that I use often? and easily accessible.
9- In Cabinet Vision, when you start a project, you preselect the cabinets door style, materials and colors, etc. If there’s a way to do this in 2020 it ain’t obvious and also in Cabinet Vision, you can change those selections anytime and to every cabinet individually if you want. Very easy to use and easy to change as well. If that feature is not already available, I suggest to add it because it is very useful. All the textures and color of the materials are all integrated in the software.
10- When you want to edit the cabinet, another window open but you can really work within the cabinet itself. In Cabinet Vision, all the views including the 3D of the cabinet opens up and you can click directly on the panel, door, hinge or whatever feature you want to adjust and automatically the attributs of that particular piece show up on the left and you can adjust it right there and you see it in real time. Ex: I want to move the hinge of a door from 4” to 5”, I see it adjusting right away.
11-You can’t work in 3D, perspective are only for rendering. In Cabinet vision, you can, you see in color or partially transclucent or completely transclucent for the whole room or just a cabinet in particular. This make it very easy to adjust pieces in a cabinet.
12- In Cabinet Vision, cabinets have their own intelligence and attributs that you can add or delete, I haven’t seen any type of customable attributs in 2020 unless it is to change the dimensions of the cabinet.
12- I change my background color to black, because I love to work on a darker background like AutoCAD but when I draw a wall, my cursor is also black so I can’t see it anymore and I haven’t found a way to change it’s color, if that can be change, if not then what’s the point of allowing to change the bakground color. Working on a lighter background hurts my eyes.

I feel like 2020 is more a client presentation software than a cabinetery software. I haven’t explore the whole thing yet but this is what I got so far.

Also in Cabinet vision, you don’t need any other software, you can have the price and a report with all the cabinets and pieces in the room with specific attributs to them.
You can add notes to a specific cabinet as well. Ex: Upper cabinets with finish bottom, hinge at 4”, etc.

Hopefully, the software will improve.

[Erik Tornquist]

Sabrina, I can certain agree with you with most of what you said but explain what you mean by you can’t work in 3D?
You are able to adjust positions, attributes, etc… Can you just clarify that alittle more aside from what you had described?

 

I also so strongly wish we would be able to move dimension numbers. Possibly by right clicking and having an option show to adjust the number’s position or something. Maybe double click on the number and drag it? Yes, it is annoying to have those numbers pile on each other occasionally.

 

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Sabrina,

Thank you do much for the detailed feedback!

I think a lot of the suggestions make sense and we will certainly look into them. I would have some questions for you and would appreciate if we could have a session together to go over them.

Would you be available this week?

Thank you,

Santiago
2020 Design Live Product Manager.

[Sabrina Carrier]

Hi Erik,
What I mean is if I need to adjust certain pieces in a cabinet, ex: the height of a hinge, I can see the cabinet in all it’s view including 3D. I can work on multiple views at the same time. I can choose the type of view I want: cabinet in full color and textures, semi translucent or completely transparent, I can move the 3D in all direction just by click/hold on the cabinet and move around. As soon as I adjust a piece, panel or even the door, I see the adjustment in real time in all it’s views.

[Erik Tornquist]

Oh I get what you mean now.  the ad

 

[Sabrina Carrier]

Hello Santiago,
I’ve replied to you via my email but I’m not sure if the message went thru.
It would be my pleasure to answer your questions. I’m available only Wednesday and Thursday evening this week.

Let me know if that works for you.

Sabrina.

[Sabrina Carrier]

Hello Santiago,
I’ve replied to you via my email but I’m not sure if the message went thru.
It would be my pleasure to answer your questions. I’m available only Wednesday and Thursday evening this week.

Let me know if that works for you.

Sabrina.

[Chris Setlock]

Something that would be a great time saver for baths especially:  a CSS system for surface textures.

Imagine that when you place a surface texture (or any item with an editable texture) you assign a variable for the texture.  For instance, all the wall field tile is X, the bullnose is Y, the deco band is Z, the room floor is A, the shower floor is B, etc.

Then, you assign a texture to each variable, in a cascading style sheet.

Later, when the client says “what would it look like if we used black for the trim, instead of grey?”, you can change _all_ the trim at once, instead of changing each piece individually.

