This is annoyingly hard and I forget how to do it every time so here are some instructions to myself that might also help others.
Convert PDF into PNG Using Gimp
Probably your floor plan is a PDF or you wouldn’t be reading this page, but if it’s a jpg or png kind of file format, then you are done and can skip to the “Importing into Blender” section below.
- Make sure you have GIMP installed. Probably you’ll want this since it’s awesome photo manipulation software.
- With GIMP open, drag your PDF floor plan page (one page at a time is easier but if it’s one document should work too) and click ‘import’. This will convert the PDF into a working GIMP file.
- Adjust the view to an appropriate view orientation since it’s possible when it imported it gets flipped. You may have to adjust the canvas size in the background if you rotate it but that is easy with the ‘fit canvas to layers’ option under ‘image’ menu.
- Isolate and select the floor plan with the GIMP selection tools (box select tool is best I find)
- Crop out the exact floor plan with the ‘crop to selection’ option under ‘image’ menu.
- File, Export
- At the bottom left there is a little + plus sign thing that says “Select File Type (by extension)”. Choose this and then scroll through until you find png. Export this file to somewhere you will remember on your device.
Import the Floor Plan Image Into Blender
Most credit to this blog.
In Blender:
- Add “Empty” object (shift + A) works
- Do steps 1, 2 and 3 in the blog link above of creating an ’empty object’. However, stop there on step 3.
- Press number pad 7 to make sure you can see the imported image in orthographic above view. Sometimes you can lose it in the view because it comes in as a plane it’s a plan and pretty razor thin.
That’s it. Now go and turn that floor plan into a 3D amusement park, my friend.
