News

After months of Beta testing, the new version of Floorplanner is finally here! In the past months we have done a lot of listening, designing, tweaking, discussing, testing and coding to make it happen. Now that it is finally live, we'd like to introduce you to the new version of Floorplanner and cover some of the common questions.

What's new?

The most visible changes are of course the new interface and the improved 3D. But we have also made some big changes to the PRO and Business subscriptions, added a new Enterprise version (for retailers) made lots of 2D improvements, completely rewritten the backend for better worldwide speed and reliability, integrated a translation system that can be maintained by local users, moved to the "cloud" for storage and content distribution, improved and extended our API's, built a better integration of Flash and HTML content and done many more things. Some of you followed the progress through Twitter or our Tech-blog

Interface

The look and feel of the site and interface was due to a serious make-over. Richard and Rob redesigned most pages and combined with Tummie's" illustrations gave the site a fresh new look. Usability has been improved on various fronts. For instance, logged in users can now access their plans on the dashboard page by clicking on the preview. The sidebar in your work-area can now be minimized for maximum working space.

Enhanced 3D

The 3D view is now available for all users of Floorplanner including the Free accounts and has been significantly improved. You can now see 3D objects and we have also added shadows! The general speed and quality of the 3D is much better (especially for bigger plans) as Tim has completely rewritten the existing Floorplanner 3D engine. This development went hand-in-hand with his work in the Papervision3D Open Source initiative. Gido, Nico and Raj have been working on getting 2D and 3D objects for homes, offices and gardens in Floorplanner and more are added every week.

2D improvements

Creating and editing in 2D is very much the same as the old version. The construction toolbar still has a minimal number of buttons and the way rooms are drawn and objects are placed will instantly be familiar for existing Floorplanner users. However,if you look carefully you will find a lot of enhancements that have been made by Gert-Jan, Rinde and Nico. Among these are free-form surface drawing, mirror designs, grouping and locking of elements, full undo/redo, interface improvements, right-click and shortcuts, enhanced printing and image export and many other "little" improvements based on your feedback and the constant flow of amazing floor plans you have been creating with Floorplanner.

Backend /scalability

The HTML part of Floorplanner has completely been rewritten by Jaap and Willem (our Ruby on Rails wizards) which was no small task. The content is now distributed and stored in the cloud using Amazon Webservices like S3 and StormCloud. This resulted in significant speed improvements (especially in Asia and South America where lots of you live) and better scalability and reliability. The development of the site has led to various Open Source contributions that can be found on Github and/or through our tech-blog.

Subscriptions

With the rebuilding of the back-end, many improvements have been made to make both the personal as the professional accounts. Free users now also have 3D capabilities and PLUS users have more plans and better sharing and co-editing options. For PRO and Business accounts it's now much easier to create nice looking custom templates. You can also completely brand the admin environment of Floorplanner to match your own company style. Changes in the pricing structure now makes it more attractive to publish interactive plans and archive non-published plans for reference or future use. Also searching and managing large volumes of plans is now faster.

Localization

Making Floorplanner available in more languages/localizations has got a big boost by the translation engine that has been built into the new system by Jaap. This allows users to contribute to the translation of Floorplanner in various languages. At this moment 8 languages are already available while users are working on 10 more languages as we speak.

How do I get this new version?

The new version is now available for all Floorplanner users. When you log in to your account you will be asked to migrate your account to the new version. If you have existing plans your migration will be queued and you will receive a message by email when your account + plans are available. This should take not more then 30 minutes. If, for some reason, you want to access the old version of Floorplanner you can through this link. This version will be available in the coming months but no updates will be done to it.

Running into problems?

Although we have done our best to make sure everything is working correctly there still might be some issues we have overlooked. We will be monitoring the new version and the migration process very closely in the coming period so please let us know if you run into any problems with the new version through our contact form or post your question in the forums

Some final words

We're excited to release the new Floorplanner as we think you'll like the new features and improved 3D capabilities. A big thanks to all users who have provided us with thousands of valuable comments and suggestions during the Beta. Also a special thanks the growing group of translators who are helping us making floorplanner available in many more languages.
With this new version we have a good base to build on and already have many new features planned for 2009.

We recently released 2 office planners, one for Steelcase and one for Maxon Furniture. Both tools are based on the new version of Floorplanner Enterprise.

One of the most eye-catching features is that these office planners now have the option to show a design in 3D. Besides the 3D view there are a number of other interesting improvements like the ability choose items based on their picture from the HTML sidebar and drag them directly into your design. This approach offers much more flexibility for custom libraries and integration with existing shopping carts.

