The Wall Tool

Start Drawing Walls

To start drawing your walls in PlanStudio, Select the Wall Tool from the Main Toolbar, once selected the tool settings will open allowing you to select the type of wall you want to draw as well as add a fire or smoke rating. One of the most efficient ways to start drawing a building in PlanStudio is to start with the external wall type and use the Rectangle Mode to quickly draw all the rectangle blocks that make up a building, you can overlap these if required and then when finished select the Segment Delete Tool and come back to trim off the parts we don’t need.

External Walls

Once all the larger rectangle shapes are drawn, switch over to the Line Mode. When drawing with lines, firstly always check that you have all of your snapping settings turned on. To do this select the snaping controls from the side menu. For a curved walls, draw a line between the start and end point of the curve, and then switch to the Selection Tool. Select the wall you want to edit and then change to the Manipulator Arrow, you will now be able to see and edit the nodes at each end of the wall as well as curve the wall by moving the toggles on each end. Once you have all the external walls drawn in then switch wall type to the Internal wall.

Internal Walls

When drafting your internal walls, a floorplan will always look neatest when you can use a single line and run it right through a building rather than drawing each individual wall. This way you can be sure that all walls will align with each other. While drawing with the Line Tool for any walls that meet up at a corner, you will want to start from the point where they join and draw outwards. PlanStudio draws all its walls along a centre line but if you are starting from the edge of a wall of a different thickness then PlanStudio will automatically offset your wall to create a smooth face.

Tip:

One of the easiest ways to get neatly joining walls in PlanStudio is to simply extend your walls past the point that you want them to join (by doing this we can ensure that all our walls are touching each other) and then by removing the segments of wall that overhang creating a clean join where they meet.

Delete Overhanging Walls

With all the walls drawn in we can change to our Segment Delete Tool and start removing all the segments of wall that we don’t require, to tidy up the floorplan. For any walls that you need to move or edit you can again switch back to the Selection Tool and manipulate the nodes to move extend, shorten or curve any of our walls, as well as nudging them around the plan using the arrow keys on your keyboard.

Wall Properties

When you select a wall the Inspector Panel will open allowing you to see and edit the Wall Properties where you can change the wall to another pre-set option, change its role, as well as edit the walls width and add fire ratings.

Paint and Blob Tools

Inside the Wall Tool you also have access to a Paint Mode Tool which will allow you to apply fire ratings to walls in bulk, as well as the Blob Tool used to join walls together or add columns or oddly shaped segments of walls to you plan.