How to Draw a Floor Plan in Autocad

Architectural drafting

Knowing how to express your ideas visually can go a long way when trying to draw a floor plan on a computer. By using computer-aided drafting programs such as AutoCAD, you can quickly draft and draw whatever you need to in a professional manner. Many industries use this intricate program for highly technical purposes and it can be quite intimidating for beginning users. By learning a few simple commands, you can create floor plans of your house or any building without mastering the complete software.

Instructions

1. Install AutoCAD on your computer. Purchase the latest version through Autodesk (see Resources), which manages many programs, including AutoCAD

2. Open the program and run through the tutorials. These informative tutorials will give you a tour of the basic commands and allows you to get used to the user interface.

3. Draw the building outline of the house by using the "Line" command. Click the "Line" icon to activate the command. Left-click to start and end the line.

4. Offset the building outline the desired thickness of the exterior wall. Use the "Offset" command. Try offsetting 1'-0" for now. You can always go back and change it.

5. Draw all interior walls by using the same "Line" and "Offset" commands.

6. Use the "Trim" command to trim any messy intersections on the exterior or interior conditions. Left-click the "Trim" icon to activate the tool. Select the "cutting edge" line followed by the line that you would like to trim off.

7. Cut openings for doors and windows by drawing lines and then trimming away the opening. If you want a 3'-0" door, draw a line perpendicular to the wall, offset it 3'-0", and trim away the excess lines.

8. Draw doors and windows where the new openings exist.

9. Draw furniture, cabinets, and other interior items by using the "Line" and "Polyline" commands. You can easily create blocks of furniture by using a polyline. Select the polyline icon and left click to start the shape. Continue clicking until you complete the desired shape. The shape will now be grouped as one item.

10. Activate the Dimension icon and click the edges of each wall that you would like to dimension to. This will give the drawing a more professional look and also gives people a sense of the space.

11. Plot the drawing to a printer or to a PDF format. Hit the plot icon to open the plot settings. Choose the layout type, pen settings, and window view that you would like to use.

Tips & Warnings

• Press "F1" when you are in AutoCAD to load a Help Menu. A lot of answers can be found using this tool.

• Plotting from AutoCAD can be very tricky. You will want to fully understand how to do it properly.

References

• My CADsite: Planning a Project: Office Floor Plan

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• Autodesk
• CADTutor: The AutoCAD Resource