# 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](/draw) 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. ```text Command: RECTANG Specify first corner point or [Chamfer/Elevation/Fillet/Thickness/Width]: 0,0 Specify other corner point or [Area/Dimensions/Rotation]: @800,600 Command: OFFSET Current settings: Erase source=No Layer=Source OFFSETGAPTYPE=0 Specify offset distance or [Through/Erase/Layer] : 20 Select object to offset or [Exit/Undo] : Specify point on side to offset or [Exit/Multiple/Undo] : Select object to offset or [Exit/Undo] : ``` ## 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. ```text Command: LINE Specify first point: 500,20 Specify next point or [Undo]: @0,560 Specify next point or [Undo]: Command: OFFSET Current settings: Erase source=No Layer=Source OFFSETGAPTYPE=0 Specify offset distance or [Through/Erase/Layer] <20.00>: 10 Select object to offset or [Exit/Undo] : Specify point on side to offset or [Exit/Multiple/Undo] : Select object to offset or [Exit/Undo] : ``` ## 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. ```text Command: LINE Specify first point: 100,0 Specify next point or [Undo]: @0,20 Specify next point or [Undo]: Command: LINE Specify first point: 190,0 Specify next point or [Undo]: @0,20 Specify next point or [Undo]: Command: LINE Specify first point: 500,200 Specify next point or [Undo]: @10,0 Specify next point or [Undo]: Command: LINE Specify first point: 500,280 Specify next point or [Undo]: @10,0 Specify next point or [Undo]: Command: LINE Specify first point: 200,580 Specify next point or [Undo]: @0,20 Specify next point or [Undo]: Command: LINE Specify first point: 320,580 Specify next point or [Undo]: @0,20 Specify next point or [Undo]: Command: LINE Specify first point: 780,250 Specify next point or [Undo]: @20,0 Specify next point or [Undo]: Command: LINE Specify first point: 780,370 Specify next point or [Undo]: @20,0 Specify next point or [Undo]: Command: TRIM Current settings: Projection=UCS, Edge=None, Mode=Quick Select object to trim or shift-select to extend or [cuTting edges/Crossing/mOde/eRase]: Select object to trim or shift-select to extend or [cuTting edges/Crossing/mOde/eRase/Undo]: Select object to trim or shift-select to extend or [cuTting edges/Crossing/mOde/eRase/Undo]: Select object to trim or shift-select to extend or [cuTting edges/Crossing/mOde/eRase/Undo]: Select object to trim or shift-select to extend or [cuTting edges/Crossing/mOde/eRase/Undo]: Select object to trim or shift-select to extend or [cuTting edges/Crossing/mOde/eRase/Undo]: Select object to trim or shift-select to extend or [cuTting edges/Crossing/mOde/eRase/Undo]: Select object to trim or shift-select to extend or [cuTting edges/Crossing/mOde/eRase/Undo]: Select object to trim or shift-select to extend or [cuTting edges/Crossing/mOde/eRase/Undo]: ``` ## 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. ```text Command: LINE Specify first point: 100,20 Specify next point or [Undo]: @0,90 Specify next point or [Undo]: Command: ARC Specify start point of arc or [Center]: C Specify center point of arc: 100,20 Specify start point of arc: _END of Specify end point of arc (hold Ctrl to switch direction): _END of Command: LINE Specify first point: 510,200 Specify next point or [Undo]: @80,0 Specify next point or [Undo]: Command: ARC Specify start point of arc or [Center]: C Specify center point of arc: 510,200 Specify start point of arc: _END of Specify end point of arc (hold Ctrl to switch direction): _END of ``` ## 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. ```text Command: RECTANG Specify first corner point or [Chamfer/Elevation/Fillet/Thickness/Width]: 200,580 Specify other corner point or [Area/Dimensions/Rotation]: @120,20 Command: LINE Specify first point: 200,590 Specify next point or [Undo]: @120,0 Specify next point or [Undo]: Command: RECTANG Specify first corner point or [Chamfer/Elevation/Fillet/Thickness/Width]: 780,250 Specify other corner point or [Area/Dimensions/Rotation]: @20,120 Command: LINE Specify first point: 790,250 Specify next point or [Undo]: @0,120 Specify next point or [Undo]: ``` ## 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. ```text Command: DIMLINEAR Specify first extension line origin or : 0,0 Specify second extension line origin: @0,600 Non-associative dimension created. Specify dimension line location or [Text/Angle/Horizontal/Vertical/Rotated]: Dimension text = 600 Command: DIMLINEAR Specify first extension line origin or : #510,20 Dimension text = 10 Specify second extension line origin or [Select/Undo] : Select continued dimension: ``` ## What next - Name each room with `TEXT`, and fill the walls with `HATCH`, picking a point between their two lines. - Practise with the [exercises](https://mellowcad.com/docs/exercises.md): the [stairs in plan](https://mellowcad.com/docs/exercises/stairs.md) and [a round table and chairs](https://mellowcad.com/docs/exercises/round-table.md) are drawn in centimetres too. - [Coordinates](https://mellowcad.com/docs/coordinates.md): every way to type a point.