I thought of this after waiting 10 minutes for a rendering to complete, only to notice that I’d forgotten to change the texture on one area, so I had to go back, and do it all over again.

[Chris Setlock]

Second Idea today:  Allow trim to conform to vertical “running line” in an elevation.

If you cant guess, I’m working on some baths this week.  Victorian style baths, so there is field tile, bull nose, mini-pencil, etc.

I’ve found that placing a generic chair-rail from the underground catalog, is an easy way to make a quick deco band or trim out a tile field, but since it cant run vertically, it’s of limited usefulness.  My current work around is to use this method to place the horizontals, then fit in verticals using 3d shape.  It’s time consuming, and imperfect.  3d running line could greatly simplify this.

[Chris Setlock]

I’m on a roll today!

Add “send to back” as an option when right clicking a surface.  Sometimes surfaces insist on being in the front layer of an elevation or floorplan.  Sometimes, re-placing the eclipsed items will correct this, but not always.

[Drew Irving]

I’ve been BEGGING 2020 to implement better vertical trim options since version 8 when I first started using it. It would make so many things so much better and easier.

On a similar vein, I’d love the option to “Invert” all trim as a built-in option. So often when I’m using a baseboard trim as crown molding or something similar, the software will only display it oriented in one direction, so I can’t get it to look right in my renderings, it’s so frustrating.

[Ariana Thompson]

Hi Chris,

With Surfaces in elevations, I just right click and choose Display Settings. Under ITEM, UNcheck “Display”.  Or you can change the fill colour to Transparent.  Either solution can work.

Cheers,

Ariana

[Chris Setlock]

Hi Ariana,

Sure!  That works.  I also have a custom display setting that doesn’t show deco items, surfaces, etc.  Still, there are times when I _want_ the surface field to show, just in it’s proper plane.  “Send to back” is a pretty common right-click option that would work here.

-Chris

[Erik Tornquist]

Re the Information window, I’d love to see the Catalog of the item I click on or hover over.

Attachments:

1. 

   Capture2-1.jpg
   

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Chris,

The send to back functionality is a great suggestion. We will add it for consideration. Alternatively, you can “lock” it. Once locked, it wont be easily selected.

Hope this helps.

Thank you,

Santiago

[Erik Tornquist]

Another Wish: To change default font settings (style, color, size, etc…)

Also, trying to copy and paste a note in the elevation, requires you to move it around on the floor plan, which doesn’t show up anywhere in the elevation. Heck, doesn’t even seem to show up on the floor plan; not that i can see at least.  I understand that it’s coded in a way that whatever is copied in an elevation has to be pasted in the floor plan but if there was any way that copy/pasting Annotations in an elevation, stays in the elevation… that would be so helpful.

So when I want to write notes with a similar font setting, I have to go into each note and adjust it manually. That clearly takes a bit  of time when having a lot of notations.

Just a thought.

[Kristopher Papaleo]

Hi Erik,

There is a way to change the font size and color for annotations.

To change the default font and color for your notes, go to Display Settings by right clicking the floor plan (or elevation). Then from the Items tab, expand ‘General’, expand ‘Plan Elements’ and select ‘Notes’. Once you select notes, click on Font on the right side of the window and that will open a smaller window which will allow you to change the font, font style, size, and color.

Once you’ve made your changes, click on ‘Save As’ to give your scheme a name. Once you’ve named the new scheme, you can set it as your default so that every new drawing you make will have the new font colour. Once saved, click on File > Preferences > Display Tab Schemes… then change the elevation scheme to the one you’ve named.

Hope this helps!

Kris

Attachments:

1. 

   Font.jpg
   

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Erik,

Copy/Paste in Elevation. This is actually very interesting as we are currently working in this area. Copy/Pasting notes has its challenges in 2020 Design Live. Question: when you copy a note from an elevation, is it to paste it in the same elevation or rather in a different elevation?
Thanks

[Erik Tornquist]

Hey, Santiago!

Yes, it’s to paste in the same elevation usually. But because I can’t change the default font style, I’ve wanted to paste in other elevations as well but, yeah, that’s not really possible either.

