People

A Person is a life-size figure you place to get a sense of space: whether you can stand up under the roof, sit on the bench without hitting your head, or get past the bed to the back doors. It is in the catalogue under People.

A person is there to measure by, not to build, so it counts in no total - it adds nothing to the bill of materials, the cut list, the weight or the axle split, and placing one costs nothing.

Height

What it is. The slider and the field at the top of the window that opens when you press the Person card.

What it does. Sets how tall the person is. Drag the slider, or type the height: in centimetres with metric units, or in feet and inches with imperial units. The window opens on the average British man, 1.75 m (5′ 9″).

Options and limits. Anything from 0.90 m to 2.10 m (3′ 0″ to 6′ 10″ in imperial), in steps of a centimetre or an inch. A typed height outside that range says so, and the window will not add it. The figure’s proportions follow its height: below about 1.5 m they move towards a child’s - a larger head and shorter legs for the height - rather than a shrunken adult’s.

What it affects. The size of the figure placed.

Pose

What it is. The pose chips under the height - Standing, Seated, Showering, Kneeling, Arms out and Arms forward - with a picture of the chosen pose beside them.

What it does. Chooses how the person is posed:

Standing - upright, arms by their sides.
Seated - sitting as on a seat with their feet flat on the floor, so their crown is as high as a real person’s of that height sitting down and their knees reach as far forward. There is no chair: raise a seated person onto your bench or seat to check the headroom above it.
Showering - standing with the right hand on the back of the head and the elbow out, as when washing your hair, to check the elbow room in a shower.
Kneeling - kneeling upright, with the shins flat on the floor behind, as when making a bed or reaching into a low cupboard.
Arms out - standing with both arms stretched out level to the sides.
Arms forward - standing with both arms stretched out level in front.

Options and limits. The picture shows the pose on an average-height person; the figure placed is the height you chose.

What it affects. The figure placed.

Add to design / Apply

What it is. The button at the foot of the window: Add to design when you opened it from the catalogue, Apply when you opened it to change a person already in the van.

What it does. Places a person of that height and pose, centred across the van and resting on the floor, and selects it - or changes the selected person to it. Either is one undoable step.

Options and limits. The first time a device draws a figure of a new height it takes a second or so, shown as a faint box; after that the figure is remembered.

What it affects. Your design, but no total.

Size, set by the person

What it is. The width, height and depth rows in the Inspector’s Size section with a person selected, each with a lock.

What it does. Shows the figure’s size. A person cannot be stretched - by its handles, by typing, or by resizing a group it is in - because a stretched figure would give the wrong answer to the question it was placed to answer. In a resized group a person moves with the group and keeps its size.

Options and limits. To make a person bigger or smaller, change their height.

What it affects. Nothing - the rows are a readout.

Change

What it is. The button at the foot of a person’s Size section, where other objects have Reset.

What it does. Opens the same window again, on the person’s own height and pose, to change either. Their feet stay where they are: a taller person grows upwards from the same spot, and a person who sits down keeps their body where it stood and puts their knees out in front.

Options and limits. A renamed person keeps its name.

What it affects. The person you have selected, and nothing else.

The catalogue - finding the Person card and placing components.
Measuring - measuring from a person to the roof or a cupboard.
Selecting, moving and resizing - moving a person into position.