Walls
using AutoCAD Architecture

The final layout of the exterior and interior walls of the floor plan (at level 1) will be like the one you see in the sketch of (Fig.2.1.3.1). You will follow the dimensions that you see in this sketch, to design the interior walls.

You will start drawing the walls (AA1) and (BD).
To do this:

• Open, with AutoCAD Architecture, the drawing Walls-1e that you created in the previous tutorial.
• Draw two Construct lines, one that passes over the line (ab) and one on the line (ah) of the exterior walls (Fig.2.1.3.2).
  Construction lines (also known as xlines) are temporary linework entities that can be used as references when creating and positioning other objects or linework. Construction lines are either circles or straight lines that extend to infinity in both directions. They do not change the total area of the drawing and have no effect on zooming or viewports.
  In most cases, you can draw construction lines based on segments of existing objects, but you can also draw them by specifying any two points in the drawing area, without regard to existing objects or linework.

To use Construction Lines tool:

• Click Home tab ► Draw panel  ► Line drop-down icon (hover on ►)  ► select Construction Line tool
  
  Draw the Construction lines:
• Select (ab) as linework to create xline (ab), set as offset = 0.00,
• Select (ah) as linework to create xline (ah), set as offset = 0.00, and press Esc.
• Offset (Fig.2.1.3.2) the Construct line (ab), define as distance 12.90, (is the length of basement), and select a point near the line (hg) to set the side to be executed the offset command.
• Offset Construct line (ah), define as distance 0.30, (is the width of exterior wall (ah), and select a point downward of (ah) to set the side to be executed the offset command.
• Offset Construct line (ah), define as distance 6.70, (is the width of basement), and select a point near the line (bg) to set the side to be executed the offset command.
• Offset Construct line (bg), define as distance 0.30, (is the width of exterior wall (ah), and select a point upward of (bg) to set the side to be executed the offset command.
• Offset the Construct line (ab), define as distance 4.30, (is the sum of individual 0.30 + 4.00), and select a point near the line (AB) to set the side to be executed the offset command.
• Offset Construct line (ah), define as distance 3.65, (is the sum of individual 0.30 + 3.20 +0.15), and select a point near the line (BD) to set the side to be executed the offset command.
• Offset Construct line (hg), define as distance 0.30, (is the width of exterior wall (hg), and select a point at the left of (hg) to set the side to be executed the offset command.

Type Text

 On Ribbon, set text style Standard as current, set layer "A-Notes" as Current, select on Ribbon the Single Line text tool, (hover on) and type the letters A, B, A1, J, C, H, D, G, at the section of construction lines, as shown in Fig.2.1.3.2.

Draw the Walls

Before you continue, create a new layer to use for the interior walls, by name A-Wall-Inter, set as color: 113, and make it current. (The reason for creating this new layer, is to distinguish visually the inner from the exterior walls).

• In Design Tool palette, find the tool Wall (Fig.2.1.2.2) - this tool 'Wall' uses the wall style standard -, double-click on it to open the panel Properties - Wall (Fig. 2.1.3.3, Fig.2.1.3.4).
• Scroll down on the left side of the panel to find the field Justify. Press the right field, click the arrow that appears on the right, and select right (Fig. 2.1.3.4).
• The justification of the wall determines the side of the wall that we will use as a guide for its placement.
  Using the standard style wall, this means that the wall you plan has only one element and consists of only two parallel lines, one right and one left.

With tool Wall selected,   draw the walls (AA1) and (BD) in the direction from A to A1, and from B to point D.

On the Command Line and at the prompt:

• Start point or […]: select point Α,
• End point or […]: select point A1, and press ENTER.
• Start point or […]: select point B,
• End point or […]: select point D, and press ENTER.
• The walls (AA1) and (BD) were designed.

Select interior walls (AA1) and (BD), their properties will appear in the Properties palette.

