MODELUR 0.4.0 (PRE-BETA 4) README.TXT

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                             ~ TABLE OF CONTENTS ~
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1.  WHAT IS MODELUR?

2.  SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

3.  SETUP AND CONFIGURATION
    3.1  Installation Instructions
    3.2  Uninstall Instructions

4.  WHAT'S NEW
    4.1  Version History

5.  KNOWN LIMITATIONS

6.  GETTING HELP
    6.1  Video tutorials
    6.2  Modelur Support

7.  PURCHASING MODELUR

8.  CONTACT INFORMATION

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1.  WHAT IS MODELUR?
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    Modelur is a parametric urban design tool. It is implemented as a plug-in
    for Google SketchUp.

    With Modelur you can:
    - rapidly design built environment,
    - respond quickly to changed conditions of planned site,
    - automatically change built environment,
    - quickly create different variants of urban design solution,
    - avoid mistakes issued by wrong building articulation and
    - have continuous supervision about achieved urban control values.

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2. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
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    To run Modelur, your system must meet these specifications:
    - Windows XP, Windows Vista or Mac OS X
    - working version of Google SketchUp 6 or later
    - Internet Explorer 7 or later (Windows) or Safari 3.0 (Mac OS X) or later
      recommended

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3. SETUP AND CONFIGURATION
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3.1 Installation Instructions

    Double-click on downloaded .exe (Windows) or .mpkg (Mac OS X) file and
    follow the on-screen instructions.

    If you are Modelur is not installed correctly (you can not find it in
    SketchUp > Window > Preferences > Extensions), please make sure that
    contents of Modelur installation file are located in
    ../Google SketchUp7/Plugins/ directory.

3.2 Uninstall Instructions

    To uninstall Modelur from your computer:
    - (Windows) use uninstaller located in Start > Programs > Modelur or
    - (Mac OS X) delete modelur.rbs file and /Modelur directory located in
    Hard Drive' Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 7/SketchUp/Plugins

    To temporarily disable Modelur, uncheck it under SketchUp > Window >
    Preferences > Extensions.

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4. WHAT'S NEW
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0.4.0 (Pre-beta 4)
    - Enhancement: Added Parametric Maps functionality. To update Modelur
      Buildings to parameters from Parametric Maps in real-time, use the
      provided Modelur Move Tool (blue cross arrow in Modelur Toolbar). At the
      moment .png, .jpg or .gif file formats are supported by Parametric Maps.
    - Enhancement: Calculation of building control values displayed inside
      Modelur UI.
    - Enhancement: When creating new building with no faces selected, all
      Parameters are set to default.
    - Enhancement: UI design changes
    - Bugfix: Undo works when parameter of Whole Plot or Land Use is changed in
      the Modelur UI.
    - Bugfix: Updating of Urban Control Values when Modelur Buildings are
      deleted and some other locked entities are selected.
    - Bugfix: Updating of Urban Control Values when Modelur Buildings are
      deleted and deletion is then undone.
    - Bugfix: Creating of Buildings with convex floor plan and default Built
      Area.
    - Bugfix: Updating of Buildings when Scale Tool is used together with keep
      Built-up Area when scaling manually option turned on.
    - Bugfix: Importing Google Earth Terrain is not crashing anymore if Modelur
      is running.

0.3.6 (Pre-beta 3)
    - Update for SketchUp 2014.

