Drawing a custom-shaped room

Step by step

1. 1

   On Home, tap Custom Floor Plan

   On Home, under Start a new floor plan, tap Custom Floor Plan (L, T, U and more shapes). Already in a design? Tap the house button at the top left of the editor to get back to Home first; your design is saved automatically.

   

2. 2

   Name it and pick a starting shape

   The New Floor Plan window opens. Type a name, check the Units (ft/in or m/cm) and the Ceiling height, then choose under Choose a starting shape: - Draw Your Own (Place corners freely), the wide tile at the top: the editor opens on an empty plan and you draw every wall yourself (step 5). - Rectangle, L-Shape, T-Shape, U-Shape or Alcove: the design is created the moment you tap it. Each tile shows its starting size. - Round: asks for the diameter first, then creates a round room. Pick the shape closest to your room. The size doesn't need to be right yet.

   

3. 3

   Your shape opens straight in the editor

   Tap a shape and the design opens in the main editor, ready to use. Every outside wall is labelled with its length, and Plan Settings shows the Gross area and Usable area. The L-Shape, for example, starts 15 ft × 12 ft overall with one corner cut out. From here it's a normal design: add doors, windows, interior walls and furniture, or view it in 3D.

   

4. 4

   Make it match your room: edit the walls on the plan

   Tap (or click) any outside wall. It turns blue, with a small bar beside it, and you can: - Type its exact length: tap the length on the bar and type the measurement you took. - Drag it: drag the wall in or out, or the crosshair at either end. By default the walls beside it stretch to stay joined (the link button on its bar is on, Joined walls move too); tap the link off if only that wall should move. - Split it in two with the scissors on the bar, to add a bump-out or a step. - Bow it into a curve with the curve button on the bar, between the link and the scissors (see Curved walls). - Choose Wall, Railing or Open, set its height and thickness, or delete it with the trash can, in the panel at the bottom. To grow the plan, use Add Room for a rectangle or Exterior Wall to draw walls of any shape, both in the Build panel. All the details are in Edit walls on the plan.

   

5. 5

   Draw Your Own: draw the walls right in the editor

   If no shape is close, tap Draw Your Own instead. The editor opens on an empty plan with the Exterior Wall tool ready and a note at the top: Click where your plan's first corner goes. Drag to move around (Tap… on a phone). Click (or tap) where the first corner goes: a crosshair appears with a blue + beside it. Now click where the second corner goes (or drag the + out to it): that's the first wall, and its length shows in a small pill beside it. Type the number you measured straight away (on a computer just type the digits; feet in the first box, inches in the second, then Enter; on a phone tap the pill). The note now says Click where the next corner goes, or drag + for the next wall. Drag the crosshair to change this one's length (or type it). End on the first corner to close your plan. (Tap… on a phone).

   

6. 6

   Click where each next corner goes

   Move the mouse and the next wall follows the pointer in blue, with its live length, so you see exactly what a click will draw before you click. Click, and that corner is placed; carry on round the room one corner at a time. On a phone or tablet, tap where each corner goes (the wall appears when you tap, since there's no pointer to follow). Walls snap square to the last one and line up with the walls you've drawn, as shown by the dashed guide line and the green right-angle mark. Some clicks place no corner, on purpose: a click while a length or angle box is open just finishes that box (the number you typed is applied), a press that slides off the edge of the plan, and a wall so short it can only be a slip (shorter than about a fingertip on screen, at most 12 in or 30 cm). For a really short wall, zoom in or type its length. Here, the third wall follows the pointer at 11 ft 7 in before the click.

   

7. 7

   End on the first corner to close the plan

   Prefer dragging? Dragging the + for each wall in turn still works, and you can mix clicks and drags. Walls are square to the last one by default (a blue wall, a dashed guide line and a green right-angle mark while you pull; hold Ctrl, or ⌘ on a Mac, for any angle, and the angle shows beside the length). Type each measured length right after drawing it. Undo takes back one wall at a time. To finish, drag the last + onto the first corner: a green ring marks it, and when you let go the plan is created, with every wall measured and Gross area and Usable area in Plan Settings. If the last wall would cross another, a note says The walls cross each other, so the plan can't close there. Change the last wall, or cancel and start again; a plan smaller than 1 sq ft gets That plan is too small. From here you fine-tune the walls exactly as in step 4. While you draw, every wall's length and every corner's angle stays editable: tap a pill, type, ✓ (see type the angle between walls). Clicking on the first corner closes the plan just like dragging onto it.

   

8. 8

   Stopped before closing? Escape keeps your walls

   You don't have to finish in one go. Press Escape, tap the ✕ on the note, or pick another tool (a Door or Window tile, say) with two or more walls drawn, and your walls are kept: the plan closes with its last side left open, shown as a dashed blue line from your last corner back to the first corner with a + in its middle. A note at the top says Your plan's outline has an open side (the dashed line). with a Close it button (its ✕ hides the note for now). The plan is also saved to your account as a draft from its first wall, so a reload or a closed browser loses nothing. With only one wall drawn, there's no floor yet: you stay in the drawing tool with the note Draw at least two walls, or close your plan, before using other tools. Escape with just a starting corner clears that corner so you can start again. Here, three walls were drawn (12 ft 1 in, 10 ft 1 in and 5 ft 11 in) and Escape was pressed: the open side runs on a slant back to the first corner.

   

9. 9

   Carry on drawing from the dashed side

   Two ways to finish. Tap the + on the dashed side, or Close it, and the open side becomes one straight wall (handy when that really is the last wall). To draw the real shape instead, tap the wall at either end of the dashed side: it's selected, a + appears just past each of its ends, and the reminder note steps aside. Pull the + at the end beside the dashed side and you're drawing again from that corner. The dashed side now runs from wherever you are to its far end, and the corner you started from shows its angle against the real wall: 90° for a square corner (tap it to type another). Then click corners as before; stop part-way again and the new walls stay, with the rest of the side still open.

   

10. 10

    End on the dashed side's far end to close the room

    Finish on the other end of the dashed side: a green ring marks it when you're on it. Click (or let go) and the room closes with the shape you drew, every wall measured and the area in Plan Settings. Here, a 5 ft 11 in wall down and a 6 ft 2 in wall across, then a click on the dashed side's far end, turned the half-drawn outline into an L-shaped room of 121 sq ft (gross).

    

11. 11

    Later: corner-level fixes in the Outline Editor

    Most changes are quickest on the plan itself. For a one-off job on the outline (dragging or deleting a single corner, squaring a corner to 90°, or re-scaling a plan that came out the wrong size), open Plan Settings → Layout → Outline Editor. To add exterior walls of any shape later, use Build → Exterior Wall on the plan instead (see Add exterior walls right on your plan). On a computer Plan Settings is at the top of the left panel; on a phone, tap Plan Settings in the top row. Save your changes there with Update Floor Plan (Save on a phone). See the Outline Editor. Until the outline is closed, Outline Editor is greyed out with the note Close your plan's outer walls first.

    

Common mistakes

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