I have designed this download area to allow the download of my form sets at any time of the day or night. You should have received an email with the password to open the files. Each download file has a different password. Please click on the sets you desire. Download them to a folder on your machine and then open them using WinZIP. If you do not have WinZIP on your machine then follow the instructions lower on this page.

Please follow these instructions to install the form sets onto your system.

WINZIP - Before you try to open the compressed file you need to download a free extractor program called WINZIP. You can download the program at www.winzip.com After Winzip is installed it needs to be opened and then restart your computer. If you already have winzip on your machine you can continue to the next step.

Double click on the link above and this will download an executable file from my site. You may get a warning that this is a non-secured file, but rest assured that I have not created a horrible virus. You should download the file which is called BasePlus.exe and store it in the folder of your choice. Make sure that you remember where you have downloaded it so that you can find it once the download is completed.

Once downloaded the files you must open the folder containing the file and then double click on the file.

SELF EXTRACTING FILES - The beauty of the self-extracting file is that it will open up and place all of the files contained inside into the default 3D folder that is already on your machine. You may have to accept some terms and jump through specific hoops, but the end result is for the files to unzip and install in the needed location. By default they will install to C:\Program Files\3D Inspection System which is the same as the default folder for the 3D software.

CAN’T FIND the downloaded file? Then click on START at the lower left corner and then SEARCH for the file name and find out where you actually downloaded it to. If no file is found, then redownload it above and pay close attention where it is being downloaded on your machine.

Go through the self extraction process and then take a huge deep sigh of relief..... When it asks you if you accept the terms, click on I Agree. Next you must highlight all of the files and manually extract them to you 3D Inspection System folder. The files need to be extracted to the 3D Inspection System folder. This folder is usually located on your C: drive in the PROGRAM FILES folder. I wish that I could be more specific on the directions, but each version of WINZIP on each operating system performs a little bit differently.

COMPILING FORM SETS - (For the Base & BasePlus bundles... Modify the instructions as needed for the form sets that you download). Open the Report Writer and click on FILE and then CUSTOM FORM STUDIO. Once the CUSTOM FORM STUDIO opens you need to the left box titled FORM GROUPS and right click on 1 SFD and selecting COMPILE. All of the FORM groups named 1 SFD through 10 SFD BLANK were provided by me. It will take a minute to compile each form set, depending on the speed of your computer. Once 1 SFD is done, then go to 2SFD and so on. Continue this compiling process until you get to last numbered SFD group. This creates the sets on your machine and you can now open the reports.

COMPILING NOTE - After you are done compiling the first report it should say that the form set was compiled. At the end of the compile routine look up about 8 rows and it will either say Finished! or Errors were detected. If it says that errors were detected then one or more of the files did not transfer correctly. Please send me an e-mail listing the file containing the error and I will resend you a pure file. If, however, it compiles successfully please jump in the air and scream hallelujah!

FORM NAMES - The forms have been simplified over previous form sets. The number in front of the SFD (Single Family Dwelling) is the number of bathrooms in the home. In other words, the forms are designed around the number of bathrooms. If you make a mistake and choose the 3 bathroom form and the home has five bathrooms, then you will have to fill out every line of the last two bathrooms. The first three bathrooms of that form set will be filled out to reflect a typical bathroom with everything in good condition. The more bathrooms in the set the more extra rooms, water heaters, furnaces, a/c's etc. All of the sets, except the 1 SFD, have extra kitchens and laundry rooms for the occasional non-conforming duplex or in-law apartment.

HEADER & FOOTER - I have included numerous background documents. This is the document that displays behind each page of you report and contains your business information and logos. The included Top1 background documents are set up for AII, ASHI, CREIA, NACHI, and NAHI. So if you belong to AII, then open up LetterheadWAIILogo.w3d in the word processor and you will find a pre-designed template that will allow you to quickly insert your information. To save the format of each line all you have to do is highlight the one line and then type in you information. This will retain the text size and font settings. Make sure that you also go to the bottom of the page and insert your name into the footer section.