We will soon release more information about Floorplanner Enterprise but if you are a manufacturer/retailer and would like to see your own collection within a branded Floorplanner, please contact us to find out more about the pricing and possibilities.

After extensive Beta-testing, the launch of the new version is near and we could use some help with the translation of the new version. The goal is to have a full translated user interface for all languages our users speak.

If you want to contribute all you have to do is to send us an email with the following details: Your name, the language(s) you want to translate and optionally some details or background on why you would make a good translator. After we receive and approve your application, we'll soon send you a mail with all the instructions, the rules and a link to the translation dashboard.

Active translators will ofcourse receive a free PLUS subscription.

Adobe made the new flashplayer 10 publicly available. We ran some tests and noticed a significant improvement in the handling of the 3D of Floorplanner ranging between 30% and 50% depending on the complexity of your plan. Especcially the building of the walls and floors in the 3D got a nice boost. Thanks Adobe!

Want to try it yourself? Upgrade your flashplayer here. We are ofcourse very interested in your experience with the new player so if you decide to upgrade, please time the complete loading of one or more of your designs before and after the upgrade. Let us know the results by mail, feedback form or as a comment on this post.

Floorplanner is proud to be nominated as a semi-finalist in this year's Adobe MAX awards in the category Rich Internet Applications. This annual global awards event recognizes the best uses of Adobe software for creating engaging experiences. The finalists in each of the six categories will be invited to showcase their work at MAX 2008 and the winners are going to be announced live at the MAX event held in San Francisco on 17th November.

If you are interested in the competition, Viktor Kelemen from ZuiPrezi has a nice selection of semi-finalists of the 2008 MAX awards on his weblog.

Having troubles getting started with Floorplanner? If that's the case you should check out the new interactive tutorial. The first chapter of the tutorial has 6 simple steps that will help you get familiar with the basic concepts behind Floorplanner and you can practice the lessons directly in the main screen. In the future we will have more chapters available in this format

Last week we also opened our new forum where you can ask questions about the use of Floorplanner, suggest a feature or report bugs.

The Beta has been online for 3 weeks and based on the valuable feedback we are receiving from you we are fixing little bugs and improving it on a daily base. The new feedback system (provided by Kampyle) is making it much easier for us to collect these comments in a more structured way. Based on your questions and comments we have compiled a Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) list that you can find below. Thanks everyone for your feedback!

How can I migrate my account from the old version to the new?
You can migrate your current FREE account to the new version through this page: http://beta.floorplanner.com/migration You will still be able to access your account in the old version.

Can I still access my old account?
Yes, your old account is not deleted and will still be accessible. During the login process you will get the option to login to the old version

Can I migrate my PLUS account?
Yes, use the Migration page: http://beta.floorplanner.com/migration

Can I migrate my PRO account?
Not yet, Migrating PRO accounts will be available soon.

I can not see my plans in 3D
There still might be some issues with seeing the plans in 3D (mostly within Internet Explorer 7.0), please let us know the link of the plan that is not showing it correctly through the feedback form

I see the floorplan in 3D but not all objects are in 3D
We are working on this. Gradually more objects will become 3D objects, but this takes some time. We are starting out with the larger objects which are important for interiors like sofa's, beds and tables. Objects like lawnmowers and telephones will be added later.

Exporting an image does take longer than previous version
We are using a different system for image export that will leads to better results and is more flexible to to include dimensions and such, which is a much requested feature. This is not optimized yet, we are still improving this.

Is there a tutorial?
We are working on it and it will be added very soon... Meanwhile, if you have quesions, check out the beta forum.

Some objects seem rotated in the 3D view
The 3D is still under development. We are aware of this bug and are fixing this.

Why can't I see the dimensions when I place a door or window?
This problem has been solved. If it doesn't work yet, you may have to empty your browser cache.

Each time I overwrite a design, the font size of the measurements increase in size and get distorted
This also has been solved. If it doesn't work yet, you may have to empty your browser cache.

Where is the undo button
Currently undo and redo are disabled in the new version. We are redoing the saving and undo function and hope to add this soon.

How does the "unsaved changes" design work?
Under "unsaved changes", the last changes you made in a design will be saved as a temporary version. In every floor you find a different "unsaved changes". If you have just started a new design, did some drawing and wish to save your design under a certain name, you can do this by clicking on the "save" icon in the top-left corner.
You can select saved designs in the design lists that appear under every floor name in the top bar. If you made changes to an existing design and are satisfied with the changes, save your "unsaved changed" by with the "save icon" in the top-left corner.

