Category: Tiles

Limited accessible manufacturer / brand

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Some manufacturers in the updatemanager are ‘locked’. To get access, you have to get permission from the manufacturer. Contact your agent or wholesaler: he or she will get the permission from the manufacturer. Communicate your ViSoft Customer ID to the manufacturer and ViSoft. You can find your Customer ID in ViSoft under Help > Registration info. 

After receiving the permission forward it to ENTERMAIL to get access. The mail of the manufacturer needs to contain their logo.

When you have received the green light, download the brand with a rightclick > Start download immediately.

Profiles on external corners

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In the menu Tile | Edges you can place profiles on one or more external corners. Rightclick on the profile button to open the Profile Browser. The database of edge profiles contains data of manufacturers Schlüter and Proline. The articles are separated by base material (e.g. aluminum, stainless steel, PVC). When a product is selected available heights are shown in the list beneath. You can also select the surface material (when several materials are available).

If you place a profile on an edge, make sure that 3D tiles are shown to see the tile thickness (context menu > 3D-settings > 3D tiles).

TAKE NOTE: not all manufacturers include the tile thickness in the database, the default is 5mm.  Another issue could be that various tiles with different tile thickness are used on edges. You will have to place profiles manually.

If you use one profile on all edges, choose the Place to function from the right menu.

It is possible to place a profile in 2d or 3D-view. If the corner turns red, the edge is not right-angled.

Some profiles types can be ‘flipped’. Select the profile, open the context menu and select Change overlap type.

Edit tile properties

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To edit the tile properties, open the explorer on the left. Make sure you work in menu Tile | Place | Tiles.

Rightclick on the tile to open context menu and select Tile Properties. 

For example, you could set the edge radius under material.

Make sure you have the 3D-tiles and 3D-border view on to see the effects ( Menu View | Advanced).

Material library

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This article explains:
– how the material library is set up
– How to add custom materials
– How to make slabs with the Natural Stone Assistent

The material library

Open the material library (menu Tile | Place | Material). The material library contains various materials like wood, plastic, metals, fabrics…

The materials can be placed on any kind of surface in your project.

The leftmenu contains the database structure with all the various materials. For some materials, e.g. wallpaper, you can set the texture and color.

Press OK. The cursor transforms in a pencil, click on the desired surface to apply the material. Hold CTRL to continue applying the material on other surfaces.


Adding custom materials

Use the .custom materials database to add your own materials based on images. Take note the images show seamless patterns, like the example below. When the material is applied no seams are shown.

Below we show how to install a color library.  ViSoft doesn’t have a contract with RAL, but it is possible to add the RALcolors in your custom library.

Install color library
Step 1

Open the material library. Rightclick and select add serie.

Fill in the name and description and press OK.

Step 2

After creating the serie, right-click in the white space and select create material from image. With CTRL+A you select all the images in the folder. Press open.

It takes a little time for all the colors to load. Rightclick on the color to edit the properties, like the type of preview.


Natural Stone Assistant

The Natural Stone module can be started with a rightclick under the menu Tile | Place| Tiles. The assistent can be used to make multiple tiles from a nature stone image. A different kind of tile image is possible as well.

Retrieve the image of the nature stone from the Material Library. Press Select Source Image… to choose the one you want to use. 

Activate Random flip and Random orientation to change the direction of the tiles to make it appear more natural. If desired, adjust the size of the tiles. Set the parameter for the total the number of tiles. The ‘processed’ tiles appear on the left side. To delete one, rightclick and select Delete. The tile pattern can be saved, use the Save in Library… button to do so.

Tiling orientation random

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If you work with a tile that only has one image and isn’t completely symmetrical, you can set the sorting to random. This function is accessible in multiple ways…

ViSoft Preferences

In the preferences (shortcut CTRL+K) you can set the default tiling orientation to random.  

Ways of tiling

In the menu Tile | Place | tiles you can select random orientation under tiling orientation. If you open the pattern assistent with the Ways of laying tiles button, you can also select which orientation you want to use.

Module Assistant

Open the Module assistant (button menu tile or in tile browser). Set the parameter to random.

