Design guidance for Home Designer Suite 2014

[AlPacino]

Hi everybody,
I am trying to design an appartment that is on the 17th floor of a 50 Story high tower facing open horizon with clear view of the ocean.
I have a few questions that i have been searching around this forum and website without success:
1. I would like to recreate the exterior walls of the appartment of (mirrored) glass as is common for skycrapers. I have used Fixed Glass walls but I am not sure this is actually the best way to go about it. Also I was kind of hoping that the glass would show some reflection effects and adapt to exterior lighting conditions (mirroring in day time and partial see through at night time) I have attached a screen shot of one of the rendering.
2. I would like to create a view from the balcony that would correspond as much as possible to what would be seen from the balcony of a 17th floor appartment. Is that possible?
3. I used as ashower an item from the library called "Rect Insert (w/Bench). For some reason this item comes with no doors and I couldn't find a way to add glass doors to make it look like a realistic shower. Is that possible? is there a better way of creating such a shower from scratch?...
4. I am designing a closet (not walk-in) in the bedrrom and would like it to have glass sliding doors that would partially show through the inside of the closet (shelfs, clothes, hangers...) How does one go about it?

I know this is a bulk of questions at once but I have been playing with this on my own for a while and going through various webinars and video trainings without succes. I will appreciate one of you guys and gals helping out with as many details as possible.
Thanks in advance.

[K6Rendering]

Here's what I've done for some of your questions:

1. The glass (mirrored or standard) won't show a reflection, but what you can do is take a photo of the reflection you'd like to see and apply it as an image (I think there's a video about doing this in the training videos). Also, I've used soffits as glass walls (both for walls and showers) where I don't want a frame to appear - I set the material to glass and a thickness (depth) or 1/2". Make sure to use the Material Definition to make it fully transparent. You could also use a window for the wall and then eliminate the casing, sill, etc... Sometimes, you have to fake these things to get the exact look you want.

2. To get an exact view form the balcony, take a picture with your camera, upload it, and then set it as a backdrop for the balcony view - it will be a billboard display, but you can play around with how it rotates if you want.

3. You can find a full shower in the library, but a rectangular insert will only give you the shower floor. You have other options, though. You can download one that you like from Sketchup and then modify it to meet your design, or you can build one from scratch (I just did this), using different library items, plus a few parts from Sketchup:

4. Again, you can find this in the library. Add a door for your closet, then open door and select a sliding glass door from the library in the door dialogue box. Edit the materials to be what you want, then go to the material definition tool, click on the glass and play with the transparency level that you want (I think this is found on the last tab in the dialogue box).

Hope this helps!

Jenn
K6 Rendering
HomeDesigner Pro 2014

[AlPacino]

Hi K6Rendering
thank you so much for the answers. I will go through them in greater detail later on when I am in front of my main PC.
regarding the shower, I just love your example and it looks so realistic too! this is exactly what I had in mind to plan but couldn't find my way around doing it. How did you create the shower glasses?? they look excellently real...
Also how is it possible to design a wal in different patterns like you did there: lower 2/3 of wall with different tiles, then separation with other type of tile and then finally the upper 1/3 with yet another type of tiles?...
Thanks.

[K6Rendering]

Actually, I found an even easier way of creating the shower... After you've created the shower floor insert (I just used the rectangular one from the product library and changed the materials to the stone that I wanted), draw interior walls for each side that needs a glass wall. Then open the wall specification dialogue box and click on the Wall Types tab. The Wall Type drop-down will allow you select Glass Shower, and from there you can click the Define button to change the thickness and type of glass. In the camera view, you can click on the wall itself and adjust the height because it will default to ceiling height. Easy as that.

As far as the different tile patterns, you again open the Wall Specification dialogue box and go to Wall Covering. You'll need you specific measurements as far as setting the top and bottom heights. Add a separate wall covering for each tile section you want to use. My clients already had tile selected from a local tile shop, so I went to the shop's website and pulled down images to add to my User Library - that's much of what makes it look so realistic. There's a great YouTube video on this that CA put out there (I can't remember the specific name, or I would put a link for you), so for the best information on doing this, go check that out.

Good luck! And post a picture when you've finished!

Jennifer

K6 Rendering, LLC
http://www.k6rendering.com
info@k6rendering.com