See the inside size of every room

Step by step

1. 1

   Read the inside measurements along the walls

   Each wall carries two kinds of measurement, both with arrow tips: - Outside lines (the outermost ones, darker text) run from one outer wall face to the other: the house's overall size. On this plan the top reads 24′ 6.5″. - Inside lines (lighter text) run between wall faces. Where an interior wall meets the outer wall, the inside line splits into one piece per room: 13′ 6.5″ across the living area and 9′ 6.5″ across the bedroom. Those are the clear widths you can furnish. Where the inside lines sit. By default they're drawn inside the room, on the room side of the wall, where the measured space actually is. Furniture along a wall doesn't push them out: each number slides along to a clear stretch of the wall, past a bed or a sofa, and the line itself is drawn over the furniture. Only a wall where one of its numbers has no clear spot at all (furniture along that whole stretch) keeps its inside lines in the margin, next to the outside ones; rugs don't count. A number a room label leaves no room for moves out too. On this furnished template the left, right and bottom walls keep their numbers inside; the top wall, lined with the kitchen run, keeps them in the margin. A tip that lands on a wall turns white so it stays visible. The inside lines appear when Layers → Show interior dimensions is on (it's on unless you turned it off); the outside lines are Show exterior dimensions. A number that doesn't fit on screen hides until you zoom in, and a selected wall shows all of its numbers. A room with no interior walls still shows its inside size next to the outside one.

   

2. 2

   Inside the rooms, or in the margin

   Under Layers → Show interior dimensions there's a second switch, Inside the rooms, on by default. On, an outside wall's inside measurements are drawn on the room side of the wall; off, they all go out into the margin beside the outside lines. Turn it off when you'd rather keep the floor clear. Either way, each face of an interior wall gets its own measurements when its two sides differ: a wall that meets it from one side splits only that side, and the other side shows its full length. Inside corners of L-, T- and U-shaped plans measure right into the corner, and the outside of an L corner shows its full length to the far face. The export dialog has the same Inside the rooms box.

   

3. 3

   Turn on room sizes in Layers

   Click the Layers button in the toolbar above the plan (the stack icon). The first rows are the dimension switches: Show exterior dimensions, Show interior dimensions and, under it, Inside the rooms. Under Show room labels there are two extra switches: - Keep labels expanded opens every room's label instead of the small tag you tap. - Show room dimensions and area adds the room's inside width × length and its floor area under its name. Room labels start on, as small tags, on phones and computers alike; tap a tag to open it.

   

4. 4

   Read a room label

   An open label shows three lines: the room's name, its inside size (width × length, measured between the inside wall faces) and its floor area inside the walls. The bedroom here is 9′ 7″ × 15′ 7″, 149 sq ft. With Keep labels expanded off, each room shows a small tag; tap or click it to open that one label. Tap the pencil to name the room. The label rounds to the nearest inch, so it can read half an inch more than the measurement along the wall (9′ 7″ vs 9′ 6.5″). For an L-shaped or angled room, the width × length is the overall inside extent and the area is the true floor area.

   

5. 5

   Gross area vs Usable area

   For the whole floor, open Plan Settings and its Layout tab. On a computer Plan Settings is at the top of the left panel; on a phone, tap Plan Settings in the top row. - Gross area is the footprint measured to the outside faces of the outer walls: what a builder pours. - Usable area is the floor inside the walls: the walkable space, with every wall's footprint removed. Each room's own area is on its label (step 3).

   

6. 6

   Know what your typed size means: Exterior wall placement

   When you create a room by typing its size (or draw its outline), Exterior Wall Placement decides which face of the outer walls that size describes. Find it in Plan Settings → Walls. The dashed yellow line (the Outline button there) shows the outline you drew: - Outside (the default for new designs): the walls sit outside your outline, so the size you typed is the inside size of the room. Type the measurements you took inside. - Center: the walls straddle the outline; your size is wall center to wall center. - Inside: the walls sit inside your outline, so the size you typed is the outside of the house, and the rooms are smaller inside. For example, this apartment's outline is drawn 24′ × 22′. In Outside the left wall reads 22′ inside and 23′ 1″ outside (Gross 579, Usable 528 sq ft); in Inside it reads 22′ outside and 20′ 11″ inside (Gross 528, Usable 479 sq ft). Switching moves the walls, not your outline, so the inside sizes and areas change. Tap the ? next to the heading for the same explanation in the app.

   

7. 7

   Set a room's inside size by tapping its measurement

   Want the bedroom to be exactly 15′ deep inside? Tap that room's inside measurement on the plan. Two boxes open (feet and inches, or metres and centimetres) with the current size filled in; the wall the measurement belongs to is highlighted, a yellow pin marks the end that stays and an arrow the end that moves (tap the arrow to swap). Type the size and press Enter (or the ✓). Interior walls move before the outside of the house does. Tapping an outer wall's inside measurement changes that outer wall's length by the same amount. Once walls exist, a wall's own length box shows outside length for an outer wall and wall face to wall face for an interior wall, whatever the placement setting. See Set an exact wall length.

   

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