Help centre · Modelling

Walls and rooms

Draw straight and curved walls to exact lengths, use snapping, set wall types, split walls, and get rooms with their areas and floors.

Walls are where most buildings start. Draw them corner to corner and Stori3D joins them, finds the rooms they enclose and works out each room's area. Doors, windows, floors and roofs then build on them.

Draw a wall

Press W, click Draw walls in the toolbar, or open the Library and click Draw walls.
Click where the wall starts, then click at each corner.
Press Enter or double-click to finish. Clicking the first corner again closes the room.

The Walls bar sets Wall height and Wall thickness (2.7 m and 0.2 m to start with). Click Top view (plan) to draw looking straight down, and Done when you've finished.

Type an exact length

While drawing, type a length and press Enter. The wall runs that far in the direction you're pointing.

3500mm, 3.5m or 11' 6" all work. A plain number is metres in a metric project and feet in an imperial one.
Add an angle after < for an exact bearing: 3500mm<45 runs at 45°, measured counter-clockwise from east.

Snap to what's there

As you draw, the pointer snaps and a label says to what:

Endpoint and Midpoint: wall ends and middles, wall corners, columns and slab corners.
On wall: anywhere along a wall, which makes a T-junction.
Angle: every 15°.
Aligned: lined up with another corner across or along, shown with dashed guides.
Grid: the toolbar's grid snap. Snap size sets the step.

Hold Shift to lock the direction you're heading. The right and left arrow keys lock east–west or north–south. Tap Alt (⌘ on a Mac) to turn snapping off and on.

Draw a curved wall

In the Walls bar, turn on Draw curved walls. Click the start, then the end, then how far the wall curves (or type the distance and press Enter). Esc keeps that wall straight.

To bend a wall you've already drawn, select it and change Curve in the Properties panel, up to a half circle. Straighten makes it straight again. Doors and windows follow the curve.

Change a wall

Select a wall to edit its Length, Height and Thickness in the Properties panel. You can also drag the handles at its ends. Walls that share a corner move with it, so rooms stay closed.

Add window and Add door start placing an opening in a wall. See Doors and windows.

Give a wall a type

Under Type, pick a build-up of layers instead of Generic: Cavity wall 315, Solid brick 260, Concrete 230, Timber frame 190, Stud partition 100 or Block partition 130. The wall takes the thickness of its layers, which are listed below. Flip layers turns the build-up round. Typing another thickness makes the wall generic again.

Plans and sections draw a typed wall layer by layer. In 3D it's still one solid, with a finish on each face.

Split a wall

Select the wall, click Split, then click where it should divide. It snaps to the middle and the grid, and shows both lengths. The first part keeps the wall's settings, and a matching wall takes the rest along with the doors and windows in it. You can't split through a door or window.

See rooms and their areas

Any area closed in by walls becomes a room, with its area shown on the floor. The Dimensions and labels button in the toolbar turns Wall lengths and Room areas on and off.

Click a room's area label to select the room. The Properties panel shows its Area, Gross area and Perimeter, and you can give it a Name. The name and any data belong to the room's tag, a point inside the room.

Add a floor

Open the Library and click Floor slab, then click inside a room. The slab fills the room to the wall centre lines, with its top at the level's floor. Change its Thickness in the Properties panel. Stairs that arrive at a floor cut their own stairwell in it.

For more storeys and roofs, see Levels, roofs and stairs.

Still stuck? Contact us, or ask in the app: Help → Contact support.