[Dan Greve]

Copy / Paste from layout to elevation(s) would be very helpful, as well as elevation to different elevations.

Center Justification in the notes as well. I think it only has left / right.

[Kayla Herrick]

Hi Erik,

Are you using the note tab in attributes? This would be helpful when placing “note on exit” if the saved scheme settings applied to this tab, as well as shows up on the elevation.

I do have a work around though. If using the annotation note button, you can copy the note into the floor plan and drag and drop it up into elevation when the screens are split. You can also drag and drop other annotations like merged shapes/splines/ circle/ellipse. (It’s much easier to draw to scale in floor plan than in elevation.)

If you have your display schemes saved and applied to the tabs as default in preferences, you shouldn’t have to change the note each time.

Santiago! There are “Note Font Settings”, but I can’t for the life of me figure out where this feature applies- neither in design or layout tabs… So it’s somewhere, it just needs a little love 🙂

Kayla

Attachments:

1. 

   Font-Settings.jpg
   

[Michele Landon]

Simple request – in the Window Wizard add the color black. Many, many new homes I’m drawing are doing the black window frames. It would help to get with the trends. Thanks!

[Santiago Morales]

Hello Michelle,

Thank you for your request. We have forwarded it to the content team.

Santiago

[Ariana Thompson]

Morning All!

Thanks to help from this wonderful forum, I know I can turn off the “bright fog” in windows off by dialing the Natural(Realistic) light in Renders down to zero – but the downside of that is you cannot have visible Sun.  I love visible Sun for really giving a room life!

There is also, for some reason, the same “bright fog” in open interior doorways and wall pass thru’s.  Now, I LIKE the bright foggy look in windows, as that’s more realistic to what photos of kitchens look like in magazines; the view out the window is always whited-out/overexposed.  But my wish would be 1) to be able to toggle it on and off, because it’s not everyone’s thing, and 2) not having it in interior doors/open doorways/wall pass thru’s.

The annoying thing too is the beams of sunlight coming through the room when the sun is
“on” HIT that “bright fog” in the doorway – so my open doorway to the living room looks like it has sandblasted glass.  The beams of light hit the opening like it was a surface (see attached image)

Cheers!

Ariana

[Ariana Thompson]

Oops! File was too big!  Here it is:

Ariana

[Ariana Thompson]

OpenDoorway looks like it has glass:

Attachments:

1. 

   OpenDoorway-scaled.jpg
   

[Kristopher Papaleo]

Hi Ariana,

Regarding the lighting emitting from the doorways, this was an issue in the version 12. I have tested the doors in both of the latest versions of 12 and 13 and it seems to have been corrected in version 13.4

Below I have attached renderings taken in version 12 and 13 to show you the difference in lighting.

Regards,

Attachments:

1. 

   v12-doorways.jpg
   

2. 

   v13-doorways.jpg
   

[Ariana Thompson]

Many thanks for the head’s up Kristopher~

Looks like we need to upgrade to V13!  Although reloading all those catalogues makes me cringe! LOL.

Cheers, A

[Kristopher Papaleo]

Hey Ariana,

Don’t even worry about that, we have you covered. With the help of our Data Migrator tool, you’ll be able to migrate all your catalogs from version 12 to version 13!

Click HERE to check out our article 🙂

Regards,

Kris

[Erik Tornquist]

Well I’ll be a son-of-a-gun!

[Ariana Thompson]

BURN THE WITCH!!!

😉

[Orinthia Ness]

Excelent service, everything suits. On 11th version , there were bugs when designing the house, but everything passed. Now day is all ok, see my project here

[Chris Setlock]

How about an option to generate all “named views”, _sequentially_?

I use a pretty powerful gaming laptop, but even so, generating good renderings bogs down my CPU.  I typically have four or five named views of any project, and it takes about an  hour to generate them all.  If I try to do more than one at a time, my machine locks up, or 2020 crashes.  It would be great if I could run a script that would generate them one at a time, without my having to sit there and babysit.

[Chris Setlock]

How about some new functionality for the room_tile item.

1) allow us to alter the offset, making “running bond”, “1/4 bond” etc.

2) allow adding points so the tile field isn’t limited to rectangles only.

