Design mode

A Design project starts with no walls. You draw rooms, masses and door and window marks; when the layout is right, Make walls turns it into a building. The header says Design mode.

Start in Design

A new project asks Start in Design or BIM?: Start in Design is "Sketching / early design", Start in BIM is "BIM (detailed, coordinated model)". Design is highlighted, so Return takes it; the lot dialog has the same choice. A new Design project opens in plan with the Spaces layer on.

A project from before this choice, or one imported from IFC or Archicad, opens in BIM. A DXF, PDF or SketchUp import lands in the project that is open and keeps its mode.

What Design hides

Design shows what a sketch needs. These wait for BIM, and come back as they were when you switch:

Hidden in Design	Why
Sheets tab, with its schedules	Sheets and schedules are drawn from walls and openings.
Quantities and Cost tabs	They count walls, slabs and openings.
Types and Wall Types tabs	Door, window and wall types belong to BIM elements.
A selection's IFC attributes (property sets, classifications)	They describe IFC elements, and stay in the model.
The wall, box, stair, door, window, railing and roof tools	Design draws rooms, masses and marks instead.

Chat, Regulation, Parameters, Comments and Features show in both modes.

Promote to BIM

File › Promote to BIM… (⌥⇧⌘B) says what BIM adds, then switches when you click Promote. Your rooms and masses stay as they are; Make walls turns them into walls when you are ready. File › Switch to Design (⌥⇧⌘D) goes back. Either way only the mode changes, so nothing is dropped. The switch applies at once to the base model and to the conversation on view; it needs no Accept. A promoted sketch keeps its room labels until you make walls.

Draw a room

Press R for Room, then either:

• drag a rectangle;
• click a corner and type the Width, Tab, the Depth, Tab, a Name, and press Return;
• or click each corner and press Return for a polygon.

A point lands on a corner or axis within ten pixels, else on the nearest inch. Esc drops what is half drawn; Esc again leaves the tool. With Dynamic Input On / Off (F12, on by default) the size fields follow the pointer.

The plan names each room and gives its area in square feet; the selection bar and the rules bar give the total.

Reshape rooms

Key	Tool	Does
E	Drag Room Edge	Drag a room's edge along its normal. Every room that shares the edge follows.
X	Split Room	Click two points; the line cuts the room it crosses.
J	Merge Rooms	With two rooms that share an edge selected, joins them.

Move, Duplicate and Delete work on rooms as on anything else. A duplicated room lands beside the original, clear of every other room.

Limit. Rooms and masses may share an edge but not floor. An overlap is refused and the chat says which two.

Mark doors and windows

Press D for Door Mark or W for Window Mark and click a room's edge. The mark is 3′ or 4′ wide, centred on the click, and stays on its edge when the room moves. A door shows as a gap with its leaf and swing, a window as a gap with a glass line.

Draw a mass

Press H for Mass, draw a footprint as for a room, then type a Height and press Return.

Clip

Check the rules while you draw

The Regulation tab measures the rooms and masses against the lot's rules on every edit: lot coverage changes as a room is drawn. Detail checks that need walls wait for BIM.

Ask the agent for layout options

Options… (Y) lays out a program on the lot several ways, each by the agent on its own conversation.

1. Fill in the Program: Bedrooms, Baths, Other rooms, Target area (ft²) and Storeys, and the Number of options (at most 8). The window shows what that many agent turns would cost, at the average of your last turns.
2. Click Generate options. Each option starts with the program and its own idea ("bedrooms north", "single loaded hall", ...).
3. As they finish, the table ranks them: fewest failing rules, then most of the program met, then nearest the target area, with lot coverage.
4. Click an option to show it, compare another against it, then accept the one you want and discard the others.

Note. The rule columns are as provisional as the rules, and every failing rule counts the same.