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NOTES FOR 3dHomeDecorator:

Welcome to 3dHomeDecorator.com. This is a site in development so all feedback is  welcome. Here are also some notes to help understand, navigate and view the site as best as possible. I have been developing this site for several years, and in the interest of taking advantage of it's tremendous possibilities, I am looking for opportunities to develop it for alternate intranet and kiosk uses.  By background I am an architect with an MBA from a well known eastern business school, and I would be happy to share my ideas for the future development of this site. I can be reached at: srb@thecottagegate.com, and am anxious for all feedback.

  • Clicking "F11" on the top row of your keyboard will give you the biggest possible screen viewing area. Just click it again to restore all your bars.
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  • The first time you render a room, it takes a few seconds. After that it's quicker, as the server has some information stored about the room objects. Please be patient, I think you'll see it's worth the effort. Saving a room also takes a few seconds as the server saves a number of pictures that make it quicker to open the room in the future.  Also, the more objects in a room, the longer the rendering time. Again, they say patience is a virtue, but hopefully the results are worth it. Thank you. The default design view is the smallest of the sizes, but, depending on your connection speed and type, please experiment with the 3 design size options available on the top bar. Painted walls are slightly quicker then wallpapered walls, and the more furniture that's added, the slower the rendering time, so please be patient!
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  • You can adjust the lights. There is one omni light that you can move from the front to the back of the room, on the center line, and one spot light that you can put anywhere in a room, and adjust each light color, red, green or blue, separately, turning a color off, or a lesser strength. The recessed light fixture seen in the ceiling represents the location of the spotlight. It is turned off by default.   Also, by default, it is located in the center of the room. To use it, just change the location if desired, or just put in a value between 0 and 1 in the bottom three boxes. If you don't put the same number in each box, your light will be colored. The recessed fixture shown on the ceiling will move to wherever you put the light, so you can see where it is. Play.
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  • Just about all the wallpapers are real. Most are Waverly or Village. If you click on Info, you will be linked to the a company that sells, at steep discounts, all these wallpapers and more. I apologize if some are no longer available. I haven't had much time to cull some of the older wallpapers. Art and rugs are also real products, and are linked to sources. Some of the furniture is based on real products, and if I have created an item based on a real one, I do link to the site of the real item. Most of the plumbing products are Kohler.
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  •  Adding Lights to a room that are noted as "with lights" is great, but it can slow down rendering time. There are a lot of built in lights that you can adjust, or turn off by setting them to "0". No more than 4 lights should be added to a room.
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  • When you change the room view, you actually are stepped back from the point you pick in order to give a wide enough angle for now. If objects get in the way, please go to "See my Room" where you can "HIDE" those objects that are in the way. 
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  • It's fun to use the small pic popup on the top bar. This creates a small popup picture of the room that will stay up until you close it. When you move to another page, it will be hidden, but just click it on your bottom bar and it will reappear.
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  • The little objects that you drag around to place to in a room do not reflect the actual color of the object. They are there for placement only. The actual rendering will show the color you've selected.
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  • To create a two part wall, check "Show half wall" (and "show chair rail" if desired)  boxes on the various pages. This option offers all kinds of design choices, as you can start your half wall at any height, and make it any height, so it just be a border, it can cover 3/4 of the wall, it can be a border placed just below the ceiling, and then the chairrail can be moved to be at one edge of your halfwall if you so desire. You can paint the halfwall also by using the "Go to Paints" button, or choosing "Paint and Molding Options" on the left "Hover" navigation menu. You can also change the height of the chairrail (and the other moldings) from 1" to 5' or more, if you want, and this can be painted any color, so it can add another design option.
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  • To place tile on 1/2 a wall, there are two choices now. There are some wallpapers which are half tile and half paint or wallpaper. You can't change the paint or paper color with these, but they are easier to apply.  There are also a few wall objects that are sections of tile.  You can find them in the " "Wallcoverings","Tile/Stone" section of wall objects. You have to select the right length to be placed on each wall. The advantage of this is that you can paint or wallpaper the remaining wall area, which is fun. Actually (this is a later date) there is a much easier way, you can use a tile wallpaper, and use the half wall choice (found on the side bar) and place the bottom of the half wall wherever you want the painted portion of the wall to start, and make the wall height to the ceiling.
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  • There are some 3d doors and windows, located in the "Woodwork" section of the 3d items. They look nice, but you have to go back to the 2D section after you put them on a wall and pick a background to go behind them. There are also some stairs, columns, arches, walls and other architectural items.
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  • If you are AOL user and don't want to change ISP's, it's easier to visit 3dHomeDecorator.com by logging onto AOL, minimizing the filled AOL screen, opening Internet Explorer (click on the "e" that's usually on your desktop), typing www.trywallpaper.com and hitting F11 on the top row of your keyboard (to give the largest screen area). Hitting F11 again will restore the hidden rows.
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  • To see a plan, use the plan button shown in the button rows on the bottom of most pages, for perspective from above or other alternate views, click on "Multi Views" on the side Hover bar, and then click again on a particular view if you would like to enlarge it.
  • When you change a room dimension in the Room Size page, you must add the feet and inches designation to the number. In adding 3d objects, you can drag them or enter the complete number in the text box. Don't just change the feet part or inches part.
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  • One neat thing is the "Make a New Paint Color" on the side bar. Using this page you can enter a color into the database and use it on your walls, ceilings, trim or 1/2wall now and in the future. If you are looking at paint online, just get the hex number or the rgb values with any color dropper tool, and enter them in the 3  r, g, b or 3 hex boxes in the chart. NAME THE PAINT whatever you want (try to be unusual, as the standard names are probably already used), and once you "Try it on the Walls" (or whatever category you're in) it will be in the database when you go to the "Paint and Molding Options" on the left Hover bar,until I clean it out (which I occasionally do because it's really fun to make new colors and they build up fast) and can be used on any surface which can be painted on this site.
  • All the 3D models and bitmaps used have either been created by me,  been made available from manufacturers, or have been purchased from other authors.
  • Color on the internet is subject to many things, most especially the way monitors display color, which can vary significantly, so I can not guarantee that the colors you get will be what you see on your monitor. While the wallpapers displayed here in the rooms are created from real photographs of the actual wallpapers and have been sized to true repeats, and give a very good indication of what you would get, I  recommend that once you have found a wallpaper that you think you like,  you either get a sample from the wallpaper link, or go see it in a local store to be sure it actually matches your expectations.