Tile boards and panels (showroom design)

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With the wallboard function, you can create and design show panels for your tiles in the showroom.

Collect in the tile browser the tiles you want to use, create a tileset or make them your favorite.

Go to Tile | Fast and open the    Wall Board Assistant.

Enable the Fixed size and set the parameters for width and height. In the ViSoft Preferences you can set a default size for the fixed size.

Drag and drop the tiles to the empty panel from the tileset or database.

For the sections, you can control the rows, the height, the width. You can also set the way of laying tiles and the size and color of the joints.

Use the button Concept Board (top right) to place the board in your project room. You can also choose to save the board. Use the button save…
Fill in the name and description and press ok. The concept board is saved in your Room object library (accessible in menu mural).

It is also possible to use tile with board function to place the board as a tiling area on the wall or floor.

With the grouping function, you can select multiple boards and save them in the mural library.

In menu Output |Plan you can see the exact amount of tiles needed for the board design.

Drawing Layers

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Open the layers menu by clicking the button Drawing layers in the lower taskbar. Depending on the menu (tile, sanitary, output…), you can (dis)enable layers for the working area.

Drawing layer in menu Sanitary
Drawing layers in menu Tile
Drawing layer in in 3D-view
Parallel Projection

Parallel projection enables you to further customize the appearance of 2D-view. Reflection and shadows can be shown too.

Clipping distance

With this function, you can define the depth of the projection plane. This means you decide up to which distance to the selected wall or mural objects will be shown. Standard setting is Auto which means ViSoft automatically calculates which objects are visible. If you want to make further away objects visible, deactivate the auto function and enter the distance. The bigger the distance the more objects you see. Settings for the clipping distance have to be set individually for every plan.

Parallel projection is off
Parallel projection with automatic clipping distance

Adding a non-rectangular tile image (transparent background)

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You may have to load a tile image that has a (white) background, for example, a hexagon tile. Before loading it in ViSoft, you will have to make the background transparent. This can be easily done with Photofiltre (install for free). Open the image in Photofiltre. Select Image > Transparent color…

Select the background color. In this example the tolerance is set on 1, so no white color from the tile itself is lost. Press preview to check the result. If the result is good, press OK. Save the image in .PNG (* .png) (to keep the transparent background).

Open the Tile browser in ViSoft. Select .Custom Tiles and the serie – Rightclick and select Add Tile. Load the saved image and set the parameters.

The tile is saved in your database. Select the tile preview and press OK to use it.

To make a module of the hexagon tile, go to menu TILE | PLACE | TILES and press Module assistant (bottom menu).

In the Module assistant set the mode on Manual and open the element parameters under More…
Drag the tile image to the working space. TIP: Rightclick while dragging to rotate the tile.

Drag two more tiles and connect them. To get the right angle, use the Element parameters | Free angle. Set the joint size on 2/3 mm. Use the red arrow (drag with yellow circle) to connect the module. In this example, red areas appear to signal overlap. This is not an issue, however. TIP: Use the preview (bottom left), to check the end result and correct if needed.

Example module Module is nicely connected wrongly connected module

Save the module as a tile pattern for future use (press save button upper menu). The tile pattern can be found under the tab Patterns in the tile browser.

Press OK to use the pattern in your project.

Import or export custom series

To import or export your custom made serie to other computers, right-click and select import or export to file. A .til format is created.

Module Assistant (tile patterns)

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In the menu Tile | Place | Tiles press the module-assistant button to create your own tile patterns. If you want to know more about patterns with non-rectangular tiles, read more here.

Select the tiles you want to use and drag  & drop them to the right. While dragging, use the right mouse button to turn the tile. Use more… to see more parameters. Use Free angle to get the exact angle.

Connect the arrow points by dragging the yellow circle. The preview (bottom-left) you can use to see if the laying of the pattern is correct.

Wild bracing different sized tiles

Open the module-assistant to create a wild bracing pattern. Drag and drop the tiles while holding shift. Multiple connection points appear. Save your created patterns with the save button. Under the tab Patterns in the tile browser you can use them again.

Example Roman tile pattern

Make a tileset in advance so that you don’t have to look up all tiles separately.

