Documentation

Home 3D Plan Documentation: Every Tool in the Editor

How to use the Home 3D Plan editor, one page per tool: walls and rooms, storeys, doors and windows, roofs, stairs, structure, electrical, plumbing, drainage, ventilation, the site plan, roads, landscape, furniture, sections, sheets, exports and working together.

The editor draws a building once and shows it many ways. You draw on the **plan**, a to scale drawing, and the **3D** model, the **2.5D** view from above, the **elevations**, the **sections** and the **sheets** are all read from that one drawing. Change a wall in any of them and every other view follows.

How the editor is laid out

**The tool rail**: down the left on a computer, along the bottom on a phone. Its groups are Select, Pan, Site plan, Build, Structure, CAD tools, Furniture, Lighting, Landscape and Palettes. Tap a group to open its tools.

**The view chip**: at the top in the middle. It moves between 2D (the plan), 3D and 2.5D. Beside it are the storey switcher, Views (every plan, elevation, section and sheet), Render photo and Settings.

**The side panel**: on the right on a computer, a sheet from the bottom on a phone. Its tabs are Properties, Views, Layers, Blocks, Plot, Schedules and Issues.

**The command line**: at the bottom of the plan. Type a command such as `WALL` or `WA` and press Enter or Space. Every tool in the rail has a command, and the docs name them.

**Settings**: the gear at the top. Lighting, Ground, Structure, Exports, Site, Units, History and Editor each open their own panel.

Earlier guides

The [home design editor guide](/docs/home-design-editor) describes the editor before the drawing engine, and the [3D editor guide](/docs/3d-editor) the separate 3D modeller. The [DraftCAD documentation](/cad/documentation) covers the standalone 2D drafting app.

Start here

  • Getting started: Open the editor, draw your first rooms, see them in 3D and save.

The building

  • Walls and rooms: Walls, arc walls, wall build ups, rooms, slabs, shafts, vaults and massing.
  • Storeys and levels: Floors, levels, heights, double height spaces and copying a storey.
  • Doors and windows: Openings, doors and windows in walls, their sizes and swings, and curtain walls.
  • Roofs: Drawing a roof, its pitch and eaves, gables, and roofs meeting walls.
  • Stairs: Stair presets, placing a flight, and the hole it opens in the floor above.
  • Structure: Columns, beams, gridlines, braces, footings and the generated frame.

Services

  • Electrical: Sockets, switches, lights, boards, cables, circuits and the checks on them.
  • Plumbing and heating: Cold and hot water, heating, gas and oil: pipes, pairs, fittings and sizing.
  • Drainage: Waste, soil, vents, buried drains, chambers and rainwater, with their falls.
  • Ventilation and air conditioning: Supply, extract and air conditioning: ducts, fans, grilles and units.
  • Renewables: Solar panels, inverters, batteries and the DC side that connects them.

Site and landscape

Interiors

Drawings and output

Working together