Discover the process of creating a virtual layout for a house, starting with the basics of marking out the structure and moving through the complexities of building elevation. Gain insight into the step-by-step procedure, using commands such as offset and fillet to construct different parts of the house.
Key Insights
- The bottom left corner of the house serves as the key reference point (0, 0) for the model. Building starts from this point, drawing the basic outline of the house.
- Understanding and using commands such as 'offset' and 'fillet' are essential to building different parts of the house. These commands help in creating the precise dimensions needed for the layout.
- The 'Trim' command is used for cleanup, removing any unnecessary lines, and maintaining a neat and clear blueprint. Constant saving (Ctrl-S) ensures that progress is not lost at any stage of the process.
Note: These materials offer prospective students a preview of how our classes are structured. Students enrolled in this course will receive access to the full set of materials, including video lectures, project-based assignments, and instructor feedback.
When we start blocking out the layouts for the house, we need to remember that the virtual bottom-left corner of the house is going to be 0,0. So I'm going to start off drawing a line from 0,0. I'm going to put ortho on, drag my hand to the right, and just pull the line over some distance. So this line will be representing the bottom of my model. I'm going to go back and draw another line from 0,0, drag my hand up, and click Enter, CONTROL + S to save.
If you look at the handout, you can see that the overall dimensions for the house are 60'-7" across and 59'-7" vertically. So I'm going to offset by 60'-7", take the vertical and go to the right, Enter to stop, Enter to repeat, then 59'-7", pick and go up, and then I'm going to fillet. I'm just going to use F Spacebar for fillet.
I'm going to go pick, pick, hit the Spacebar to repeat the command, pick, pick, hit the Spacebar to repeat the command, pick, pick, and then CONTROL + S to save the drawing. Now when we start blocking out houses where somebody has given us a design that's relatively stable, we don't want to, to use the euphemism, bite off more than we can chew. And so when we start offsetting the lines, we don't want to offset every line in the house, we want to start getting components done.
So I'm going to go offset, I'm just using O Spacebar, I'm typing in 16'-6", picking this line and going up, and again what I'm doing is I'm reading the overall dimensions on the left side of the handout, Spacebar to stop, Spacebar to repeat, 2'-6" Spacebar, pick and go up, Enter to stop. So you can see that I'm now beginning to develop the offset that's going to be happening here at the front of the house. Now I'm going to start offsetting the lines in this direction, and I'm going to offset by 16'-2", by 10'-2", by 11'-8", and the remaining distance is 22'-7".
I just want to confirm that that's what's in fact left over, I'm going to say measure the distance from the end of this line right here to the end over here, and I can see that it is in fact 22'-7", and hit Escape to cancel the command and save the drawing. Now I have some cleanup that I can already start doing, so I'm going to do the Trim command, I'm just going to do a crossing to make everything hot, and I can see that this line can go away, these lines here can go away, this line here can go away, as can this line. So I've now begun to build this part of the elevation, while I'm here I can similarly go Trim, do a crossing here, get rid of this guy, and then Trim here, get rid of this guy, and if I'd like, select these, get rid of that, and then I'm going to erase that item right there.
So you're now seeing that we have the left-hand side, we're coming across, we're going down, and we have this jog that needs to go back into this area. If you look at the dimension string that's to the right of this second bedroom, you can see that it's 11'-1.5", so I'm going to offset by 11'-1.5", and notice what I'm typing in, 11'-1.5", Enter. I'm going to pick this line and go up, so this is my 11'-1.5" offset, I'm now going to extend to this line, this guy, and then I can do some filleting, I'm going to fillet here and here, hit the Spacebar here and here, and then I can erase this guy out, CONTROL + S to save.
Now, just to make sure I have it right, I'm just going to do some dimensions, I'm going to use a linear dimension from the end of here, so I'm going to press F3 to turn on my running O-snaps, dimension from the end of here, down to here, I can then go to annotate, and I can continue to here and to here, Enter. I'm just going to zoom in and confirm that my dimensions are in fact 16'-2", 10'-2", 11'-8", they're fine, I hit Escape, select these guys, delete them, and CONTROL + S to save the file. We now have the blockouts done for this side of the house, I'm now going to work on this side of the house, so if I read the dimension strings, I can see that the garage is 22'-8" deep, so O-Enter for offset, 22'-8", pick and go up, Enter to stop, Enter to repeat.
If I look at the handout, I can see that there's going to be an offset distance in this area of 4'-10", so I'm just going to go back home, go to offset, 4'-10", pick and go to the left, Enter, and I can do some filleting to clean up, so F-Spacebar for fillet, pick, pick, Spacebar to repeat the command, pick, pick, and then fillet up here, CONTROL + S to save. I'd now like to work on this corner back here, I'm going to offset O-Spacebar by 7'-0", Spacebar to stop, Spacebar to repeat, I want to offset now by 11'-5", pick and go down, F-Spacebar for filleting, pick, pick, Spacebar, pick, pick, Spacebar, pick, pick, CONTROL + S to save. Last but not least is this area up here, I'm going to be offsetting based on this line, so I'm going to offset by 10'-9.5", pick, pick, Enter to stop, Enter to repeat, 13'-11.5", pick and go to the left, Enter to stop, Enter to repeat, 9'-7.5", pick and go down, I'm now going to fillet, F-Spacebar, pick, pick, Spacebar to repeat, pick, pick, Spacebar to repeat, pick, pick, and CONTROL + S to save the file.
So this is great, we have completed the perimeter of the house and we're getting ready to start working on the interior walls.