3) allow altering thickness

[Ariana Thompson]

I really need to start using this room_tile everyone mentions.  I only ever use SURFACE, and I seem to be the minority!

[Alexa Dawson]

It would be very helpful to be able to add folders to the User Texture Library. I have hundreds of textures that I use and it’s time consuming to scroll through them to find the texture I’m looking for. If there were folders I could click through to things like “paint colors”, “glass tile”, “wood flooring”, etc.

[Kristopher Papaleo]

Hi Alexa,

This is a great idea and we are testing it out on our end to see if there are any issues with it. If all goes well, we will release an article explaining how this can be done!

Thank you for the great suggestion 🙂

Regards,

Kris

[Jonathan Smallwood]

When printing reports in 20/20 I always first save as an .rtf then condense the report (normally 50% smaller in length) then print from there.  There is so much ‘wasted’ space rather unnecessary space used in the report (actually this has been the case for several years.)  There should be a “condense” function to allow folks to skip this step altogether and also reduce paper usage.

[Doug Anderson]

It would be really helpful if at login, instead of defaulting to creating a new design, if a dialog box popped up asking if you want to create a new design or open a recent file.

[Erik Tornquist]

Square footage in “Attributes” for the likes of the Surface tool.

[Keon Campbell]

Having a search option within add-ons would be a very useful feature.

[Anne Muenkel]

Would love the ability to download a 2020 software onto my iPad so I can take it with me and design with the apple pencil. Even if it’s not a full capacity software, but can still draw walls, place cabinets and show 3d renderings to customers. That would be great.

[Penny Craig]

This may have already been addressed, but a way to get rid of hot spots from lighting.  No matter what I do, I always seem to get hot spots.  I have tried turning ambient lighting all the way off & adding accent lighting, and/or recessed lighting.  The hot spots didn’t seem so bad before EZRender.  I have attached a JPEG of an image I did and you can see the hot spot on the tall utility cabinet on the left.

Attachments:

1. 

   1-RJ-Amann-Gelderman-Top-View.jpg
   

[Sandra Golds]

The ability to add / import a picture (.jpeg etc) into a 2020 design

[Kristopher Papaleo]

Hi Sandra,

The program currently offers the ability to import images. You can import .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .bmp, .tif, and .tiff file types. Please use THIS article to see how you can do this.

Regards,

Kris

 

[Sandra Golds]

I’m sorry, Kris I should have been more clear. What I meant was importing one of these file types into the layout / floor plan. This would give me the ability to print off a layout for a contractor with say also a picture of a crown molding detail…

 

[Kristopher Papaleo]

Hi Sandra,

While you cannot import an image directly to the floor plan, you can import an image to the Drawing Layout which you can then print off.

Here are some articles that can help you use the drawing layout and help you import images.

How to use the Drawing Layout in 2020 Design

How to edit image frames in Drawing Layout in 2020 Design

How to insert an image in Drawing Layout in 2020 Design

Hope this helps!

Kris

[Mike Langensiepen]

Hi Sandra, we do this a lot and the easy solution is to print the plan/elevation to pdf and then annotate the pdf with any images and text you want. We used PDF-Xchange Pro which is superb but there are many pdf editors out there which will do this and some of them are free. You can also include clickable hyperlinks in the pdf such as the panoramic link, appliance info, your email address and website etc.

[Ariana Thompson]

I would love these knob/pull positions to be added to the Attributes on cabinets :

“Top EDGE- Centre”, “Top EDGE- Side”,

“Side EDGE-Top”, “Side EDGE-Centre”, “Side EDGE-Bottom”,

“Bottom EDGE-Centre”, and “Bottom EDGE-Side”

I am always so frustrated that I can’t put edgepulls/fingerpulls on the actual edge of the cabinet doors or drawers.  I realize that each Cabinet supplier fine tunes the Attributes for their own cabinets, but as I have NEVER seen these options on the Attributes of any cabinet from any of the manufacturers I’ve dealt with – I assume it simply isn’t an option that’s offered for them from the 2020 software itself.

If anyone has a hack other than a very, very thin CUBE floating on EACH DOOR/DRAWER, I’d love to hear it!

