Adding interior walls — and laying out a real apartment

Step by step

1. 1

   Start with the outer shape

   Open a floor plan that already has the outer walls drawn — your apartment's perimeter — but no interior walls yet. (If you haven't drawn the outer shape, see How to create a rectangular floor plan or Drawing a custom-shaped room first.) The example here is a 1-bedroom, 1-bathroom apartment: outer rectangle, one front door, that's it. The shape is done; the rooms aren't.

   

2. 2

   Pick the Interior Wall tile

   On the Build panel's Structural tab, tap the Interior Wall tile (next to Exterior Wall under Structural). That puts you in drawing mode: a purple cross-hair marks where the next wall starts and a blue + › handle beside it is what you drag to draw.

   

3. 3

   Draw square walls (the snap does the squaring)

   Drag the cross-hair to where the wall starts: on the bottom outside wall, 13′ from the left corner. When the cross-hair sits on a wall, the plan shows its distance from each end of that wall; tap one and type 13, or tap Center for the middle. Then drag the blue handle to where the wall ends and let go. That's the wall. While you pull, the wall snaps gently onto horizontal, vertical, straight on, square and 45° off the wall it starts from — within a few degrees — and lets go once you're clearly off the line, so square walls come out square without you being careful. The live length shows on the preview, and the end lands on the face of the wall it meets. Right after you let go you can type the exact length, or pull the + at the new wall's end to carry on round a corner. For the apartment, the kitchen, dining, and living are an open layout — they share one big space and we don't draw any walls between them. So the interior walls we draw carve out only the bedroom and the bathroom: one wall across the plan 13′ from the left, and one from the left outside wall across to it, 15′ down. Two walls and the two private rooms are roughed in.

   

4. 4

   Draw slanted walls when you need a diagonal

   Most homes are right angles, but not every wall is. A diagonal partition, a corner cut, a wall at the back of an alcove — sometimes you need the wall to point wherever you point it. Nothing to switch: aim clearly away from square (or 45°) and the wall follows your pointer. Once it's drawn, select it and its angle shows as two arcs at its start; tap one to type the exact angle you measured. Full details in See and type a slanted wall's angle. To place an end with no snapping at all, hold Ctrl (⌘ on a Mac) while you drag, or tap the wall's magnet so it reads Free. Most apartments won't need this — but knowing it exists means you're not stuck when the layout calls for it.

5. 5

   Edit a wall — by length, by drag, or by moving the whole thing

   Once a wall is in, you can change it three ways. Select it first: a small bar appears beside it with its length, a padlock, a link, a magnet and ⋯ (Split, Copy and Delete live behind the ⋯), and a + handle sits at each end. One — type the exact length. Tap the length in the bar, type the size you measured (wall face to wall face) and press Enter. While you type, a yellow pin marks the end that stays put and an arrow marks the end that moves; tap the arrow to keep that end instead. By default the end joined to other walls stays; if both ends are joined, the left end (or the top end of an up-and-down wall) stays. A length you type is held: if a later edit elsewhere would change it, that edit is refused and the wall flashes; change the wall itself when you want it different. Full walkthrough: Set an exact wall length. Two — drag an end. Drag the crosshair at the wall's end. A green ring means it will join a corner or another wall's end; a bar or T means it will join the side of a wall; the end always lands on the face of the wall it meets. Hold Ctrl (⌘ on a Mac) to place it without snapping. Three — move the whole wall. Grab the wall along its length and drag. By default it moves on its own (the link on its bar shows a broken link) and the walls it touches stay put. Tap the link so it turns solid blue, or hold Alt (Option on a Mac) for one drag, and the joined walls come along. See Move a wall on its own or with its joined walls.

   

6. 6

   Add doors so the rooms connect

   Bedrooms and bathrooms need doors. Drop one in from the same Structural tab — the flow is identical to placing exterior doors (see Adding doors: hinged, sliding, and French). One door for the bedroom, one for the bathroom. The kitchen, dining, and living don't get doors between them — that's what "open" means.

7. 7

   Watch the rooms appear — auto room detection

   As soon as the walls enclose a space, RoomSketch3D recognises it as a room: it gets its own floor colour, a room label (a small tag you tap to see its inside size and area) and a marker you can click in the 3D view to jump straight there. Its inside measurements, face to face, are drawn inside the room along each wall. New rooms are called Room until you name them: tap the pencil on the label and type Bedroom, Bathroom, Kitchen. To show every room's size on its label, open Layers and turn on Keep labels expanded (see See the inside size of every room).

   

8. 8

   Walk it in 3D

   Switch to 3D and walk the apartment. Front door opens into the open kitchen / dining / living — no walls between them, that's the layout. Walk past the partition into the bedroom, out, into the bathroom, out. The shape became a home. See Switching to 3D and walking through your home.

Common mistakes

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