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How to draw a floor plan in AutoCAD

How to draw a house's floor plan in AutoCAD: walls with OFFSET, an inner wall, openings cut with TRIM, doors with their swing, windows and dimensions.

A floor plan is the house cut through at about one and a half metres up and seen from above: each wall as two lines with its thickness between them, the openings in it, the doors drawn open with their swing, the windows and the dimensions. This guide draws a house of two rooms, 8 by 6 metres, in centimetres: one unit is one centimetre, so the outside walls are 20 thick and the inner one 10. Each step shows its drawing and the command line's history as you would type it. Open the editor beside this page and follow it.

Set up the layers

Each kind of object goes on a layer of its own, with its colour, so you can turn any of them off: Walls, Doors, Windows and Dimensions. Create them in the layer palette, LAYER, and make the right one current in the Layer control before each step. For the dimensions to read at the size of a house, set their style's overall scale in DIMSTYLE: 12 here, so their text is 30 high.

Draw the outside walls

On Walls, RECTANG from 0,0 to 800,600: the walls' outer face. OFFSET gives the inner one: type the thickness, 20, pick the rectangle and click inside it.

The outside walls: a rectangle and its offset, 20 inside.
  1. Command: RECTANG
  2. Specify first corner point or [Chamfer/Elevation/Fillet/Thickness/Width]: 0,0
  3. Specify other corner point or [Area/Dimensions/Rotation]: @800,600
  4. Command: OFFSET
  5. Current settings: Erase source=No Layer=Source OFFSETGAPTYPE=0
  6. Specify offset distance or [Through/Erase/Layer] <Through>: 20
  7. Select object to offset or [Exit/Undo] <Exit>:
  8. Specify point on side to offset or [Exit/Multiple/Undo] <Exit>:
  9. Select object to offset or [Exit/Undo] <Exit>:
The outside walls: a rectangle and its offset, 20 inside.

Draw the inner wall

A line with LINE from 500,20, 0,560 up to the outside walls' inner face, and an OFFSET of 10 to its right: the wall between the two rooms.

The inner wall: a line and its offset, 10 to its right.
  1. Command: LINE
  2. Specify first point: 500,20
  3. Specify next point or [Undo]: @0,560
  4. Specify next point or [Undo]:
  5. Command: OFFSET
  6. Current settings: Erase source=No Layer=Source OFFSETGAPTYPE=0
  7. Specify offset distance or [Through/Erase/Layer] <20.00>: 10
  8. Select object to offset or [Exit/Undo] <Exit>:
  9. Specify point on side to offset or [Exit/Multiple/Undo] <Exit>:
  10. Select object to offset or [Exit/Undo] <Exit>:
The inner wall: a line and its offset, 10 to its right.

Cut the openings

An opening is cut between two lines across the wall, its jambs. Draw them with LINE, then TRIM the wall's lines between them, a pick each: the entrance, 90 wide, from 100,0; the inner door, 80 wide, from 500,200; the windows, 120 wide, from 200,580 in the top wall and 780,250 in the right one.

Four openings: two jambs each, and the wall's lines trimmed between them.
  1. Command: LINE
  2. Specify first point: 100,0
  3. Specify next point or [Undo]: @0,20
  4. Specify next point or [Undo]:
  5. Command: LINE
  6. Specify first point: 190,0
  7. Specify next point or [Undo]: @0,20
  8. Specify next point or [Undo]:
  9. Command: LINE
  10. Specify first point: 500,200
  11. Specify next point or [Undo]: @10,0
  12. Specify next point or [Undo]:
  13. Command: LINE
  14. Specify first point: 500,280
  15. Specify next point or [Undo]: @10,0
  16. Specify next point or [Undo]:
  17. Command: LINE
  18. Specify first point: 200,580
  19. Specify next point or [Undo]: @0,20
  20. Specify next point or [Undo]:
  21. Command: LINE
  22. Specify first point: 320,580
  23. Specify next point or [Undo]: @0,20
  24. Specify next point or [Undo]:
  25. Command: LINE
  26. Specify first point: 780,250
  27. Specify next point or [Undo]: @20,0
  28. Specify next point or [Undo]:
  29. Command: LINE
  30. Specify first point: 780,370
  31. Specify next point or [Undo]: @20,0
  32. Specify next point or [Undo]:
  33. Command: TRIM
  34. Current settings: Projection=UCS, Edge=None, Mode=Quick
  35. Select object to trim or shift-select to extend or [cuTting edges/Crossing/mOde/eRase]:
  36. Select object to trim or shift-select to extend or [cuTting edges/Crossing/mOde/eRase/Undo]:
  37. Select object to trim or shift-select to extend or [cuTting edges/Crossing/mOde/eRase/Undo]:
  38. Select object to trim or shift-select to extend or [cuTting edges/Crossing/mOde/eRase/Undo]:
  39. Select object to trim or shift-select to extend or [cuTting edges/Crossing/mOde/eRase/Undo]:
  40. Select object to trim or shift-select to extend or [cuTting edges/Crossing/mOde/eRase/Undo]:
  41. Select object to trim or shift-select to extend or [cuTting edges/Crossing/mOde/eRase/Undo]:
  42. Select object to trim or shift-select to extend or [cuTting edges/Crossing/mOde/eRase/Undo]:
  43. Select object to trim or shift-select to extend or [cuTting edges/Crossing/mOde/eRase/Undo]:
Four openings: two jambs each, and the wall's lines trimmed between them.

