Walls and Rooms: Drawing Walls, Build Ups, Rooms, Slabs and Shafts

The Build tools

**Wall** (`WALL`, `WA`): click each corner; click the first corner again to close a room, or press Enter to stop.

**Arc wall** (`ARCWALL`, `AW`): press on a corner and drag the curve out.

**Opening** (`OPENING`, `OP`): click a wall to cut a plain opening; drag its grips to size it or slide it.

**Split wall** (`SPLIT`, `SL`): click a point on a wall to make it two walls.

**Slab** (`SLAB`, `SB`): click each corner of a floor that no walls enclose, such as a landing, a balcony or a porch.

**Shaft** (`SHAFT`, `SH`): click each corner of a hole through the floors above, such as a lift shaft, a riser or a light well. It runs to the top storey until its panel says otherwise.

**Room name** (`ROOMNAME`, `RN`): click inside a room to name it.

**Wall thickness** (`WALLTHICK`, `WT`): cycles the thickness new walls get.

**Wall justification** (`WALLJUST`, `WJ`): cycles drawing on the centre, the left or the right of the line.

**Massing block** (`MASSING`, `MASS`): a footprint and a storey count, for early studies. It reports floor area, site coverage and plot ratio, and can build walls from itself.

How rooms are made

You never draw a room. Any space the walls close is a room, with its area written in it, and it changes as soon as the walls do. Remove a wall between two rooms and they become one.

Select a room by clicking inside it. Its Properties tab gives its **Name** and **Number**, its **Floor** and **Ceiling** finishes, its **Clear height**, a **Dropped ceiling** with its own drop, and the wall faces around it. The room number defaults to the storey and the reading order, such as 0.1, 0.2.

Tip: a room can have its floor open to the storey above for a double height space: set **Floor above** on the room above. Walls raised past the floor over them do the same on their own.

A wall's properties

**Thickness and build up**: a wall can be one material or a stack of layers (structure, insulation, plaster, cladding), each with its thickness and material. The wall's thickness is their sum.

**Height**: a wall reaches the storey above by default. It can be built to a level, or to a height of its own, and raised or lowered with an offset. A wall you leave alone takes the height of the tallest wall around the same room, so raising three walls carries the fourth.

**Faces**: each side of a wall has its own finish, and a finish can change part way along a face with **Split at**.

**Curtain wall**: set the wall's Function to curtain wall for a grid of glazed panels and mullions, with its panel sizing.

**Lean and batter**: a wall can lean, or taper on either face, for retaining and sloping walls.

**Curve**: an arc wall's bow can be changed after it is drawn.

Slabs, shafts and vaults

**Floor plates are automatic**: each storey's floor and ceiling plates come from its rooms, one per connected building, so you do not draw them.

**Drawn slabs**: a slab you draw covers a floor no walls enclose. Its thickness, level and falls are in its panel; a terrace can fall to a point so it drains.

**Shafts** cut every floor they pass through, with a reveal on each.

**Shell** (`SHELL`, `VAULT`, in Structure): click two opposite corners of a rectangle for a barrel vault springing from the wall heads; its panel makes it a groin or a cloister vault and sets its rise and thickness.

Editing walls

**Grips**: select a wall to see its grips. Drag an end to move a corner (the walls joined there follow), or the middle to move the whole wall.

**Typed lengths**: with a wall selected, its length and angle can be typed in the Properties tab.

**Modify tools**: Move, Copy, Rotate, Mirror, Offset, Trim, Extend and Fillet from CAD tools › Modify work on walls too. See [Drafting tools](/docs/drafting-tools).

**Erase**: select and press Delete, or use `ERASE` (`E`). A door or window in an erased wall goes with it.

Read next

• Storeys and levels
• Doors and windows
• Roofs
• Structure

Frequently asked questions