imPrintX

Plans, pages, scale and walls

Getting the architect's drawing in, at the right size, with walls the model can use.

5 min read

Setting the drawing scale: pick the architectural ratio from the sheet, or measure a known dimension. Every length the app reports depends on it.24'-0"The sheet, at the scale it was drawnSET SCALE1/16"3/32"1/8"3/16"1/4"3/8"Pick the ratio from the title block……or draw one Measure line acrosssomething you know and type itslength. Both set the same number.
Two ways to the same number. Set it before you draw anything you intend to measure.

  1. Upload

    PDF, DXF and DWG, through New Project in the projects drawer (the Open Projects button at the left of the header). The canvas itself does not take a dropped file. A multi-page PDF keeps all its pages; move between them with the arrows beside the project name.

  2. Swap the plan without losing the design

    ⋯ → Swap Plan replaces the underlay with a new PDF when the architect issues a revision. Your devices, walls and annotations stay where they are. Press ⌘S afterwards.

  3. Set the scale

    When the title block prints a scale, it is read and set as the sheet opens. When it does not, Set Scale (bottom left) offers the nine standard architectural ratios from 1/16" = 1' up to 1" = 1'. Pick the one in the sheet's title block. For anything non-standard, draw a Measure line across a known dimension and type the real length.

    Tip. A doorway is about 3 feet, and most sheets carry at least one dimension string you can measure against.

  4. Get walls the model can use

    ⋯ → Trace walls from PDF reads the drawing and puts real walls on it, sorting structural from partition by measured thickness. Check the result and correct any it got wrong — it tells you the counts so you know what to look at.

  5. Draw the walls it missed

    The Wall tool draws them by hand. Walls carry a material, which is what coverage attenuates through — a block wall and a stud wall are not the same obstacle. Press Enter to end a run and stay in the tool.

  6. Cut openings into walls

    Door, Sliding Door, Window and Cased Opening are wall-hosted: pick the tool, then click the wall. They cut a real opening rather than stamping a symbol, which is why they can be scheduled and why coverage passes through them.

  7. Tidy the geometry

    Offset copies a wall a set distance to one side. Trim / Extend takes a boundary then a wall end. Corner joins two wall ends. All three are pick-then-pick.

  8. Rooms and layers

    ⋯ → Rooms shows the enclosed areas the walls make. ⋯ → Layers controls what is drawn — including which layers of an imported CAD sheet come through. Wall colours cycles none → by material → by function.

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