Learn the steps to efficiently add windows to your architectural designs using software tools, with a focus on setting the correct parameters such as dimensions and placement, to ensure accuracy in your design. This article outlines the process of adding windows, from selecting the type and setting the width and sill height, to placing the windows and ensuring their correct alignment.
Key Insights
- When adding windows, it is important to select the correct type and set the correct width and sill height. The article outlines the process of choosing a window type, duplicating it, and setting the type name to match the required parameters.
- Placement of the windows in the design is critical for accuracy and aesthetics. The article describes the process of placing windows in the bedroom, setting the window to the exterior face, and adding dimensions as needed.
- Verifying the correct location and alignment of the windows is an essential last step. This can be achieved by using the align dimension tool and making necessary adjustments to the dimensions. The article also advises using temporary dimensions for precision.
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Now that we've wrapped up the doors, let's go ahead and start adding the windows. We have two different window types that we're going to use. We have a 4040, which means four foot zero inch by four foot zero inch, and a 2020, which again is a two foot by two foot window.
Just like doors, they have to be hosted into walls. So I'll go to my Architecture tab and find Window. And this also has a keyboard shortcut WN if you want to use that one.
So I'll select Window. Same thing as before, we want to pick the right type, and when we look at the fixed type that we're going to be using here, we don't really see any options for a 40 inch or 48 inch wide window.
So I'll just start with this one since it has the actual height that I'm looking for. And we'll go Edit Type, duplicate, and I'll set the type name to match the parameters that I'm looking for: 48 × 48, and hit OK.
And what's critical here is that we set the width to be correct, so four feet. Then the next thing we could do is look at what the sill height needs to be.
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So our head height for all of our elements across the building is going to be six foot eight. We can kind of work backwards from that. So I can take six foot eight and subtract four feet, which is going to give us two foot eight.
So I can set this to two foot eight. And anytime I start this window command using that window type, that'll be my sill height. So it just saves us a step down the road.
I'm going to hit OK. And now we're ready to place our first window. So I'll start here in this bedroom, and I'll set the window.
And you'll notice there is an interior face and an exterior face to this. The exterior face is the one where the glass is towards the outside. So this would be facing exterior.
And I'm just going to randomly place this one, and then we'll go back and add the dimensions. So same thing here. We'll have one in this location.
We'll have one here. And then we'll also have one in the bedroom at that location. Now that I've placed all the windows, I'm going to hit Escape twice to exit the window command.
And we may have gotten them pretty close to where they need to be, but it's always good to make sure that we have them in the right location. So I'm going to use the Align Dimension tool. Again, that's DI or Annotate Aligned Dimension here.
And I'm going to dimension to the outside face of these windows here. So I'll pick the outside face of the wall to the window.
Opposite side of the window. And then I'll go to the center line of the wall here, because that's kind of a datum that we've been using. And I'll set this dimension string, because we're actually going to keep that.
Now, four feet was given, but the three feet one and a half inches and the two feet ten and a half inches are not correct. We want that to be three feet, which will give this one the same dimension of three feet.
If I click on the window, all these dimensions become blue, and I can change this one to three feet, and it will set everything the way we want it to be. Now, what I could do is I could use this same dimension string to dimension the rest of the elements along this window.
Or we could use temporary dimensions. And since we've been using a lot of just the permanent dimensions, I'd like to go through how the temporary dimensions are going to work for us. So the key dimension here, since we know that everything else is kind of in the right location and will be verified as we go through and add more dimensions to the plan.
But the key value that we're looking for is the edge of the window to the face of the wall. When I look at this temporary dimension, what I could do is I can click on the dot to move the witness line. See how it's bouncing around like that? And I can do the same thing here.
And this one's a little trickier because the flip orientation got in the way. But that's okay, because we can just zoom in a bit if we need to. And I can do the same thing, click on the dot until I get the witness line where I want it.
And we got lucky again, this dimension value should be one foot six. If you'll notice, even though it says one foot six, I still like to click on it and go in there and add that value. Because sometimes we'll end up with a case where it is one foot six, but it's maybe one foot six and, you know, like 0.000105 or something crazy like that.
And we want to make sure we're using more exact dimensions. And so same thing here with this window, we want to make sure it's one foot six from that outside face. And so I could use my temporary dimensions to set that.
So you can see this one's set to one foot five, but we want one foot six. Now one more to go, we just need to set this guy. And it's the same situation as the doors here, they're going to be both three feet from that top wall.
So I could use my Align tool, which is keyboard shortcut AL. Or again, if you recall from the previous video, we did this tool here. And this one's pretty easy, because I can just pick the center line of the window.
And then I could pick the center line of the other window, and it'll align them right up into the exact location that I'm looking for.
