Draw a floor plan: outside walls first, then rooms

Builders and designers start with the outside of the building and work inwards. The editor is set up to work the same way, and the Plan guide (bottom left of the plan) walks you through each step and points out anything that needs attention.

Before you start

• A design open in the editor (2D view).
• The overall outside size of the building, if you know it (e.g. from a survey or by measuring around the outside).

1. Draw the outside walls

1. Press P or choose Perimeter in the tool rail.
2. Pick Rectangle, L-shape or U-shape and drag the footprint. The live size is the outside size.
3. Or choose Type size and enter the overall width and depth — or tap the plan once to type it there.
4. For any other shape choose Corner by corner: click each outside corner, typing a length (e.g. 24'6" or 7.5 m) and pressing Enter to place the next corner exactly. Click the first corner or press Enter to close the outline.
5. The walls are placed so their outside face lands on your outline (6½″ / 250 mm thick by default), and overall dimensions are added along the top and left.

2. Divide it into rooms

1. Press W for Wall. It switches to Inside walls automatically after a perimeter.
2. Click on an outside wall to start — the new wall joins it.
3. As you move, live distances show the clear space from the new wall's face to the walls around it. Click when the room is the size you want, or type a length and press Enter.
4. End on another wall. Each enclosed space becomes a room with its area.
5. Switch the options bar to Outside walls for a garage or an addition; the thicker preset is used.

3. Place doors, windows and furniture with distances

1. Pick Door D or Window N and hover a wall: the distances from each edge to the nearest corners show along the face you're pointing at.
2. Furniture shows the space from each side to the nearest wall while you place or drag it.
3. Select a wall, door, window or item and click any distance on the plan to type the exact value you want — it moves to make it so.

Cut, split and join walls

1. Press X for Cut. Hover a wall: the cut point shows the distance from each end.
2. Click to split the wall in two, so you can move or delete just one part.
3. Drag along a wall to cut that stretch out — for example to open the kitchen to the living room. Release to remove it.
4. To merge two in-line walls back into one, right-click the corner between them and choose Join walls here, or use Join at start/end in the inspector.
5. Right-click any wall for Split wall here, Set length…, Make outside/inside wall and more. The inspector also has one-click thickness presets.

Move around the plan

• Press H or click the hand button (bottom right) and drag to move around. Hold Space with any tool to grab the plan temporarily; middle-mouse drag works too.
• Scroll or pinch to zoom. Prefer the wheel to pan? Choose Settings → Mouse wheel → Pans. Shift + wheel scrolls sideways.
• With nothing selected, the arrow keys pan. While drawing or dragging near the edge, the plan scrolls along with you.

Common problems

• "A wall stops short" in the Plan guide: a wall end isn't connected, so the room isn't closed. Click Connect it.
• "… has no way in": a room has no door or opening. Click Add a door.
• "A door or window is in the part you're cutting." Move or delete it first, then cut.
• Too many numbers on screen? Turn off Distances in the options bar (or in Settings).