Gaps in an outside wall: where they come from and how to close them

Step by step

1. 1

   Delete an outside wall: it leaves a gap

   Tap an outside wall. The small bar beside it shows its length, a padlock, a link button, scissors and a red trash can; the panel below is titled Exterior wall. Tap the trash can (or Remove at the bottom of the panel). The wall disappears but its place stays in the outline as a dashed stretch, still selected, with a + in the middle. The rooms, floor and furniture don't change.

   

2. 2

   What a gap looks like, and the + that fills it

   A gap is drawn as a dashed line along the outline, blue and dotted while it's selected. Select it and a + sits in its middle (Fill this gap with a wall); its bar shows the length, the padlock and the link button, and the panel shows Type: Open. Tap the + and the wall is back, with the thickness and height of the walls beside it. A gap that lines up with a wall next to it simply becomes part of that wall.

   

3. 3

   Leave a side open on purpose: Type → Open

   To open a side without deleting anything, select the wall and set Type to Open in its panel (the choices are Wall | Railing | Open). The wall becomes a gap exactly as above. Choose Wall again, or tap the gap's +, to close it. Railing keeps a low barrier there instead; see Wall types.

   

4. 4

   Why a gap appeared when you moved a wall

   Every outside wall moves on its own unless you say otherwise. Drag a wall outwards, drag the crosshair at one of its ends, or type a shorter length, and the walls at its two ends stay put, so the outline opens up: the space between the moved wall and its old neighbours is drawn as dashed gaps. That's what you want when you're reshaping one wall; it's not what you want when the whole side should come along. The link button on the wall's bar decides: a broken link (the usual setting) means Wall moves on its own; tap it and it turns solid blue, Joined walls move too, and the walls beside it stretch to stay joined, bringing the interior walls attached to it along. On a computer, hold Alt (Option on a Mac) while you drag to do the opposite for that one drag.

   

5. 5

   Where the link button is

   It's the chain icon on the bar beside the selected wall, between the padlock and the scissors. Broken and grey: the wall moves on its own. Solid and blue: joined walls move too. The setting is per wall, so you can link the back wall and leave the side walls free.

   

6. 6

   A shorter typed length leaves a gap too

   Type a shorter length for an outside wall with the link off and the end marked with the arrow moves in, leaving a dashed gap between it and the corner it used to reach (the pinned end stays put; tap the arrow to keep the other end instead). The gap keeps the outline closed, so your rooms still read correctly. Tap the gap's + if you wanted the wall to reach the corner after all, or turn the link on and type the length again to have the next wall come with it.

   

7. 7

   Take the floor behind a gap off the plan: Remove area

   Sometimes the outline takes in floor that isn't part of the house: an imported plan that ran round a yard, a courtyard or the neighbour's flat, or an extension you no longer want. The real outside wall is usually already there, as an interior wall. First turn the outside walls around that floor into gaps (tap each one and its trash can, or set Type to Open). Then select one of the gaps: when there's floor behind it, a red Remove area button sits on its bar, after the length, padlock and link. A single straight gap with nothing behind it doesn't offer it.

   

8. 8

   Check the red preview, then confirm

   Tap Remove area and nothing changes yet: the plan shows what would happen. The gaps that go are dashed red, the floor that goes is shaded red, and the wall that will become the new outside wall is blue. Anything standing in that floor (furniture, interior walls, stairs, pillars and so on) is outlined in red. A bar at the top asks Remove these 3 gaps and the floor shown in red? with Cancel and Delete; when something is in the way it reads 1 item is in this area (outlined in red) and will be deleted with it. and the button is Delete all. To keep something, tap Cancel (or press Esc), drag it into the house, and tap Remove area again.

   

9. 9

   What you get: the rooms stay, the inside wall becomes the outside wall

   Confirm and the floor comes off the plan in one step (one Undo brings it all back). Your rooms are kept, and the interior walls along the cut become the outside walls there, keeping their doors, windows, height and thickness. A wall that stops a little short of the next one is carried on to meet it, so an imported plan doesn't lose a whole room over a small gap. When no interior walls join the two ends of the gaps, the floor is cut off in a straight line between them instead, leaving one gap there. That line can run at an angle, so look at the red preview first; if it isn't where you want the outside wall, Cancel, draw an interior wall along the line you want, and tap Remove area again.

   

10. 10

    Match the new outside wall's thickness

    Tap the wall that became the outside wall: its panel now says Exterior wall, but it keeps the thickness it had as an interior wall (4.5" here, against 6.5" for the rest of the outline), so its outer face sits a little inside the walls beside it. Pick the same Thickness as the other outside walls if you want the outline flush.

    

11. 11

    On a phone

    Tap the wall, then the trash can on its bar, or scroll the panel at the bottom to Type and choose Open. The gap shows dashed with its +; tap the + to close it. The link button sits on the same bar.

    

Common mistakes

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