0.3.5 (Pre-beta 3)
    - Enhancement: Length units are now recalculated and written to defaults
      when user switches between metric and feet.
    - Enhancement: If .skp model is loaded, only length units preference is
      loaded from it, while all other preferences (eg. language) are loaded as
      specified by the user. Of course, user can still switch length units.
    - Enhancement: Huge performance improvement on large models when duplicating
      Modelur Buildings using Value Control Box mechanism.
    - Enhancement: Modelur better mimics behavior of SketchUp when using its
      native Value Control Box mechanism.
    - Enhancement: Buildings are not warned anymore when they are touching each
      other, as we consider them as one building structure.
    - Enhancement: Buildings now react to Scale Tool when their height is
      changed via Value Control Box, too. For example, you can now use Scale
      Tool to start raising Building and the type in *5 + Enter which will raise
      the Building five times.
    - Enhancement: More intuitive handling of overloaded parameters, when they
      are set back to default values.
    - Bugfix: HeadsUp Display showing Building and Whole Plot values is now
      loaded properly (as defined by user preferences) when .skp model is
      opened.
    - Bugfix: Fixed Modelur Building copy/paste mechanism.
    - Bugfix: Proximity check (warnings when buildings are too close together)
      is now engaged automatically when Modelur is started if set so by
      preference.
    - Bugfix: Fixed undo mechanism when Modelur building is deleted.
    - Bugfix: Fixed updating of manually modified Modelur Building when user
      moves its corner. Please note that you need to select all vertically
      aligned edges (whole corner) to use this functionality!
    - Bugfix: Overloaded Building parameters are now updated properly when
      default (Whole Plot) parameters change.
    - Bugfix: Fixed updating of terraces and loggias when Building floors are
      added or removed.
    - Bugfix: Fixed restoring of manually modified Modelur Buildings to default
      values.
    - Bugfix: Fixed duplicating Building mechanism when default land use is not
      the same as it was in the previous model.
    - Bugfix: Fixed refreshing of terraces and loggias when buildings are
      stretched in horizontal plane.
    - Bugfix: Fixed Building Bounding Box size when buildings are scaled in
      horizontal plane plane and they are set to keep built area.
    - Bugfix: Buildings are now properly duplicated when using Rotate Tool and
      Value Control Box mechanism to create several instances of selected
      Building.
    - Bugfix: Building terraces and loggias are now properly marked (according
      to preference) when .skp model is opened.
    - Bugfix: Fixed storing of selected Land Uses in both, Land Use requirements
      and Urban control - Land Use panels when they are not present in preferences.

0.3.4 (Pre-beta 3)
    - Enhancement: Modelur remembers changes on the user interface layout.
    - Enhancement: When Modelur is run for the first time, it loads in the
      language of SketchUp if translation exists.
    - Enhancement: Options 'Calculate sum values of selected Buildings',
      'Optimize Building for Google Earth', 'Toggle Built-up Area visibility',
      'Toggle terraces and loggias' moved from Sketchup Plugins menu to the user
      interface
    - Enhancement: Modelur initialization message is now in the same window as
      Modelur's user interface itself.
    - Bugfix: Bounging box is now properly refreshed when user changes number of
      storeys or height of the Building if it is selected and Scale tool
      activated.
    - Bugfix: Loggias are now properly defined when user modifies Building
      manually.

0.3.3 (Pre-beta 3)
    - Enhancement: User interface is updated with Urban Control Indicators while
      Modelur Buildings are being manually edited.
    - Enhancement: Improved optimization and preparation of 3D model for Google
      Earth export.
    - Bugfix: Neighbour Buildings, which were too close to selected one are now
      unmarked when the Building is far enough.
    - Bugfix: Fixed initialization of .skp models which contain one-storey
      Modelur Buildings.

0.3.2 (Pre-beta 3)
    - Enhancement: Language selection dropdown now sorted alphabetically.
    - Enhancement: You can now copy/paste Modelur Buildings between different
      .skp models.
    - Enhancement: Improved Modelur menu behaviour - panels now close
      automatically after selection is made.
    - Enhancement: All Modelur methods moved to MODELUR namespace so there is
      less chance of Modelur
      clashing with other plugins.
    - Enhancement: Chinese and Spanish translations back to 100%! Thank you
      Edgar Navas and Xiaoqi Wang!
    - Bugfix: Fixed wrong dropdown translations for primary and secondary Land
      Use units when language is changed.
    - Bugfix: No more user interface freezing when the defaulut language is
      switched to Chinese.
    - Bugfix: Land Use Requirements panel is now properly refreshed when last
      Land Use in dropdown is deleted.
    - Bugfix: Primary and secondary units are now refreshed properly when
      language is changed on Windows platform.