Draw the doors

On Doors, each door is its leaf, drawn open with LINE, and its swing, an arc with ARC: choose its centre option, then give the hinge as the centre, the swing's start and its end. Both ends are points already drawn, the jamb's corner and the leaf's end: type _END, the Endpoint object snap for one point, and pick each.

Each door: its leaf open at 90° and the arc of its swing.
  1. Command: LINE
  2. Specify first point: 100,20
  3. Specify next point or [Undo]: @0,90
  4. Specify next point or [Undo]:
  5. Command: ARC
  6. Specify start point of arc or [Center]: C
  7. Specify center point of arc: 100,20
  8. Specify start point of arc: _END of
  9. Specify end point of arc (hold Ctrl to switch direction): _END of
  10. Command: LINE
  11. Specify first point: 510,200
  12. Specify next point or [Undo]: @80,0
  13. Specify next point or [Undo]:
  14. Command: ARC
  15. Specify start point of arc or [Center]: C
  16. Specify center point of arc: 510,200
  17. Specify start point of arc: _END of
  18. Specify end point of arc (hold Ctrl to switch direction): _END of
Each door: its leaf open at 90° and the arc of its swing.

Draw the windows

On Windows, a RECTANG fills each opening from its jamb, and a line through its middle stands for the glass.

The windows: a rectangle in each opening and a line for the glass.
  1. Command: RECTANG
  2. Specify first corner point or [Chamfer/Elevation/Fillet/Thickness/Width]: 200,580
  3. Specify other corner point or [Area/Dimensions/Rotation]: @120,20
  4. Command: LINE
  5. Specify first point: 200,590
  6. Specify next point or [Undo]: @120,0
  7. Specify next point or [Undo]:
  8. Command: RECTANG
  9. Specify first corner point or [Chamfer/Elevation/Fillet/Thickness/Width]: 780,250
  10. Specify other corner point or [Area/Dimensions/Rotation]: @20,120
  11. Command: LINE
  12. Specify first point: 790,250
  13. Specify next point or [Undo]: @0,120
  14. Specify next point or [Undo]:
The windows: a rectangle in each opening and a line for the glass.

Dimension the plan

On Dimensions, DIMLINEAR the outside sizes, then the rooms from inside: the first room's width with DIMLINEAR, then the inner wall and the second room with DIMCONTINUE, typed from the origin with #.

The plan dimensioned: 800 by 600 outside, the rooms inside.80060048010270
  1. Command: DIMLINEAR
  2. Specify first extension line origin or <select object>: 0,0
  3. Specify second extension line origin: @800,0
  4. Non-associative dimension created.
  5. Specify dimension line location or [Text/Angle/Horizontal/Vertical/Rotated]:
  6. Dimension text = 800
  7. Command: DIMLINEAR
  8. Specify first extension line origin or <select object>: 0,0
  9. Specify second extension line origin: @0,600
  10. Non-associative dimension created.
  11. Specify dimension line location or [Text/Angle/Horizontal/Vertical/Rotated]:
  12. Dimension text = 600
  13. Command: DIMLINEAR
  14. Specify first extension line origin or <select object>: 20,20
  15. Specify second extension line origin: @480,0
  16. Non-associative dimension created.
  17. Specify dimension line location or [Text/Angle/Horizontal/Vertical/Rotated]:
  18. Dimension text = 480
  19. Command: DIMCONTINUE
  20. Specify second extension line origin or [Select/Undo] <Select>: #510,20
  21. Dimension text = 10
  22. Specify second extension line origin or [Select/Undo] <Select>: #780,20
  23. Dimension text = 270
  24. Specify second extension line origin or [Select/Undo] <Select>:
  25. Select continued dimension:
The plan dimensioned: 800 by 600 outside, the rooms inside.

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