Cheers,

Ariana

[Kevin Roberts – CatalogPros.com]

Hi Ariana,

There is a variable called Pull Location X (PullLocX) and Pull Location Y (PullLocY) that will allow you to shift the pull closer to the edges.  If your manufacturers don’t have this turned on, please contact your rep and ask them to make it available for you.

Kevin

[Ariana Thompson]

Hi Kevin,

Thanks so much!  Is this in V12?

Ariana

[Kristopher Papaleo]

Hi Ariana,

I’ve only every seen the Pull Location X and Pull Location Y variables on customizable cabinet lines. For instance, these are not variables found in the Sample E or F catalogs (generic catalog) but they are available in the Designer E and F catalogs (customizable generic catalog). I do believe this would be a variable added to the catalog by the manufacturer.

Regards,

Kris

Attachments:

1. 

   Pull-Location.png
   

[Willesa]

I think it’s great we have wall niches now for the showers… however, there’s an issue where the niche shows through the back side of the wall. In my design the back side of my shower wall is the tub wall, so it looks like I have a weird box on the wall on the tub side. Is there any way to make it so the box only shows up on one side and not both? Changing the depth does not seem to help… for example, my wall is 4.5″ thick…. By default, the niche is the wall depth. If I drop the niche on the wall and change the depth from 4-1/2″ to 4″ on the back side of the wall there is a 1/2″ indentation on the back side of the wall.

 

I know I can create use the rectangle tool/create a shape and make it the size of my wall to cover the box shape, but that’s what I had to do before when we were just using pass-through wall cutouts. It’s not really saving any time if I have to do the same steps no matter what.

[Lawrence Walsh]

We like the Design Live Share feature in 13, but the link shows the perspective with the 2020 Logo.
We’d like to send our brand logo along with the perspective to the live share link in 13 to replace the 2020 Logo. This would be great for branding .

[Chris Setlock]

I’d love to see cascading style sheets for textures, especially the surface tool and the editable tiles.

Instead of selecting a specific texture for a surface, I could designate it using a variable.  Then, I can define the variable in a css file.  That way, I can make universal changes to a tile field with far fewer steps.

 

[Chris Setlock]

“Render all named views” button
I’d love to have a button that generates renders for all named views.  It would lock up my machine for half an hour or so, but I could press the button then go get lunch, or take a walk, or whatever.  Generating them individually obligates me to sit at the desk and start the next one every three to five minutes.

 

[Doug Anderson]

I wish when we logged in we would be prompted to open a recent file or create a new file.

[Kimberly Mattar]

I would like the ability to remove pricing for lighting & generic items. When I print pricing it is then sent to the salesperson to figure cabinetry only. So, it is wasteful and confusing when the print outs contain an extra 5 pages of lighting, soffits, and other generic items (sample F catalog for example). Therefore, I have to go back and delete lighting and remove pricing from each individual item before pricing. When I show soffits, it is most likely to show existing soffits, and I certainly would not rely on a generic price (even if I was adding them).

[Kimberly Mattar]

I wish there were fewer Cloud Items and instead have the ability to edit sizes and colors. An example would be a kitchen sink. When placing a sink, it usually requires manipulation to get it to the right height. Therefore, when making a color change, it would be easier to just edit in attributes. Because the same sink model is often not available in the Cloud in the desired color. Which means I have to search for a new sink, and then place and adjust all over again.

[Ariana Thompson]

I wish we could rearrange the order of items in the Idea Centre. Right now they just appear in the order they’re added, with the newest at the bottom.  I’d like to group all my favourite faucets together, my favourite chopping boards, etc.

If there’s a trick to doing this, I’d love to hear it!

Ariana

[Morgan Eberhardy]

I wish we could create folders in our user texture library for different materials so it’s easier to find the textures we have uploaded.

[Ariana Thompson]

I would love to be able to use images with transparent backgrounds.

It would be much easier on processing time to grab an image of a tree with a transparent background and put that on a scenery panel, than pulling a plant from the Cloud.  Being able to grab text with a transparent background and put it in a render…

Possible?

