In this video tutorial, we will show you how to enter the external walls based on a sample floor plan with the support of guidelines using our 3D house planner software. In addition, we will show you how to display the floor area, recolor walls, and use the Delete Assistant.

Using guidelines is, alongside numeric polygonal input for walls, a fast and effective method for drawing floor plans.

1. Entering a floor plan using guidelines (Variant 1)

In the first step, we create guidelines with the exact length dimensions of the external walls.

[01:15] Create guidelines and define appearance

• Deactivate the grid and the line width in the upper icon bar.

• Select 2D Layout > 2D guidelines > Guideline. Here you can choose between functions like Vertical guideline (Shortcut G), Horizontal guideline (Shortcut H), and Numeric parallel guideline (Shortcut P).
• To define the appearance of a guideline, press the right mouse button after selecting the guideline type and choose Properties.
• Under the Appearance button, you can define the Color (e.g., green), the Line style, and the Line width. Confirm with OK.

[07:15] Enter walls and define settings

• After entering the guideline grid, you can orient yourself by the individual snap points. Select Building > Walls > External Wall > Between two points chain.
• To define the wall settings, press the right mouse button in the 2D view > Properties. Here you can define the Thickness (e.g., 0.30 m), the Material, and the Layer construction of the wall.
• Change reference point: To change the reference point of a wall during input, press the key combination CTRL + W.
• To enter 100% horizontal and vertical lines, the CTRL key can be pressed and held while entering a wall.
• After finishing the wall input, press the ESC key to end the function.

[10:01] Change wall length later

• To change the length of an entered wall, click on the ± symbol next to the adjacent dimension line (e.g., 8.00 m) and enter the desired length in the subsequent dialog window. Confirm with ENTER.

For your information: When entering a guideline grid, we have several options available. We either define the outside and the inside of the wall with the support of a guideline, or only the inside or outside. If only the outside or inside of the future external wall is represented in the form of a guideline, attention must be paid to the correct choice of the reference point of the wall when entering the walls.

2. Further variants for floor plan input

• [12:39] Variant 2: In the second variant, only the inner guidelines according to the sample plan are entered. The floor plan input is then based on this.
• [17:20] Variant 3: In variant 3, we show a combination of floor plan input, entering guidelines, further floor plan input, and completing the floor plan.

3. Displaying the floor area of a room

[21:47] Additional display of the floor area in the sample floor plan

• Make a left mouse click in the desired room to select it.
• Press the right mouse button > Properties.
• In the dialog window, select the Labeling item and check the box for Floor area.
• In the Prefix field next to it, you can enter, for example, the abbreviation “FA=” for floor area. Then press OK to confirm the input.

4. Change the fill style of the walls

[22:42] Change standard hatching for walls to a solid fill color

• Select the desired wall with the left mouse button.
• Press the right mouse button > Properties > Layer construction > Material > 2D Display.
• Here, the Fill style (e.g., from hatching to Monochrome) and the Fill color (e.g., dark gray) can be edited. Confirm with OK.
• Transfer properties: To transfer these settings to all walls, select the already correctly defined wall, press the right mouse button > Transfer properties.
• In the “Transfer properties” window, deselect the General item. The Layer construction item remains selected. Click on Next.
• In the “Select target objects” window, select the item on current layer and under “Included wall types”, select the item External walls. Confirm with Finish.

5. Delete Assistant

[25:10] Using the Delete Assistant

(Note: The specific steps for the Delete Assistant are not explicitly shown in the provided English video breakdown, but based on standard cadvilla English UI, the translation is as follows)

• The Delete Assistant is located under the menu item Edit > Deleting Wizard.
• Click on None in the dialog to clear all selections.
• Open the Help elements tab and check the box for Guidelines 2D. Click on Next.
• Select the area on current layer and confirm with Finish to, for example, delete all guidelines at once.