SoftPlan 2022 | Major Features

Nested Regions provide a simple and convenient way to insert reference drawings and drawing regions into floor plans that often repeat layouts and other design elements, such as apartment building plans. Once created and inserted into a drawing, nested regions can then be moved, rotated, and modified to seamlessly join with existing elements on the drawing. Nested Regions also have the option to automatically sync to their sources so that they will update as changes are made to the original drawing. With only a few clicks of the mouse to create and insert Nested Regions, this new feature saves time while providing the precision needed to design complete, accurate plans.

SoftPlan’s Wall edit menu now provides the ability to design complex wall shapes by customizing the tops and bottoms of walls. In the new Top of Wall and Bottom of Wall tabs, walls can be divided into segments and modified to be stepped, raked, or stepped and raked simultaneously by specifying information for each individual wall segment.

Top of Wall & Bottom of Wall options tabs added. These are used to manipulate a single wall so to have multiple heights, steps, slopes and offsets.

The image below shows just two walls, the brick wall on the main floor above the concrete wall on the foundation.

Note: Openings can be placed at the transition between wall sections of different heights and offsets.

SoftPlan 2022 introduces user-defined conditions that automatically determine when the visibility of a building option should be on or off. By specifying these simple AND/OR conditions, you can control the visibility of complex building option configurations without the need to manually set the visibility for each related building option every time.

This release completely overhauls SoftPlan's rail configuration by introducing a new railing assembly menu that allows you to customize each part of the railing using a table of definable settings and an intuitive graphic interface. Once configured, these custom railing definitions can then be further customized to your preferences in the railing Edit menu and then saved to the System library for future use.

Adding to SoftPlan’s vast customization capabilities, this version introduces User Information Defined Stamps. Used for printing descriptive text, these custom stamps are easy to create and add to drawings. Once added to the system or project, the user-defined stamps are saved for future use and can be updated at any time.

Another addition to the Dimension Edit options is the ability to add custom text to dimensions. After adding text you want to include on a dimension line, the position of the text can then be specified to replace the dimension number or to be added beside or below the dimension number.

When editing a dimension, there is now an option to select the unit of measurement between metric, imperial, and the default setting in the System Options. The ability to select the preferred unit for a dimension on an instance to instance level allows for both metric and imperial measurements to be present on the same drawing.

The new graphic interface within SoftPlan’s wall definition menu offers a specialized level of control for creating and modifying the construction of wall types. Using standard SoftPlan tools such as Move, Erase, Adjust Item, Edit, and more, you can now modify the wall materials directly within the cross section view of the wall which allows you to visualize the changes you make to the materials as you define the wall’s construction.

SoftPlan 2022 includes the addition of a new command for drawing braces. Using the two-click drawing process, you can now quickly add a square brace to a wall or post that automatically draws at a 45-degree angle. Once added, the brace can be edited to modify its run, depth, and width.

The new Quick Find tool offers the ability to quickly search for a command to perform or an item to add to the drawing such as a particular opening, stair, or symbol. As you begin typing the name of the command, the Quick Find menu displays a list of possible selections from which you can click the desired command to use. Search filters can also be quickly applied to narrow search results which will help increase drawing speed.

The new Vegetation command provides a way to draw grass or other vegetation symbols that should be grouped together to populate an area on the site plan. The areas that will receive vegetation can be added as either paint or as a polygon, and the density of the vegetation can be modified to allow control of the vegetation’s appearance and coverage in 3D.

Exclusive to SoftPlan+ subscribers, this version further expands SoftPlan’s extensive 3D export capabilities by adding an option to export the 3D model in STL format. SoftPlan’s simple export process makes it easy convert 3D models into .stl files that can then be used for 3D printing.

SoftPlan+ subscribers only

Adding to SoftPlan’s numerous 3D export capabilities, this version enables SoftPlan+ subscribers to export their 3D models into older versions of SketchUp including SketchUp 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. This expansion of SoftPlan’s popular export to SketchUp allows more users to take advantage of the powerful rendering options they need to create stunning 3D presentations.

SoftPlan+ subscribers only