[Rick Cheski]

I would love the ability to cast to a Chromecast directly from the program. I could be at my desk with multiple monitors, some have info my clients don’t need to see… and cast the floorplan, rendering, whatever to a large tv for my clients to view. I could then rotate the rendering, make changes, etc and clients could view on a 60 inch screen… Yes, I can go into settings in Chrome and cast my working screen, but as I said, some things they don’t need to see – like pricing…

[Ariana Thompson]

Standard ROOM-APP appliances…  why can’t I use ALL the Paint Textures for all the parts? I have clients reusing old appliances that sometimes are colours.

I get the brand name appliances restricting us to THEIR actual colours – but an old IQ6 dishwasher should be flexible enough that I can colour ALL the parts of it eggshell-Avocado if I need to, but I’m being restricted to only the glossy coloured Steel textures. Why??

What’s the point of generic appliances if I can’t recolour them? And this is ROOM-APP, not Cloud!

I’ve brought this up in the past, but it’s really frustrating.

Ariana

[Willesa]

Ariana, one work around would be to download a sketchup range and change the color that way!

[Erik Tornquist]

Any plans for easy Sqft calculations? Either by clicking on a work area or having an icon you click, giving you the ability to outline an area that will automatically calculate square footage

[Willesa]

Erik, unfortunately, the surface tool is the only way to calculate SF in 2020 (not ideal, but at least it works)

[David Ghizzoni]

Couple of things I would love to see.

A render mode devoid of the shadowing/ light casting/ etc. Just a plain Jane true color image with the option to “turn on” realistic lighting. I feel like this would solve a great deal of the lighting issues many users have articulated.

Short of this it seem to me from some experimentation that user lighting does not function in texture based elevations, making it impossible to get a true color image without shadows to provide to builders and marketers that request them. I have a builder who can’t understand why my drawing can’t just show the white cabinets to be white and not have them look grey or have shadow lines from the pulls, knobs, counter overhangs, etc.

 

 

Ability to modify variables in catalogs other than the generic one. If my design calls for a 26″ deep Fridge end panel, and the company has 24 and 30″ deep options, I need to be able to place a 30″ deep panel and size it down to 26″ to generate accurate order lists and pricing. Depths and heights of panels should be modifiable.

 

Appliance issues. The Bosch and Thermador Cloud catalogs have the heights of dishwashers set at like 35″ for some awful reason. If you set it down to 34.5″ to allow a countertop to clear over it, the countertop wizard has a brain fart and doesn’t correctly give placement to appliance edges and finished edges.  The spec on the unit is 33 7/8″ tall so I have no idea why its what it is in the catalog. It should be adjustable.

[Erik Tornquist]

Please please PLEASE show sqft in the attributes of a surface such as countertop and when clicking on a wall, especially a countertop.

[Jennifer Jacob]

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE…. correct the dimension issues and create a “Base” line that has all tall cabinets, doors, and base cabinets show up on it (ANYTHING within 36″ off the floor should be on that line)….  Aa “WALL” line that has all tall cabinets, doors, windows, and wall cabinets show up on it (ANYTHING that is above 36″ on that line)…. An Appliance Centers Line, Wall Space line with windows and doors only, and total Wall line……………………. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE

Like the Attached.

Attachments:

1. Dimension-Option-Suggestion.pdf

[Joel Dallin]

does anyone have the list of 20/20 default knobs and pulls by number. It used to come in the paper user manual (havent seen that in a decade i know)

[Drew Irving]

Just a note on version 14: I wish we could re-color the icons in the tool bars. The version 14 icons are REALLY hard to see and differentiate from each other, as they’re all very thin line-art and all very similar to each other. I get aiming for a unified ‘look’, but the icons still need to be different enough that you can tell them apart, and solid color and/or line color would be a really useful way to do that.

[John Orihuela]

It would be great if there were a way to change the appearance of the program back to a “classic” look.  As with the post above from Drew Irving, the new icons are not easy on the eyes, especially for an old designer like myself.  Bold Icons or classic icons.

Thank you

[Dan Collins]

There are several things that would be really great to have.

1. Ability to design multiple rooms in 1 file. I was using software 20 years ago that had tabs at the bottom where you could add a new room and switch between rooms. This was far superior to drawing everything is one big open space like you have to do in 2020. It helps tremendously with renderings, too.