Load the tileset (select the serie in the database). Drag and drop the tiles, use right-click while dragging to rotate. If you have trouble snapping, switch to manual mode.  Connect the tiling areas again.

Save the tile pattern

Save the tile pattern with the save symbol in the upper toolbar (within module assistent). If you want to use the tile patterns on other computers, copy (and paste to) from the following path  C:\ViSoftCreative\Tiles\Patterns\ZZ_Eigen\.

Reuse of tile

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This function automatically calculates how many cut tiles can be reused in the project. It also shows ways how to cut the tiles for reuse.

To determine the reuse of tiles, turn on Tile offcut reusage layer. The tiles that are cut in half, are marked with the same color and index number (bold = the larger part, italics for the smaller cut).

In menu Output | Part list you open the part list for tiles. The calculations for tile optimization are shown here. Click on the question mark under reused tiles to open the Tile Offcuts window. Choose the way tiles can be reused, this depends on the structure.

The texture of decorative tiles can’t be reused.
The tile texture can only be rotated horizontally or vertically.
The tile can be reused and rotated 180 degrees (tiles with the same repeating texture in one direction).
The tile structure can be rotated both horizontally and vertically. The tile can be reused and vice versa (tiles with the same repetitive texture in all directions)

This window shows the tile cut plan. The black indicates the cutting loss.

In menu Output | Part list | Tile click on the Options… button to (dis)enable the calculations tile reuse automatically.

Creating skirting boards

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If you want to create your own base board, import or copy the tile to the .custom tiles database in the tile browser. The properties of tiles from manufactures are locked but can be edited if copied and paste in the custom database.

Browse through the 3D profiles and select one.

In menu Tile you can place the skirting board with the help of Wall Board Assistant. Press the button and start a new board. Drag and drop the skirting tile. If you want you can fill the whole board with tiles or you can add material to the wall.

Wall Board Assistant

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In Menu Tile | Fast you can use the wall- and floorboard assistant for automatic, quick and complete tiling. The boards are created with tilesets. Boards contain one or more tile areas.

Submenu Fast is divided into two sections: Wall and Floor. This enables you to select different tilesets for wall and floor.

Below the series name, you can see in the preview how the board will be placed on the wall or floor. Use the checkmark to place them in your project, unless Apply changes automatically is enabled. You can use < and > to browse through the auto boards. To select a different tileset click on the preview of the tiles. As you will see in the tiles browser some series have tilesets with both wall and floor tiles while others have no tilesets at all. If there is more then one tileset in the selected series you can change between them by clicking button < and > under the tileset. If the tileset contains floor tiles you can choose it as floor tileset with  > and < between both tilesets.

Open the wall or floor board assistent to create your own boards.

Bord assistant

Click on the New icon. Open a tileset of browse to tiles you want to use. Drag and drop them on the board.

When you dropped a tile, an area is created. This you can easily edit with the options on the right side. Change the tile starting point, add joint colors, change the number of tile rows, add material, etc. You can also drag and drop the areas to change the order.

Save the board if you want to use it in future projects. The saved boards are accessible under the tab boards and you have to select the brand of the tiles you used in the database.

Tilesets

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It can be useful to make tilesets for quick tiling in a project if you use the module-assistant or board-assistant. A tileset usually contains one or more basic tiles, decorations and borders, for walls, the floor, or both.

Some manufacturers included tilesets. If a series doesn’t contain any tilesets, the name is shown in a light grey color in the database. Tilesets are also being used to create auto boards (see Wallboardassistent).

Create tilesets

Open the Tile Browser. Open a serie and select a tile. Right-click and select Create tileset.

A window appears, fill in the data.

Add the other tiles in a similar way > open context menu and select add tile to tileset. You can select all the tiles with CTRL and add them all at once.
Browse to the tab Tilesets. Notice that all tiles are automatically sorted on type.

Tile Borders

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This article shows two examples to explain how border tiles are laid in ViSoft. Tiles of the manufacturer Original style are used. You can download the Original style database in the update manager.

Example one tile border

Step 1

Open the tile browser in menu Tile. In the example tiles 8021V, 8022V, and 8023V from the Odyssey series from Original Style are used. Create a tileset with a right click> Create tileset. Place tile 8021V on the floor, set the tile orientation to ‘quad'(ratic).

