News

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.