0.3.1 (Pre-beta 3)
    - Enhancement: Added error message when uncompatible version of Modelur
      model is opened.
    - Enhancement: Improved undo mechanism for deleted buildings. They are now
      recreated properly; nonetheless they should be avoided as much as possible
      as it might lead to unexpected behaviour when used repeatedly.
    - Engancement: Added exporting of Urban control value survey. Users can
      select which data they would like to export: Whole Plot, Land Uses and
      Buildings.
    - Enhancement: Added option to choose the default shape of the building when
      creating it with no faces selected. Supported shapes: square, circle and
      L-shaped building.
    - Enhancement: Improved Modelur icons.
    - Enhancement: Improved Modelur version upgrade system and initialization
      methods.
    - Enhancement: Added Modelur Help options (video tutorials, forum, blog,...)
    - Bugfix: Fixed Land Use survey calculations when opening saved models.
    - Bugfix: Location of built-up area face inside the building if it is not on
      the horizontal plane.
    - Bugfix: Fixed showing of terraces and loggias using materials.
    - Bugfix: Calculation of number of primary units (e.g. appartments) and
      required parking lots due to Length class rounding error.
    - Bugfix: Fixed saving of default settings.

0.3.0 (Pre-beta 3)
    - Major Modelur core engine and user interface update. Most of the code
      rewritten.
    - Enhancement: Added dynamic Land Use system, so end-users can add their own
      land uses. Land uses can also be renamed.
    - Enhancement: Added Modelur Toolbar with Initialize Modelur,Create Building
      and Copy building buttons.
    - Enhancement: Improved mechanism for duplicating buildings via Value
      Control Box.
    - Enhancement: If no face is selected when a user wants to create a building
      Modelur creates it automatically. User can choose between square, circular
      or L shape.
    - Enhancement: Added option to colour terrace and loggia floors so end-users
      can check if correct faces as marked.
    - Enhancement: Renaming land use material in SketchUp also renames the land
      use itself. Vice versa works only on SketchUp 8M1 and above.
    - Enhancement: Added SketchUp Modelur menu language translations.
    - Enhancement: Added user interface Status Bar, which explains
      abbreviations.
    - Known limitation: undoing Modelur parameter changes works only partially.

0.2.9 (Pre-beta 2)
    - This is the last version of Modelur Pre-beta 2. It will stop to work on
      31st of July 2013. Please note that Modelur Pre-beta 3 will not be
      backward compatible!

0.2.8 (Pre-beta 2)
    - Bugfix: Multiple buildings can now again be created in one step.

0.2.7 (Pre-beta 2)
    - Exporting urban control values now also exports the values for each
      building and marks buildings in 3D model by their unique IDs (marks are
      placed to layer Buildings UIDs).

0.2.6 (Pre-beta 2)

    - Improved online validation mechanism, which is now executed only when
      Modelur is initialized. Additionaly, it fixes an error when Modelur's
      validation server is unreachable.0.2.5 (Pre-beta 2)

0.2.5 (Pre-beta 2)

    - Begining with version 0.2.5, Modelur works also with Google SketchUp 8.
    - Enhancement: Improved Chinese translation of user interface. Thank you
      Wantao Xiao!
    - Fixed changing of metric/imperial units.

0.2.4 (Pre-beta 2)

    - Major stability improvement when buildings are being duplicated
      extensively in 3d view.
    - Enhancement: Dutch translation of user interface. Thank you Gertjan
      Laurenssen!
    - Enhancement: Spanish translation of user interface. Thank you Diego
      Rodriguez!
    - Enhancement: 'Invisible' UI scroller. Usage: select a building, click on
      input field (i.e. Building > Number of storeys), press Shift key and
      scroll mouse wheel - selected building will update itself to the new
      value. Change scroll stepping by holding Ctrl in addition to Shift key.
    - Enhancement: Automatic fixing of rotated floor plans when creating new
      building. Modelur now tries to create orthogonal bounding box for
      buildings, so they can easily be scaled.
    - Enhancement: Basic optimization of buildings for Google Earth export.
      Optimized geometry can be found in Modelur2GE layer. This feature is still
      in development.
    - Enhancement: Improved input parameters handling. User interface can now
      accept different styles of input data (i.e. decimals written with dot or
      comma, whitespaces, alphabet characters) and handles them automatically.
    - Enhancement: Newly drawn (floor plan) faces are now selected
      automatically, so it one does not have to select it by hand in order to
      create Modelur building from it.
    - Enhancement: Newly created buildings now get the default name 'Building',
      so one can easily found them in the Outliner.
    - Enhancement: Improved calculation of mixed use ratio.
    - Fixed bug which prevented to duplicate last duplicated building in 3d view
      using Ctrl/Cmd key.
    - Fixed bug for 'Manually drawn floor plan assumes default built area'
      checkbox.
    - Fixed creation of building when default number of storeys is 1.

