Architectural Tools Tutorial

Architectural tools are provided to help you draw architectural drawings and sketches.

Drawing Walls
Walls are drawn as a special entity type with an actual scaled width, or thickness.

To draw walls
1. From the Help menu, open the drawing file associated with this tutorial.
2. On the Data Entry window, click the Inspector button. The Inspector is
displayed.
3. Click the Pen Properties button and change the Color to black, then close the
Inspector.
4. Drag through the Architectural toolset to tear it off from the Main Tool Palette and
place it at the bottom of the workspace.
5. Drag through the Text toolset to tear it off from the Main Tool Palette and drop it
next to the Architectural tools.
6. Click the Single Wall tool. To use this tool, you pick two points, a start point
and an end point for a single wall segment.
7. On the workspace, click to set the start point.
8. Drag to the right, to extend the wall segment and click to set the endpoint.

9. Beginning at the endpoint, click to set the next segment’s start point and drag down.
10. Click to place the line segment.

Architectural Tools Tutorial Page 1 of 20

11. Draw one more segment, extended to the right.
12. Click the Multi Wall tool. This tool allows you to pick a point, drag to the
next point, and continue picking points.
13. Click points and drag to extend a multi-line wall parallel to the single line walls.
Right-click to end.

Ctrl-click to end.

Wall Behaviors
Walls are not automatically extended to maintain connectivity. So, if you drag one of the
single wall segments away, the attached walls do not automatically adjust. Walls do,
however, automatically adjust to accommodate intersections.

To separate and connect walls

1. Drag a wall segment away from the other segments.

Architectural Tools Tutorial Page 2 of 20

2. Drag the wall segment back to its original position.
3. Click the Single Wall tool.
4. Place a wall intersecting with a horizontal multi-line segment. Notice the intersection
is cleaned up automatically.

5. Drag that wall along the segment. Notice the intersection is cleaned up, as you move
it.
6. Drag the wall to an endpoint and notice the corner is even created automatically.

To move a wall
1. Zoom in to the left side of the walls.
2. Drag a selection window around the vertical single line segment.

Architectural Tools Tutorial Page 3 of 20

3. With the segment selected, drag it to a new location. Notice the endpoints remained
connected and the attached walls are adjusted.
You can also move an individual endpoint this way.
4. Drag a selection window around the single line segment’s left-most endpoint and drag
the point to resize the segment.
5. Zoom out so you can see the entire wall design and drag a selection window around
all the walls.
6. Delete all the walls.

Wall Styles
Wall styles allow you to create walls made up of components. These components are
used to graphically represent the makeup of wall materials, for instance, the stud wall, the
insulation, the siding, even the sheetrock inside.

To specify wall styles

1. Click the Single Wall tool. The Options button appears on the data entry window.
2. Click the Options button. The Wall Settings dialog box appears.

Architectural Tools Tutorial Page 4 of 20

 Here you specify the number of components you want your wall to have, the wall’s
thickness, a fill, and a color.
3. From the Components drop-down menu, choose 3.
4. Click the first component’s color preview. The Color dialog box appears.
5. Choose a light shade of yellow and click OK. The color you chose appears in the
color preview.
6. Click the fill preview for the first component.
7. Choose the sixth pattern below None.

The fill is displayed in the preview box.

Architectural Tools Tutorial Page 5 of 20

8. Change component 2’s color to white.
9. Type 2 in component 1’s Thickness field.
10. Change component 2’s thickness to 3.5.
11. Change component 3’s color to maroon and set its thickness to 0.75.

12. Click OK to accept the settings.

13. Drag a single, horizontal wall and zoom in on it.

Notice one of the fills is missing.

14. Delete the wall.
15. Select the Single Wall tool and click the Options button on the Data Entry window.
The Wall Settings dialog box appears.
16. Click the fill preview for the 3rd component and choose the first pattern below None,
the solid fill pattern. Click OK.
17. Draw another wall and zoom in on it. This time you’ll notice the fill. Also notice the
hatch pattern is yellow.
18. Click the Single Line tool and open the Wall Settings dialog box. The 1st
component’s pattern is drawn in the color you specify.
19. Click the 1st component’s color preview and choose a dark brown color and click OK.

Architectural Tools Tutorial Page 6 of 20

20. Draw another single wall. Notice the pattern is drawn in the brown color chosen. So
the color not only controls the color of the component, but any fill that component
may have.

21. Drag to extend an endpoint. Notice the fills are associative; they extend with the wall.
22. Zoom out a bit.
23. Click the Single Wall tool and open the Wall Settings dialog box.
24. From the Components drop-down menu, choose 1.
25. Choose a solid fill in the color yellow and set the fill pattern to solid.
26. Type 4 in the Thickness text box and click OK.
27. Place the wall extending down from the bottom wall on the workspace.

