Discover the step-by-step guide to creating precise architectural grids using control tricks for copying and dimensioning techniques for accurate spacing. Learn how to create accurate and professional-looking drawings for architectural projects.
Key Insights
- The article provides a detailed process on creating architectural grids, starting with grabbing the grid from the architecture tab and placing it at an arbitrary location.
- It also shares the method of setting the grids at specific measurements, for example, seven grids spaced at 32-foot eight going across for a total of 196 feet, and how to copy them over using the control trick.
- The guide emphasizes the importance of dimensioning for equal spacing across the project and making adjustments to the scope box or the grids when necessary, ensuring accurate and professional-looking architectural drawings.
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Now we can go in and create our grids, and to do that I'll start from my Level 1 view. From the Architecture tab I'm going to grab Grid, and I'm going to have my numbers across the top. I'll just click on the bottom and place one at an arbitrary location. This looks good so far, so I'm going to set it two feet from my slab edge, and I'm going to have seven grids that are equally spaced at 32 feet 8 inches, going all the way across for a total of 196 feet. What I could do is just copy these over until I have seven of them, so I'll use that Control trick I showed you where, if you hold down Control and drag the mouse, it will let you copy many of them over. Instead of trying to hit them all at the exact point, I'll draw my overall dimension of 196 feet. I'll grab grid seven here because that's my last one and grid one is my first one, so I can change that dimension to 196, which goes all the way across to create my overall dimension. Then I can add the dimension that goes all the way from one, two, three, four, five, six, and seven, and use one of the first tricks we ever learned here with the equal constraint to space them out equally across the project. We can change that, if you recall, by selecting the dimension and then right-clicking on the value to change it from EQ display to actually showing the value. We want to make sure we've got the 196 and the 32 feet 8 inches, and that will give you the grids you need to accurately show across. Grid 7 is way out here because we’re going to have the second-floor cantilevered out to this point, and you can see our scope box might be a little tight, but again no big deal—we can make that adjustment. I'll do the horizontal grids now; I'll start from this side and move across. This one's not going to be grid 8 but grid A, and we're going to have four grids on this side—A, B, C, and D. I'll go ahead and copy grid A down to be grid B, copy it again for C, and then D. We want to make sure that grid A and grid D share that same relationship of two feet from the face of the slab, and we can use that same equal-constraints tool that we're all very familiar with. I'll put my overall dimension in there, and I should have an overall dimension of 96 feet, so we'll double-check that, and then I'll draw my intermediate dimensions. One thing I want you to pay attention to is that as I move this dimension across it locks into place, which gives me my spacing between my dimension strings and allows me to have equal spacing on those. It's just a nice thing to have—it makes your drawings look a little more accurate and professional. We'll go ahead and hit that EQ; it spreads them out. We'll do the same thing because we want to see that dimension value, so I'll select the dimension string and then right-click on the text value here, and it should be 32 feet, and that gives us our grid layout. Now we're ready to start drawing the outline of our building with the first-floor walls.
