The van body & openings

The Van inspector

The van itself is a selectable base layer: press the Body button in the toolbar, or click the pinned base-vehicle row at the top of the Components list, and the Van inspector opens in the right rail — same place an item's Inspector would. It holds the van picker, the shell build-up (insulation), body style, paint, cab seats, per-panel visibility, and the opening cutter. The interior dimensions and payload of the current variant are shown right under the picker.

Body panels & auto-hide

The shell is drawn as six independent panels — Cab, Left wall, Right wall, Roof, Rear doors, and Bulkhead — and each has its own toggle, so you can open up whichever side you're working from or strip the van down to a floor plan.

Most of the time you won't touch the toggles: Auto-hide walls facing the camera (on by default) fades out whatever walls sit between you and the interior as you orbit, so the inside is always visible and the far side of the van still reads as a van.

Body style & paint

Body style switches between a Panel van — the familiar curved shell with a slider seam, drawn with the walls' real inward curvature — and a Box body with straight walls, matching Luton/box conversions.

Paint recolors the exterior: ten classic van colors from white to anthracite, sand, navy, and orange, or any custom color from the swatch. Paint is purely visual — pick your real van's color and your photo-mode shots will look like your build.

Cutting openings — draw straight onto the wall

Real conversions cut into the body, so VanPlot lets you plan the cuts. An opening is a real hole in the shell — you see through it from inside and out — placed on the left or right wall, the roof, or the rear doors.

There are three kinds: a Window (adds about 8 kg and a typical window price to your build), a Roof fan (about 5 kg, priced like a Maxxfan-class unit), and an Open hole (free — for vents, cable glands, or a cut you're pricing yourself). Openings are counted in the build's weight, balance, and cost automatically.

Cutting is draw-to-cut: arm a side and the panel itself becomes a tinted draw surface in the 3D view. Drag out a rectangle right on the wall — you see a live amber ghost as you go — and releasing the mouse cuts it, exits the mode, and selects the new opening. A plain click (no drag) places the side's default size at that point instead. The cut clamps inside its panel with a structural margin.

1. Open the Van inspector (the Body button) and, under Cut an opening, click the side to arm — Left, Right, Roof, or Rear.
2. Drag a rectangle directly on the wall in the 3D view to size and place the cut, or click once for the side's default size.
3. The new opening is selected and its own inspector opens: pick its kind — Window, Roof fan, or Open hole.
4. Fine-tune Width and Height in meters — drag the labels to scrub, or type exact numbers.
5. Adjust position with Along wall and Height off floor (roof openings use Across roof instead).
6. Repeat for every window and fan in your plan. Each opening is also listed in the Van inspector with its size; the trash icon removes it.