0.2.3 (Pre-beta 2)
    - Hotfix for bug, which prevented to set plot area size and parking lots
      normatives.

0.2.2 (Pre-beta 2)

    - Huge performance optimization when opening .skp model with many Modelur
      buildings. Model now opens 10-50 times faster.
    - Optimized performance of urban control values calculation (about 30%
      faster).
    - Improved communication speed between Modelur user interface and
      its engine.
	 - Improved reaction to scale tool.
    - Improved calculation of built area.
    - Improved checking of user defined parameter values in user interface.
    - Added Chinese translation of user interface. Thank you Huaqiao Wang and
      James Baq!

0.2.1 (Pre-beta 2)

    - Improved calculation of building volume and built area.
    - Fixed bug of gross floor area calculation when terrace or loggia
	  normative is changed.
    - Fixed undo/redo stack (SketchUp 7).
    - User interface bug fixes.
    - Fixed bug that prevented realtime update of building control values when
      user changed parameter of terrace or loggia percent.

0.2.0 (Pre-beta 2)

    - Advanced manual editing of buildings which enables the creation of
      terraces and loggias. How much they contribute to gross floor area of
      building is defined as percentage, in Terrace gross floor area percent and
      Loggia gross floor area percent, respectively.
    - Menus added to the user interface, which now works on Internet Explorer
      6 also.
    - Modelur now works offline too, yet it has some limitations.
    - Export of urban control values to .csv file.
    - Calculation of net floor area, based on percentage of gross floor area.
      Defined as Percent of usable gross floor area.
    - Distance units can now be switched between metric (meters) and imperial
      (feet).
    - Warnings about minimal distance between buildings (default 4m).
    - Simplified applying of texture to the terrain.
    - Polish translation of user interface. Thank you Tomasz Gutowski.
    - Duplication of buildings via Value Control Box together with some other
      minor bugfixes.

0.1.1 (Pre-beta 1)

    - Modelur is now available also on Apple Mac OS X.
    - We have also added French, German and Portuguese translations of user
      interface. Thank you Pilou, Burkhard and Edson from Sketchucation!

0.1.0 (Pre-beta 1)

    This is the initial release of Modelur Pre-beta version.

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5. KNOWN LIMITATIONS
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   - If Modelur is initialized only after .skp model with Parametric Maps is
     already opened, some javascript errors occur on SketchUp prior to version
     2014. If this happens, just confirm javacsript errors and Modelur should
     work as expected.
   - Although copying of buildings via Value Control Box has been significantly
     improved, there are still some issues remaining. If previous buildings are
     not deleted when VCB values are changed and entered, please delete them by
     hand.

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6. GETTING HELP
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6.1 Video tutorials

    To learn basics of Modelur, we are currently providing Modelur video
    tutorials, which are available on YouTube Modelur channel. You can take a
    look at the them at www.youtube.com/modelur.

6.1 Modelur Support

    Urbs is committed to providing a reliable, high-quality product that is
    easy to use. If you have any problem installing or using Modelur, we want
    to know about it.

    Please visit www.modelur.com/support to use our forums or send us a
    question about Modelur.

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7. PURCHASING MODELUR
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Modelur 0.4.0 (Pre-beta 4) is free of charge.

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8. CONTACT INFORMATION
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    URBS d.o.o.
    Pri malem kamnu 11
    SI-1210 Ljubljana
    Slovenia, EU

    Phone: +386.41.353598
    E-mail: info@modelur.com
    Web: www.modelur.com

(C) 2009-2014 URBS. All Rights Reserved.