We came up with this system for 3 reasons. The first is, we tried to reduce the risk of loosing your work. Now, it doesn't matter if you forget to save your work before switching to a different design and there is less chance you loose data when your browser crashes, although we can't avoid that for 100%. Second, we wanted to let people switch more easily between floors, designs and the 3D view. Third, we wanted to give people a clearer insight in the structure of floors and designs.

We are aware that this system may need a bit of getting used to, but we hope it will eventually make the workflow of Floorplanner 4.0, safer, easier, and quicker. But we welcome your remarks on this system of saving, because there's always a chance we looked over some situations.

Sometimes my mouse pointer disappears when I click on a wall to edit it.
This also has been solved. If it doesn't work yet, you may have to empty your browser cache.

Is the Beta available in more languages then English
Not yet, we hope to start translating somewhere in the coming months.

Floorplanner was founded in 2007 with a mission to be the easiest, quickest, and best looking way to create and share interactive floor plans online. We are a small and highly innovative company based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands with a no nonsense attitude.

We are seeking a talented and motivated developer to join our ActionScript/Flash team on site. You need to have a 1+ year OOP experience in any language, but it doesn’t necessary have to be ActionScript. If you are willing to learn ActionScript 3, Flex and/or Papervision 3D we’re happy to invest the time with a hands on approach.

Please send your resume and/or any questions you might have to gertjan [at] floorplanner.com

We started testing the migration of accounts and plans to the new version. At this page you can enter your email address + password and your account and plans will be converted to the new Beta version where you can see your plans in 3D and experience many other improvements. Your current account will not be deleted but still be available through our main site so there is no chance of losing your existing designs by migrating.

Although we have tested the migration ourselves extensively there still might be some issues so please let us know your experiences with the new version through the feedback form on the Beta site

NOTE : This page will only work for FREE accounts at this moment, PLUS and PRO migration will be available soon.

We have been working very hard on the new version of Floorplanner for several months and today we are giving you a chance to testdrive the new version yourself.

By launching the Beta of Floorplanner 4.0 we hope to receive your feedback so we can iron out little bugs and inconsistencies before offering the new functionality to all Floorplanner users. In the coming weeks we will be making adjustments to this version based on your feedback and also will be offering an easy way to migrate your current plans and account to this new version.

There are a lot of improvements in the new version of Floorplanner, below you can find some of the highlights:

Drawing improvements - Easier surface drawing, Copying and mirroring surfaces, presets for roomtypes, Maximized work area and more little improvements.

Graphic update - The style of the website and logo has been updated with more vivid colors and a lot less rounded corners.

3D objects - The most requested feature: We now have 3D objects! Although we haven't got 3D objects for all elements in the libraries yet (working on this) you can now play around with the available objects that can be found in the 3D category in the library

Improved speed - There have been many improvements behind the scenes that improve the loading speed of floors and designs significantly

Maximized workspace - Due to a more flexible integration of Floorplanner within webpages you can now maximize your work area by hiding the sidebar. You can also see a list of all elements being placed below your plan it is now easier to work with multiple floors.

Interface refinements - The navigation window has been replaced by a simpler way to zoom, pan and switch between 2D and 3D. We also tried to minimize the number of times a properties window appears when you work on your plans.

If you want to play with the new version yourself, go to the new demo to experience the new drawing functionality or create a test-account here. Please note that during this test period things might change a bit use it for EVALUATION PURPOSES ONLY and please give us your feedback by the new feedback form.

Since the first day we released Floorplanner.com (almost a year ago) there has been interest from students and teachers worldwide to use Floorplanner within the classroom. It is being used both for (homework) assignments as for actual classroom planning and it's being mentioned in educational resources and even podcasts. We regularly receive nice feedback like the following email we got recently:

"I used your site with my technology education class and they loved it. It was their favorite activity. Do you sell a version of this to schools? Thanks for letting us use your great product. Keep up the great work!"

We love this as we always have envisioned Floorplanner to be used for educational purposes and of course we want to stimulate this. That's why we are working on some refinements making Floorplanner even more usable in the classroom and testing a special version of our PRO account for teaching. Below you can find one of the many examples of classrooms being created with Floorplanner.

If you are using (or planning to use) Floorplanner within your classroom please let us know in the comments below. We'd love to hear how you are using our tool and how we can improve it for this specific use. Also leave a comment or contact us directly if you want to get invited to the beta program of Floorplanner for Schools that will allow teachers to collect and review all plans from their students through one account.