Marketing Floor plans

[billemery]

Wendy,
Thanks for that information, I never thought about fills for the rooms. For marketing plans i think using a 12" cross hatch could be useful for clients to estimate size.

Speaking of fill colors; some of Chief's competitors use gradient fills very effectively. Can we do this in Chief?

[WendyWelton]

I do think some sexier fill options would be great - either gradient or even textures. If we could put a wood texture fill in the floor plan....

I put a video link in Scott's video thread, not realizing I was in the wrong thread. Here it is here also - http://www.screencast.com/t/pssSF0QHTSh7

[RyanJN]

Experience tells me people are not buying a colorful floor plan. It is the content or design they are buying. Maybe try and focus on other parts of your game, that will put you back over the top of your competition.

[sutcac]

Although this has been an interesting topic, I was kind of thinking the same thing. Can't see how this one thing could make or break someone's design business, or be the one thing that would send me to another software.

[WendyWelton]

Experience tells me people are not buying a colorful floor plan. It is the content or design they are buying. Maybe try and focus on other parts of your game, that will put you back over the top of your competition.

I am not using colored floor plans routinely, as I also find it's not worth the extra time and doesn't make a difference in my sales.

However, for those providing service to builders or real estates who do want them, it's hard to argue with them providing their clients with what they request. Some home owners also have an easier time understanding the scale of rooms from a colored plan, or particularly a shadowed plan. I probably would be doing them routinely if there was no added time overhead. So, I would definitely support Chief spending some time providing "live" color rendered floor plans.

[Grantbd]

Experience tells me people are not buying a colorful floor plan. It is the content or design they are buying. Maybe try and focus on other parts of your game, that will put you back over the top of your competition.

Ryan, In NZ and particularlay Australia, this type of illustration is fundamental to a group housing companies marketing strategy.

[Chiefer]

Ryan, In NZ and particularlay Australia, this type of illustration is fundamental to a group housing companies marketing strategy.

True. We at www.cadexpress.biz got a lot of those from NZ and Australia. We have done 200++ 2d colored floor plans from one client alone.

[Esmalls]

I am not using colored floor plans routinely, as I also find it's not worth the extra time and doesn't make a difference in my sales.

However, for those providing service to builders or real estates who do want them, it's hard to argue with them providing their clients with what they request. Some home owners also have an easier time understanding the scale of rooms from a colored plan, or particularly a shadowed plan. I probably would be doing them routinely if there was no added time overhead. So, I would definitely support Chief spending some time providing "live" color rendered floor plans.

Wendy, you hit the nail right on the head.
I deal w/ builders who offer many different floor plans to their customers. These clients may very well be shopping other builders, and if ones marketing stands out from the others, it could translate into more sales, which in turn translates into more business for me.

The response to this thread has truly been amazing, and I am grateful for the input from everyone.
At this point, Wendy seems to have "Won the prize" w/ her method for overlaying various plans on the layout page. Great approach, and I believe it may have solved my issue.
Thanks again.
Eric

[steph_en]

Alex, can you advise with a little more detail?.. I'm not quite understanding the commands and or sequence of commands by which you created that plan, including its labeling and door openings & swings shown. Plan looks great btw.

Wendy, thank you... for the layout ideas.

[WendyWelton]

Steph

From looking at it I'd say he's putting a fill in each room with both a background color and a pattern. And he's using his lineweights. That would indeed be a 100% live colored floor plan, and it does indeed look very nice.

[alexsl]

Alex, can you advise with a little more detail?.. I'm not quite understanding the commands and or sequence of commands by which you created that plan, including its labeling and door openings & swings shown. Plan looks great btw.

Wendy, thank you... for the layout ideas.

Steph,

Wendy is spot on with her video and the method is very well shown there.

The only thing in principal I did differently is that I turned off the wall display for the image sent to layout. The extra (optional) customization of the room labels was done by creating the new ANNO/LAYER set with the new Room Label Text Style assigned to the Room Label layer.

WendyWelton

Steph

From looking at it I'd say he's putting a fill in each room with both a background color and a pattern. And he's using his lineweights. That would indeed be a 100% live colored floor plan, and it does indeed look very nice.

Wendy,

Thank you so much for your kind comment.