With the walls selected,

• In the Properties palette set Thickness to 0.15 and Base Height to 2.80.
  These are the dimensions of the real wall that you will use later to replace the ' standard ' wall that you used to design the interior walls.
• In category Location set Elevation = 0.20, is the level where the walls will be placed.
  
  To draw the wall (JC) (Fig. 2.1.3.1),
• Offset the Construct line (AA1), set as distance 3.75, (this is the sum 0.15 + 3.60 of distances between walls AA1 and JC, and after adding the thickness of the wall AB), and choose a point at the right of the line (AA1) to set the side to be executed the offset command.

• In Design Tool palette, click the tool Wall, (you will notice in the Properties palette, that the 'justification' of the wall is 'right', the Thickness is 0.15 and Base Height is 2.80), draw the wall (JC) in the direction from point J to point C and press ENTER.
  To draw the wall (HF), apply the Offset command to Construction line (AA1), set as distance 5.95,(is the distance 0.15 + 5.80 between the walls AA1 and HF), and select a point to the right of line (AB ) to set the side to be executed the offset command

• On Design Tool palette, click the tool Wall, draw the wall (HG) in the direction from point H to point G and press ENTER.

You have created the interior walls (AA1), (BD), (JC), and (HG) of the basement plan, which have thickness 0.15 m, Base height 2.80 m, and Elevation 0.20 m.
You placed the walls at Elevation 0.20 instead of 0.00, the reason is that you will add under the walls a floor slab with thickness 0.20 m, whose the bottom level is 0.00.

Set all the interior walls to layer 'A-Wall-Inter' , to do this:

• Select all the interior walls ► right-click ► select Properties ► on the Properties palette that will open, on category General ► select A-Wall-Inter, as the layer of selected walls.

The plan of the basement, after the design of the exterior and interior walls, will be as shown in Fig.2.1.3.1 (without dimensions and letters on the corners).

Draw the Dimensions

Draw the Dimensions (ab) and (ah) on the Basement Outline drawing, as shown in Fig.2.1.3.1. At first you have to set layer "A-Dim" as the Current Layer, alternatively to the process you followed at the previous paragraph you will follow another way to set the current layer.

• Set layer A-Dim as the current Layer.
  To do this:
• Click Home tab > Layers panel > click on the Layer tab (hover on) and a drop-down menu will open. This menu provides a choice of layer settings defined in the drawing to make current. Select the layer A-Dim, to make it current.

• To draw the dimension (ah),
• Click Annotate tab > Dimensions panel > click on the Linear Dimension icon (hover on) .
  This icon  invokes a tool for adding a dimension to the selected object. For the moment dont use an AEC dimension, just use the tool for linear dimension. Before start drawing dimensions select on the Dimensions panel, ' Standard ' as the default Dimension Style.
• To Specify on the screen the first point (a)of dimension (ah), select corner (a) of the polyline.
• To Specify the second point (h) of dimension (ah), select corner (h) of the polyline.
• To Specify the Dimension location line, select with your mouse a point upward of line (ah) second point (h) of dimension (ah).

With the same process, draw the other dimensions , as shown in Fig.2.1.3.2.
The plan after the design of the exterior and interior walls, will be as shown in Fig.2.1.3.1.
Save this drawing under the name Walls-1 in the folder tutorials\house21 you have created, its full path will be: C:\ACA\tutorials\house21\walls-1.

3D Isometric View

To have a 3D isometric view of your project, on the View Cube tool, at the upper right corner of your screen, click on the corner WS of the Cube.
You can apply a Conceptual style view in your drawing to have a more artistic view:

• To set the Visual Style of the drawing, on Ribbon > click on View tab > click the arrow on Visual panel (hover on ►) , the drop-down which will open provides a choice of visual styles defined in drawing to make current (for the moment the current visual style is the 2D Wireframe) > select Conceptual, to make this visual style current.
  The result is shown in Figure 2.1.3.5.

The next step is to place the doors on the floor plan of your project.

These tutoriasl are published in sequels and are written by the author of Βook:
" Design a House with AutoCad Architecture 2021"