House Outline
using AutoCAD Architecture

To create the outline of the floor plan, you will draw a polyline in the shape and dimensions that are shown in Fig.2.1.1.1.
Open the drawing file you created in the earlier tutorial Drawing Setup, with the name h21_starting.dwg, and you have saved it in path C:/ACA/tutorials/house21/h21_starting.dwg.

Now that the basic file is set up, you will start to design the layout of the basement floorplan for your project house21, as shown in Fig.2.2.1.1.
You could draw the outline (abgha) line by line, but that is not too efficient. The best approach is to draw a polyline of given dimension , as shown in Fig.2.1.1.1. This polyline is the outline of the basement floor plan you design.
On the Application Status bar , turn On the ORTHOMODE , turn Off display Drawing Grid (its color has to be grey), turn Off Snap mode (its color has to be grey), and turn On the Dynamic Input , right-click on it and customize its settings as shown in Fig.2.1.1.2.

Create the Layers

Now you have to create three new layers.
Create a new layer, with Name: A-Basement-Outline, Color: red, and make it current, a second layer with Name: A-Notes, Color: green, and another layer with Name: A-Dim, Color: 86.

To do this:
• Click Home tab ►Layers panel ►click Layer Properties icon 
• Right-click on the 'Layer Properties Manager' window that will open ►and from the drop-down menu that will appear  select New Layer (Fig.2.0.1.2) ►for the Name type A-Basem-Outline , for Color select red, make it Current.
• Right-click on the 'Layer Properties Manager' ►select New Layer  ►for the Name type A-Dim , for Color select 86.
• Right-click on the 'Layer Properties Manager' ►select New Layer  ►for the Name type A-Notes , for Color select red, after that the Layer Properties Manager will be as shown in Fig.2.1.1.4.
• Close the Layer Properties Manager dialog box.

Draw the Polyline

To draw the polyline (abgha), as shown in Fig. 2.1.1.1:

• On Ribbon > Click Home tab > Draw panel > click Line (hover on) and from the drop-down menu select Polyline.
• To Specify on the screen the Start point (a) of the polyline type 20,20 and press Enter (You will to define point (a) as reference point for all your drawing.
  From now on, keep in mind that you will use the same coordinates (20,20) for the same point (a) in all drawings of this project.
• Move your cursor downward, type 6.70 (it is the length (ab) to define second point(b), move your cursor right, type 12.90 (it is the length (bg), and press Enter to define the third point (g), move the cursor upward and type 6.7 to define fourth point (h), right-click and select, from the drop-down menu that will open, 'close' to close polyline (abgha).

Type Text

On Ribbon, set text style Standard as current, set layer "A-Notes" as Current, select on Ribbon the Single Text tool, and type the letters a, b, g, h, at the four corners of polyline, as shown in Fig.2.1.1.1.

To do this:

• Set layer A-Notes as the current Layer:
• Click Home tab > Layers panel > click on the Layer tab (hover on)  in the drawing to make current.
• Select the layer A-Notes, to make it current.
• On Ribbon, set text style Standard as current, to do this:
• Click Annotate tab > on Text panel > click the arrow on Text style tab where is shown the current text style  and from the drop-down menu, select text style Standard to make it current (Fig.1.2.1.5).
  You will notice that, on the tab the name for the current text style will change to 'Standard".
• Click Annotate tab > on Text panel > click the arrow on Multiline Text icon (hover on) , and from the drop-down menu select Single Line.

• To Specify on the screen the Start point of text select a point close to corner (a) of the polyline, for paper height type 0.27, for Rotation angle of text type 0.00, for TEXT type a.
  Sselect a second point close to corner b, and type b, select a third point close to corner g and type g, select the fourth point close to corner h and type h, click anywhere on screen and then press Esc to dismiss the SingleText command.
  If you wish, you can select the text with your mouse and move it to find its proper position.

Draw dimensions

Draw the Dimensions (ab) and (ah) on the Basement Outline drawing, as shown in Fig.2.1.1.1. At first you have to set layer "A-Dim" as the Current Layer, alternatively to the process you followed at the previous paragraph you will follow another way to set the current layer.

• Set layer A-Dim as the current Layer. To do this:
• Click Home tab > Layers panel > click on the Layer tab (hover on)  and a drop-down menu will open.
  This menu provides a choice of layer settings defined in the drawing to make current. Select the layer A-Dim, to make it current.
• To draw the dimension (ah),
• Click Annotate tab > Dimensions panel > click on the Linear Dimension icon (hover on) . This icon invokes a tool for adding a dimension to the selected object. For the moment dont use an AEC dimension, just use the tool for linear dimension.
  Before start drawing dimensions select on the Dimensions panel, 'Standard' as the default Dimension Style.
• To Specify on the screen the first point (a) of dimension (ah), select corner >(a) of the polyline.
• To Specify the second point (h) of dimension (ah), select corner (h) of the polyline.
• To Specify the Dimension location line, select with your mouse a point upward of line (ah) second point (h) of dimension (ah).

Customize Dimension Style

Once you have drawn the dimension, you will notice that its components like text,arrow etc. are very large. It means that you have to modify the dimension style 'Standard' that you used.
To do this,

• Select a dimension with the style that you want to edit, right-click on it and on the drop-down  menu select (hover on) tab.
• The dialog box 'Dimension Style Manager' will open, as shown in Fig.2.1.1.6, click on Modify tab to open the dialog box 'Override Current Style: Standard,
• Select on the top tab 'Text' to open the corresponding dialog box, as shown in Fig.2.1.1.7.
  Here set the text height= 0.15, go back, select tab 'Symbols and Arrows' tab and set Arrow Size= 0.18, go back, select tab 'Primary Units' tab and set Precission= 0.000, go back, select tab 'Fit' tab and on category 'scale for dimension features', set Use overal scale of = 1.000.
• Click OK, and on Dimension Style Manager click Close.

From now on, the 'Standard' Dimension Style, on the  drawing, has the new values you just inserted.

Save your drawing within folder 'house21', with the name: h21_outline. Its full path will be: C://ACA/tutorials/house21/h21_outline.dwg.
At the next chapter Exterior Walls you are going to start designing the exterior walls, for your project House21.

These tutoriasl are published in sequels and are written by the author of Βook:
" Design a House with AutoCad Architecture 2021"