28. Add another wall, extending to the right from the wall just placed.

Architectural Tools Tutorial Page 7 of 20

 In looking at this wall style, you’ll notice it is not symmetric. One side is meant to be
the outside and the other meant to be the inside.

To draw inside, outside, and center walls

1. Delete the existing walls.
2. Click the Single Wall tool and open the Wall Settings dialog box.
3. From the Components drop-down menu, choose 3.
4. For the first component, choose the fifth fill pattern below None, choose a brown
color, and set the thickness to 2. Notice, as you change the thickness values, the total
thickness is displayed at the bottom of the dialog box.

5. Click OK.
6. Draw two perpendicular lines, in a clockwise direction.

Architectural Tools Tutorial Page 8 of 20

7. Draw a couple segments, in a counterclockwise direction, connecting to the existing
walls.

8. Zoom in a bit so you can see the styles better. Notice the styles of the walls drawn in
each direction are switched. Wall styles are, in fact, dependant upon the direction in
which the wall is drawn.
9. Select the walls and delete them.
10. From the Window menu, choose Concept Explorer. The Concept Explorer appears.

Architectural Tools Tutorial Page 9 of 20

11. Click to make Wall Direction visible.
12. Turn off the visibility of Wall tools and close the Explorer.
13. Use Pan and Zoom to position the construction lines in the center of the workspace.

The green dot represents where the wall will start; the red dot represents where the
line will finish.
14. Click the Single Line tool.
15. Open the Wall Settings dialog box and choose 1 component and set the thickness to 4.
16. Choose the solid fill pattern and change the color to white.
17. On the Prompt Window, drag the sub-tool set out to the bottom of the workspace. Be
sure the Centerline tool is active.
18. Beginning in the top left corner, position your cursor on the vertical midpoint and
click to start the wall.
19. Drag down, to the endpoint, and click to set the next point.
20. Drag along the horizontal line, to the midpoint, and place the line.

21. Move to the bottom left corner and draw a wall, starting from the green line’s
midpoint, to the red line’s midpoint.

Architectural Tools Tutorial Page 10 of 20

 Notice both walls’ lines go through the centerline, regardless of which direction they
were drawn. The centerline is the only time this is true.
22. From the Multi Wall sub-toolset, choose the Inside Wall tool.
23. Using the middle set of lines in the top row, draw a wall along the lines, in a
counterclockwise direction.

Here, you’re drawing with the inside edge going in a counterclockwise direction.
24. Move to the lines directly below and draw a wall in a clockwise direction.

Architectural Tools Tutorial Page 11 of 20

 Notice you’re drawing with the outside edge of the wall, even though you’re using
the Inside Wall tool. So the wall is dependant upon the direction you’re dragging or
order of points you’re picking to place the wall.
25. Click the Outside Wall tool.
26. Move to the final set of lines on the top and draw a wall, from midpoint to midpoint,
in a counterclockwise direction.

Notice you’re identifying the outside edges of the wall.

Architectural Tools Tutorial Page 12 of 20

27. Draw a wall, midpoint to midpoint, in a clockwise direction, in the bottom right
corner.

Here, you’re identifying the inside edges. Direction is the key when using the Inside
and Outside Wall tools.

To specify exterior wall lengths

1. Pan to the right, to a blank area of the workspace.
2. At any point during the design process you can quickly check the size of your
available workspace. From the Verify menu, choose Dist Pt-Pt. The Distance dialog
box appears.
3. On the left side of the workspace, click to start the measurement and drag to the right.
4. Click again to display the distance in the dialog box.
5. Click OK to close the dialog box.
6. Use the wheel on your mouse, or the Zoom tool, to zoom back a little.

Architectural Tools Tutorial Page 13 of 20

7. Click the Multi Wall tool.
8. In the top left corner of the workspace, click to start the wall and drag to the right, to
extend it.
9. As you have a wall tool active, you can use the Tab key to move through the fields on
the Data Entry window.
10. Press the Tab key to move to the Length text field and type 50' and press the Enter
key. The wall is automatically drawn.
11. Drag down, and press the Tab key to activate the Length field for manual entry.
12. Delete the walls.
13. You can change the wall settings using the Wall Settings dialog box, but to quickly
change the thickness, type a new value in the Thickness field, on the Data Entry
window. Type 6″ in the Thickness field and press the Enter key.
14. To enter wall lengths when you know the dimensions, you can use the
PrecisionPoint dialog box On the Data Entry window, click the PrecisionPoint
button. The PrecisionPoint dialog box is displayed. Be sure Relative is active.
15. In the top left corner of the workspace, click to start a wall and press the Tab key to
move through the PrecisionPoint fields.
16. Type 50 in the dX field and press the Enter key. This draws the wall 50′, to the right.
17. Click the last point and, in the PrecisionPoint dialog box, set dX for 0 and dY for -40
and press the Enter key. This draws a wall straight down.

