MODELUR 0.2.9 (PRE-BETA 2) README.TXT

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                             ~ TABLE OF CONTENTS ~
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.  WHAT IS MODELUR?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    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.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    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

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. SETUP AND CONFIGURATION
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. WHAT'S NEW
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. KNOWN LIMITATIONS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   - 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.
   - Changing building height/number of storeys using Scale Tool together with
     VCB mechanism (to define height in units) causes an error. Please use
     Modelur user interface instead or scale the building without the use of
     VCB mechanism.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. GETTING HELP
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. PURCHASING MODELUR
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Modelur 0.2.9 (Pre-beta 2) is free of charge.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. CONTACT INFORMATION
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    URBS d.o.o.
    Pri malem kamnu 11
    1210 Ljubljana
    Slovenia, EU

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

(C) 2009-2012 URBS. All Rights Reserved.