2. That same software I was using 20 years ago had better lighting and rendering capabilities. I think it’s time for 2020 to catch up.

3. When I want to change the appearance of hardware in a drawing, I have to go to global attributes and change the style by randomly selection a number. There is no reference to what the style actually is. So if the manufacturer’s catalog doesn’t have a selection option, I’m stuck wasting time trying to find something that looks right.

4. Custom colors. I do a lot of custom colors for my customers and there is no way to change the color of the cabinets without going through global attributes and changing it for 50 different parts. It’s basically impossible because of the amount of time it would take.

5. There is no way to change the default countertop thickness in preferences. It’s always 1 1/2″ and unfortunately most people are using 3cm stone or quartz around here. So my only option is to draw the tops, then manually go through and change each one to 1 3/16″. This small dimension can affect my drawing in a major way when I’m trying to line up to tall cabinets and I have uppers sitting on a countertop. Please add a way to change the default.

6. Ceiling heights are horrible if you’re working with 2 different heights. The software I had 20 years ago had a way to edit ceilings.

7. Window options are horrible. It would be nice to be able to change the casing with on cased windows.

8. I haven’t installed the latest update of 2020 because it seems so pointless. There are soooo many things to actually improve and that last update does nothing.

There are a million other things I could add. These are just the first to come to mind.

In all honesty, if it weren’t for manufacturer catalogs, 2020 wouldn’t even be an option. I’m almost to the point of designing in CAD and pricing manually. I think it would be more efficient. My license is up in December. I might just let it expire.

Please get it together.

[Kyr Leontovich]

I agree. Newer and newer versions, with no fixes. Ceiling height renderings are horrible still. How about slanted walls, too? Design 14’s new look is terrible, it’s a far step back, and they removed the option of dark (grey) mode. It’s blinding. The icons are now all the same color and just outlines. For a popular design program, they don’t seem to have software designers that know how to design.

[Lawrence Walsh]

Our Company does not apply discounts or modify charges using the Design Charges tab  in Styles and Pricing, we use a separate system for that. When a new hire comes with 2020Design Experience they unconsciously use the  Design Charges charges tab to apply our discount off of list. We would like to suppress entry on those fields to avoid confusion.
I currently see no way of doing that.

Attachments:

1. 

   2024-08-09_10-33-06.png
   

[Nick Williams]

When will there be an interactive version for the VR where you can actually walk thru your space? I was able to before in Pro Kitchen but 2020 is a superior product thus far?

[Matthew McGregor]

A Mac version of the software for us creatives!

[Whitney Boyachek]

Bring back catalogs that can be hard installed into the local browser instead of relying on Cloud for everything.  Especially the decorative items and appliances.  The fact that you’ve changed pieces to have actual minimums and maximums, and removed the ability to change textures makes it so much harder for us to design.  If we could on-board the catalogs like before, it gives us a bit more freedom, and actually makes it work quicker.  There are countless times (right now as I write this included) where I can’t even load a design properly because I have used a couple of cloud-based items to enhance my design, but the program isn’t giving me access to the Cloud and it’s broken.  So now my design cannot load, or takes 20 minutes to load broken/empty blocks.

You’ve also made the cloud SO MUCH WORSE TO SEARCH.  It is ridiculous.

I agree with the sentiment that if it weren’t for the ability to hard-download/install some of our fabricator catalogs, 2020 wouldn’t be useful tool for anything.

[Dan Collins]

Are we ever going to be able to draw with multiple styles and colors without having to install 20 versions of the same catalog? I used software back in 1998 that had this figured out, but 2020 can’t seem to get it done. An no, cloud catalogs are not the answer because none of the manufacturers are doing it.

Also, there are tabbed views at the bottom of the design window for “All” “All no dims” “Countertops” “Architecture” etc. Could you do tabbed views for different rooms? Then I could have a tab for the kitchen, a different tab for the bathrooms, etc. This would make renderings significantly easier and cleaner for presentation.

I’m so close to deleting 2020 Design. It’s literally the worst piece of software ever. If it weren’t for the manufacture catalogs, nobody would use this program. It’s not enough to keep me here anymore. I’ve been using 2020 for about 15 years. I think I’m done.