Architectural Tools Tutorial Page 14 of 20

18. Continue to place walls by entering the X and Y values:
a. dX=-28′, dY=0, dZ=0
b. dX=-0, dY=15′, dZ=0
c. dX=-22′, dY=0, dZ=0

19. Manually draw the last wall to enclose the space.

To specify interior wall lengths

1. With the Multi Line Wall tool active, click the Option button to display the Wall
Settings dialog box.
2. Change the Thickness to 4 and the color to a light shade of yellow.
3. Click OK.
4. On the PrecisionPoint dialog box, click the Specify button, then click the lower left
endpoint, along the left side, to specify it as the point from which you want a wall
relative.

Architectural Tools Tutorial Page 15 of 20

5. Specify the relative coordinates as dX=0, dY=5′, dZ=0 and press the Enter key. This
sets the start point for the line 5′ from the specified point, which, in this case, is the
cornerpoint.
6. Drag to the right, to align the line with the midpoint of the lower horizontal wall.

7. Click to place.
8. Draw a vertical wall to enclose the space.

Architectural Tools Tutorial Page 16 of 20

9. Start a wall at the left vertical wall’s midpoint and, using the PrecisionPoint dialog
box, set the Relative coordinates dX=22′, dY=0, dZ=0 and press the Enter key.

10. Draw a wall going up, to enclose another room.

To add doors
1. Click the Door tool. Options appear on the data entry window.
2. From the Door Style drop-down menu, choose Single Door.
3. Type 3′ in the Width text field and press the Enter key. This set the door’s
width to 3'. The Offset is the distance the door is offset from the point designated by
your cursor.
4. Click the wall on which you want the door to be placed.

Architectural Tools Tutorial Page 17 of 20

5. Position your cursor where you want the center of the door to appear and click to
place.
6. Drag to set the door’s swing and click again to place.

To add windows
1. From the Architectural toolset, choose the Window tool. Options appear on
the data entry window.
2. From the Window Style drop-down menu, choose Overlapping Sill.
3. Click to select the wall on which you want the window to be placed.
4. Click where you want the center of the window to appear and the window is placed.
5. Place another window along the south wall.

To move doors and windows

1. Click the Selection tool.
2. Select the door and drag to move it along the wall. Notice the openings will “heal”
and move along with doors and windows.
3. Editing is easy; simply drag a selection window around the door and drag it to a new
location.

Architectural Tools Tutorial Page 18 of 20

To use the New Using Wizard
1. From the File menu, choose New Using Wizard. The New Using Wizard dialog box
appears.

2. Click Next.
3. From the Unit Format drop-down menu, choose Feet/Inches and click Next.
4. From the Printer Paper Size drop-down menu, choose Landscape. Notice, you’re
using the Print Paper Size, as the paper to draw on, Tiled Printing is off, and the
software does allow page tiling if needed.
5. Select Show Page Breaks in Drawing Window.
6. Click Next.
7. From the Drawing Scale drop-down menu, choose Architectural, then choose 1/8" =
1' (1/96).
8. Click Next.
9. The Annotation Settings allow you to set the size that you wish the printed text to be.
Type .25 in the Page OutPut field.
10. Select the Scale Dimension Values with Text Height checkbox to scale dimensions in
the same fashion.
11. Click Finish.
12. Click the Horizontal Text tool.
13. On the workspace, click to set the location for your text and type “My First House”.
Notice, even though the text is 1/8" = 1' text, the text is entered at .25" on the page.
14. From the Dimension toolset, choose the Horizontal Dimension tool.
15. Click and drag on the workspace, to extend the dimension.
16. Click to place the dimension. Notice the text size in the dimension has also been
scaled automatically.

Architectural Tools Tutorial Page 19 of 20

 Delete the dimension.
17. Click the Multi Wall tool and open the Wall Settings dialog box.
18. From the Components drop-down menu, choose 3.
19. Set the 1st component’s fill pattern to the solid and choose a light yellow color.
20. Change the 2nd component’s thickness to 3.5, the fill pattern to the fourth pattern
below None, and the color to white.
21. Change the 3rd component’s thickness to .75, pattern to solid, and color to brown.
22. Click OK.
23. Beginning in the top left corner of the workspace, in a clockwise direction, draw an
enclosure.

Be sure to watch the direction in which you are drawing. Remember to switch
between inside and outside as needed.
On the Edit menu, there’s an option to Change Direction which allows you to flip a
wall, swapping its starting and ending points.

Architectural Tools Tutorial Page 20 of 20