Step 2

Open menu Tile | Region. Draw a region, the size of a bathtub for example. After drawing you can set the exact properties.

Step 3

Go to menu Tile | Borders. Select tile 8023V under border tile. Click on button Region and click on the floor area. The border is placed. Doubleclick on the border for free construction options. Drag the white points to move the border.

Example two: multiple tile borders

Step 1

Start a new project and select an L-shaped room from the quick wizard. Go to menu Tile in the tile browser. Select the following tiles (hold CTRL) from the Original Style database from serie Victorian floor tiles: 7104v, 7504v, 7704v, 7706v, 7121v, 7518v, 7639v and 7725v. Right-click and select Create tileset. Fill in the data. Open the tab Module assistant in the tile browser.

Step 2

First, we create a base pattern. Open the tileset and drag tile 7104V twice and 7704V and 7504V once to create a square. Check the preview and press OK. Place the pattern on the floor and turn the tiling angle 45 degrees.

Step 3

Go to menu Tile | Borders. This step explains how to set the first border and to create a neat cutting plan for the base pattern.

Go to floor view and open menu Tile | Borders. Select border tile 7121v. Click on the button Free to draw a region over the centre of the tiles. Make sure snap to tile centre is on. After placing the border, set the orientation to the right (the border is placed outside the base region). Draw a free region against the inner outline of the border. Delete the base pattern and place it again inside the border. The outer region is now free of tiling.

Step 4

Open the module-assistant to set the next border. Rightclick on the button Module under way of laying tiles. Press New to start a new module.

Drag tiles 7518V (triangle) and 7639v(diamond) to the blank space. TIP: While dragging, right-click to rotate the tile. To get the diamond in the proper angle, open More… to use the parameter Free angle. Connect the tiles horizontally. Press OK. Click on Region to place the strip.

Step 5

Set the border tile 7121V again. Select Region and place on the floor.
Select tile 7725V. Repeat steps to place.

To finish the floor tiling, set base tile 7706V in menu Tile | Place | Tile and place in the outer area. Select the right tile position and joint setting for a nice tiling cut.

Adding custom tiles

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To add your own tiles, open the tile browser (menu Tile | Place | Tiles).

In the left menu of the tile browser, the database tree, you select .Custom Tiles. Rightclick and select Add Series.

Give a name and description and select OK.

Rightclick  (whitespace) and select Add Tile and load the tile picture. In the Tile Properties window insert the description, order number, type of tile, etc.

Press OK and start tiling!

Adding a non-rectangular tile

You may have to load a tile image that has a (white) background, for example, a hexagon tile. Before loading it in ViSoft, you will have to make the background transparent. This can be easily done with Photofiltre (install for free). Open the image in Photofiltre. Select Image > Transparent color…

Select the white color. In this example the tolerance is set on 1, so no white from the tile itself is lost. Press preview to check the result. If the result is good, press OK. Save the image in .PNG (* .png) (to keep the transparent background).

Open the Tile browser in ViSoft. Select .Custom Tiles and the serie – Rightclick and select Add Tile. Load the saved image and set the parameters.

The tile is saved in your database. Select the tile preview and press OK to use it.

To make a module of the hexagon tile, go to menu TILE | PLACE | TILES and press Module assistant (bottom menu).

In the Module assistant set the mode on Manual and open the element parameters under More…
Drag the tile image to the working space. TIP: Rightclick while dragging to rotate the tile.

Drag two more tiles and connect them. To get the right angle, use the Element parameters | Free angle. Set the joint size on 2/3 mm. Use the red arrow (drag with yellow circle) to connect the module. In this example, red areas appear to signal overlap. This is not an issue however. TIP: Use the preview (bottom left), to check the end result and correct if needed.

Example module Module is nicely connected wrongly connected module

Save the module as a tile pattern for future use (press save button upper menu). The tile pattern can be found under the tab Patterns in the tile browser.

Press OK to use the pattern in your project.

Import or export custom series

To import or export your custom made serie to other computers, right-click and select import or export to file. A .til format is created.