Tutorial: floor plan with layers

In this tutorial you draw the plan of a simple 8 × 6 m dwelling: 25 cm outer walls, a 10 cm partition with a doorway, an entrance door and two windows, each on its own layer. The following tutorials dimension this plan, add furniture and plot it.

The drawing is in millimetres (the unit of new drawings). All coordinates are typed on the command line; press Enter after each value. A coordinate with @ is relative to the last point: @8000,0 is 8 m to the right.

1. Creating the layers

Start a new drawing with NEW.
Enter LAYER (or LA). The Layer Properties Manager opens.
Click New Layer. A layer appears with its name ready to type: type Walls and Enter.
Repeat step 3 for Doors, Windows, Furniture, Dims and Text.
In the Color column of each layer, drop down the colour and choose the one in the table. On the Walls layer, also change the Lineweight to 0.50 mm: walls will plot thicker.
Double-click the Status column of the Walls layer to make it current (the ✔ mark appears) and close the dialog.

Layer	Colour	For
Walls	1 (red), lineweight 0.50	walls, partitions and jambs
Doors	3 (green)	door leaves and swings
Windows	4 (cyan)	window frames
Furniture	8 (grey)	furniture (blocks tutorial)
Dims	2 (yellow)	dimensions (dimensioning tutorial)
Text	7 (white)	room names

The same, from the command line with -LAYER (useful in scripts): each line is one answer and the empty one at the end is the Enter that ends the command.

-LAYER
N
Walls,Doors,Windows,Furniture,Dims,Text
C
1
Walls
C
3
Doors
C
4
Windows
C
8
Furniture
C
2
Dims
LW
0.5
Walls
S
Walls

2. Outer walls with PLINE and OFFSET

Enter PLINE (or PL).

Specify first point:

Type 0,0.

Specify next point or [Arc/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width]:

Type @8000,0, then @0,6000 and then @-8000,0.
Type C (Close): the polyline closes. It is the outer face of the walls, a single object.
Double-click the mouse wheel to see the whole drawing.
Enter OFFSET (or O).

Specify offset distance or [Through/Erase/Layer] <…>:

Type 250, the wall thickness.

Select object to offset or [Exit/Undo] <Exit>:

Click the polyline.

Specify point on side to offset or [Exit/Multiple/Undo] <Exit>:

Type 4000,3000 (a point inside the dwelling) or click inside. The inner face appears. Press Enter to finish.

3. The partition

Enter LINE (or L), 5000,250, 5000,5750 and Enter: the line runs from wall to wall.
Enter OFFSET, 100, click the line you have just drawn, type 6000,3000 and press Enter. The partition lies between x = 5000 and x = 5100: the living room on the left, the bedroom on the right.

4. Opening the gaps

Each opening is marked with two jambs (short lines across the wall) and then the wall is trimmed between them.

Enter LINE, 1000,0, @0,250 and Enter: the first jamb of the entrance door.
Enter COPY (or CO) to repeat it at the other openings.

Select objects:

Click the jamb and press Enter.

Specify base point:

Type 1000,0.

Specify second point or <exit>:

Type, one after the other, 1900,0 (door), 2000,5750 and 3500,5750 (living room window), 5900,5750 and 7400,5750 (bedroom window). Press Enter to finish.
For the partition doorway: LINE, 5000,1000, @100,0 and Enter; then COPY that line with base point 5000,1000 and second point 5000,1800.
Enter TRIM (or TR).

Select object to trim or shift-select to extend or [cuTting edges/Crossing/mOde/Project/eRase]:

In Quick mode (the AutoCAD 2027 default) you do not select edges: every object acts as a cutting edge.
Click each piece of wall between two jambs: at the door, the outer and the inner line; at each window, both; at the partition, its two lines (zoom in with the wheel if they are close together). That is eight clicks. Press Enter to finish. If you trim the wrong piece, finish and press Ctrl+Z.

5. The entrance door

Drop down the layer control on the ribbon and choose Doors: it becomes the current layer.
Draw the open leaf: LINE, 1000,250, @0,900 and Enter.
Draw the swing with an arc by its centre. Enter ARC (or A).

Specify start point of arc or [Center]:

Type C (Center).

Specify center point of arc:

Type 1000,250 (the hinge).

Specify start point of arc:

Type 1900,250 (the other jamb).

Specify end point of arc:

Type 1000,1150 (the end of the leaf). The arc is drawn counterclockwise, from the jamb to the leaf.

6. The windows

Make the Windows layer current.
Draw the two lines on the wall faces: LINE, 2000,5750, @1500,0, Enter; and LINE, 2000,6000, @1500,0, Enter.
Draw the glass with RECTANG (or REC).

Specify first corner point or [Chamfer/Elevation/Fillet/Thickness/Width]:

Type 2000,5850.

Specify other corner point or [Area/Dimensions/Rotation]:

Type @1500,50.
Copy the window to the bedroom: COPY, click the three pieces of the window, Enter, base point 2000,5750 and second point 5900,5750, Enter.

7. Saving

Enter SAVEAS and save the drawing as plano.dwg. The next tutorial starts from it.

Notes

Instead of typing, points can be specified with the mouse and object snaps (F3), such as Endpoint or Intersection, and with Ortho (F8) for horizontal and vertical lines. See Object snaps and precision.
The partition doorway is left open: in the blocks tutorial a door from the library is placed in it.