Floor Plan layouts

Hi everybody,
I started a new job and I need to draw a lot of floor plans and I think I
just take to long drawing them. I would like to hear as many tips as
possible on how to draw a floor plan fast and accurate. I know that what
works for one person may not work for another person, but I know there is a
lot of people out there with a lot of experience and tricks or short cuts.
Help will be appreciated.

 

Having blocks with attributes for column designations is one way - insert one at
the top ending of vertical column centerlines and at the ends of horizontal
column centerlines. The attributes will help in designation, such as "1", "2",
"A", "B", etc.

Blocks for north arrows anb titles.

 

Diego - are you using AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT?

Do you start with the walls? Do you use DLINE (LT) or MLINE (AutoCAD)? (If
you use AutoCAD multilines, I'd recommend exploding them as soon as you
finish drawing them.)

Any chance you could get Architectural Desktop? It takes as long to draw a
wall in ADT as it takes to draw a line in AutoCAD or LT.

 

I use AutoCAD 2002, yes I start with walls and I draw a single line then I
offset the lines. It takes me a long time to draw interior walls or walls
with a lot of corners.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by column designations such as "1", or column
centerline. Thank you for your help.

 

Diego: You haven't explained WHY you think it takes a long time to draw floor plans. What are you using to compare how long you take?

Sometime fast is not always tthe best but accurate always is. Somewhere between fast, accurate and the experience you've acquired to date is where you need to eventually be. You will usually become faster and more accurate with more experience....

 

I'm slow because I don't have that much experience and I know the more I
practice the faster I'll get and I'll find shortcuts and new tricks, but
with tips from every body I'll speed up the process and maybe come up with
new tips and new ideas. Thank you.

 

Or, alternately, really learn how to use/edit MLINES so you don't need to
explode them,
and can be even more efficient. They make great hatch boundaries, too, btw.

Best regards,
David Kozina

 

One tip for cleaning up walls is to fillet with "0" radius. It's faster than 2 trims and accurate. Also, copy as much as you can, but that's an obvious answer.

 

I created a tool palette for this:

Line command on full height wall layer
Rectangle command on full height wall layer
Line command on low wall layer
Offset preset to 3.5" (2X4 wall)
Offset preset to 5.5" (2X6 wall)
Trim command with extra return (everything becomes a trim boundry, quicker
intersection cleanup)
Hatch command preset for wall poche layer
Pline command for 1 & 2 hour rated walls (preset for the right layer,
linetype and width)
Line command on stair layer
Offset preset to 12" (exterior stairs)
Offset preset to 11" (interior stairs)
Offset preset to 10" (interior stairs)
Offset preset to 9" (code limit for interior stairs)
Breakline on stairs layer, with preset block size and no overhang, defaults
to M2P snaps (as I do middle of one tread to middle of next tread for stair
breaks)

The net result is a single tool palette that addresses 99% of my wall layout
needs, and ensures consistent layers, offsets, breaklines, etc. No where
near as fast as ADT, but much quicker than the raw autoCAD way.

Best,
Gordon

 

David - I personally think that multilines are unmasterable. I've spent time
with them (I wrote the original section on multlines in "Inside AutoCAD 13
for DOS"). Lines and polylines are way more efficient because you don't have
to use a special command to edit them.

The most annoying aspect of multilines is that it's virtually impossible to
redefine a multiline style once you've added them (something that would
never even be an issue with lines and polylines).

 

Dave,

I know that most people hate'em and do as you do, just explode them to
pieces.
But... 'unmasterable' they are not.

I find them indispensible, and I haven't found the need to explode one in
years. Literally.
BTW, I probably draw more mlines than lines, and they make up a relatively
high percentage of the objects found in any given drawing I produce. (IOW,
you'd probably hate my drawings

Tools are available to change the scale, justification, and open/close
properties, even converting a pline to an mline and vice versa. (ToolPac
for one.) (BTW, those particular properties can be accomplished via simple
DXF modifications, but they accomplish much)

Free code exists to use or examine how to create an mlinestyle
programmatically, should one wish to do that. (Reini Urban's STDLIB)

Editing is really pretty simple and straightforward, once you skip the lame
dialog and go for the command line version of -mledit, which can be even
quicker with some easy to make defun'ed subcommand abbreviations.

If you don't like how the segments behave when cut, then later vertex grip
stretched, you might try using a wipeout for the 'cuts'. I've been using
this method in a lot of situations (example: 'continuous footing' MLINE
intersecting a scaled 'spot footing' block. CAKE to re-edit when the
continuous footing and/or the spot footing needs to be re-sized. Nothing
has been exploded, just rescale the footings as needed, then grip stretch
the mline and/or move the wipeout and you're done).

To redefine a style is not especially easy, but by no means 'virtually
impossible', and there are probably even easier ways to do it than how I do
it now, which I've got to look into more one of these days. I always say
that if I can figure out how to do it, it mustn't be that difficult.
(Hint: Store the vertex points of the old mline in a list. Create the new
style if need be. Erase the old mline. Draw the new mline with the new
style using the stored point list.)

If you mean to literally REDEFINE a style, well, okay, that is a little more
difficult, but that serves you right for not defining the style correctly to
begin with. Still not THAT hard, though... (I can't remember if RENAME
works for mlinestyles - if NOT, create a new temporary 'Dummy' style. For
each mline in that needs conversion, redo as explained above to the Dummy
style. Then delete the old style. Create a CORRECT style. Repeat to
convert the Dummy style mlines to the CORRECT style. Of course, if RENAME
works, then just create the CORRECT style (instead of the 'Dummy' style),
convert to the correct one, delete the old style, then rename the CORRECT
style to the old style.)

I doubt I'll convince many to join the dark side, but I've got to keep
trying.

Mlines ARE extremely versatile and useful, even more so if kept whole, and
they are a good example of an object that truly allows you to do more with
less - which is why I like them so.

Maybe Autodesk will get a clue sometime and make them easier to work with.
(I'd agree with you 100% on this.)

Best regards,
David Kozina

 

I've created lisps that draw foundation walls (using dialog box to specify
sizes), trusses, stairs and stud walls for doing building sections. Also, I
suggest making blocks for things such as joists & beams etc. (If you want
to try the lisp routines, crude as they may be, let me know)


For drawing plans, make sure you've got all your symbols defined as blocks
for electrical stuff, plumbing / heating, kitchen stuff, windows, doors etc.

Multilines have been discussed quite extensively, and I have found them
typically difficult to use, especially for one just starting out. I did use
the dline command and quite liked about 5 or 6 years ago when I was using
LT. I'm sure you can find a lisp file that does the dline command in full
AutoCad if you search for it.

Another piece of advice - USE DRAWING TEMPLATES. Make sure all your
dimension styles, text styles & layers are created in your template.
There's no need to waste time on every drawing creating them again.

that's my 2 cents worth.


Casey