Your logo should be inserted in place of mine. First highlight the MLC logo and then hit delete. With the header box still highlighted you should click on INSERT, then IMAGES, then WRAP IMAGE AROUND TEXT. This will open up a window that will allow you to locate your company logo on your hard drive. Bring it in at about 1.5 inches realizing that it will be way too big. Once it is brought into the header you have to move it and resize it as needed.

RESIZING AND MOVING LOGO - This is a little trickier than you would expect due to the need to hold the ALT key down during the process. This is not very intuitive at first, but click your mouse on the image. Then let go and hold the ALT key down and reposition your mouse on the image. You will see the mouse either displayed as a crosshair or an arrow up and down or right to left. When the crosshair is displayed you can hold down the left mouse button and drag the image. With the mouse positioned at one of the edges (while holding the ALT key) you can then click the left mouse button and stretch the image that particular direction.

Have PATIENCE with the resizing and positioning. The keys to remember are the ALT key and the WRAP IMAGE AROUND TEXT when you insert the logo. Failing to hold down the ALT key will make it so that you can't move the image. Just using the import image icon it will not free the image up from the text..... Play around with this process and you will rapidly master it.

SAVING THE LetterheadWAIILogo.W3D FILE - Now that you have modified the background document you will need to rename it. To do so, while in the Word Processor, you need to click on FILE, then SAVE AS and change the name to Default Letterhead.w3d. This is important for one of the upcoming steps below.

PRINTOUT SETTINGS -Leave the Word Processor and return to the Report Writer and click on FILE, then NEW. A window will open that allows you to name a report and select which form set to open. All of the sets that start with numbers followed by SFD are the ones that I have provided. The others came standard with 3D.

Select any of the numbered forms and once opened select FILE, then PAGE SETUP. When the PAGE SETUP window opens you should click on file FILE, then SAVE A LAYOUT TEMPLATE. Type OLD SETTINGS and click save. This step will allow you to be able to go back to your old printout settings later if your wish, but I want you to experiment for a moment with a few of the printing layouts that I have provided. To do so please click on LOAD A REPORT LAYOUT. You should select the file AIISettings.LTP. This changes the settings so that the printing layout looks like my sample reports on my website. Once the AII Settings are loaded you should see the Default Letterhead.w3d file to the right of the icon that says background document. If another file is listed there, then click on icon with the 3 dots next to the HEADER/FOOTER DOCUMENT and load the Default Letterhead.w3d file.

Click back on FILE and once again SAVE A LAYOUT TEMPLATE. Title it with today’s date like 111805.ltp for November 18, 2005 and then if you mess with these settings later you will always have this setup to reload at a later date.

PREVIEW SETTINGS - Now leave the PAGE SETUP screen and return to the report writer where you have a form already open. Next comes the moment of truth as you should click on FILE, then PREVIEW (there is also a PREVIEW icon that looks like a piece of paper with a magnifying glass in front of it). This will take the screen that you shows you what the report is going to look like when it prints out. You should see your header and footer at the top and bottom of the page. All of the colors, fonts and settings that are associated with this printed view are accessed back at the FILE, PAGE SETUP screen and they can be modified as you wish (see the Report Writer manual for more details).

PRINTER SETTINGS - While in the Report Writer you should click on FILE, then PRINT SETUP. Use the drop down menu to select the printer that you want 3D to print to. From there you are set to go. If you have troubles, then please e-mail me and I can help out at Peaceofmind@TheHomeInspector.com

Thanks, Michael Leavitt

ACTION BAR - Take a look at the left side Action Bar. Start clicking around and you can see that I have automated a lot of the features.

P.S. SECOND COMPUTER - Here is a tip I learned many moons ago regarding how to set up a second back-up computer. After you get your first computer set up with 3D just the way you want it, then save the entire 3D folder to either a portable hard drive or burn it to a CD. Then take the folder a copy it to the second machine’s folder structure making sure that it is in the C:\Program Files folder. 3D won’t work yet, but after the folder is installed in the correct location all you need to then take your 3D disk and install it on the second machine. It will recognize all of the print settings and layout settings from the first machine and you will have a clone of the first.