Floorplanner

2.0 stars

"I really wanted to like it but....."

August 23, 2012  |   By Rich_In_NFPA

Pros

Apparently has lots of great features

Cons

Can't figure out how to use those features.
Tutorial assumes screen height is long enough to display the entire page -- what if it's not?
Technical writer is apparently unfamiliar with English grammar.

Summary

I think the program would work best if you were just playing around with a floor plan and weren't super concerned with exact measurements. I was trying to duplicate architectural drawings of a house I hope to buy but could never get the dimensions to work for anything more complex than a rectangular room.

Lines I added would not merge at corners. I would accidentally get a line skewed and not be able to get it back to horizontal. I tried all kinds of mouse clicks (plain or in combination with command/control/option keys) but couldn't figure out how to make it work. Programmers (and I am one) sometimes assume that the program they know inside and out (they've been working on it for months) is intuitively obvious -- it ain't necessarily so.! And the help is just about useless -- especially when the screen on my MacBook Pro isn't tall enough to display the entire page. I can see that there is something down there but can't tell what it is.

I was left feeling very frustrated. It would be a useful enhancement if the length of a line is a property that can be changed from the keyboard rather than using the mouse or touchpad. When working with small distances, it's difficult to read the numbers crammed in there. Let me just click on the line and then type in how long I want it to be. There would need to be some way to indicate which end of the line is fixed and which end grows or shrinks in order to change the length.

<begin rant>

It grates on me to see poor grammar or spelling (notice it's "grates" and not "greats"). Folks, "your" is different from "you're" and "effect" is not the same as "affect." If you are trying to abbreviate "you are" in a sentence, then you want to use "you're." [I assume you're coming to the party. I see you're writing a letter. etc.] If you're trying to indicate something belonging to another, then you want to use "your." [Do you have your ticket? Please close your door. etc.] "You're" is the contraction of "you are" while "your" is a possessive -- totally different. Try replacing the word in the sentence with "you are." If the sentence correctly conveys your meaning, you want to use "you're," otherwise "your."

"Effect" and "affect" are a little bit hairier. "You're" and "your" are homonyms (pronounced the same but spelled differently) while "effect" and "affect" are similar in pronunciation but not identical. In general, "effect" is usually a noun [Let's look at the effect of drought on crop yield. The effect of sorting marbles is to bring order to chaos. etc.] Affect is usually a verb. [How does that affect me? To affect the test scores students must study more. etc.] Roughly speaking, if you can place "the" in front of the word and have it make sense, you probably want "effect." It's really not that hard. ("it's" versus "its" is another one but I won't bore you with that now.)

Just because your smartphone or computer suggests a particular word does not mean the suggestion is correct. Think about how a word is used in a sentence -- something a smartphone can't quite do yet. I have seen many memos and emails in a professional corporate setting that the authors should be ashamed of. Quite honestly, when I see poor spelling or grammar I assume the writer is probably not the brightest bulb. I've discarded resumes because of poor spelling or grammar. Think about that the next time you're looking for a job.

<end rant>

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