Draw the plan using CAD 2D tools

With the CAD 2D tools you can create more complex shapes, and use them to create new rooms (and objects too, as you will later on in this guide).
You will now learn how to create a new room starting from an empty project (but it is evident that you can use these tools any time in your project, in order to create more rooms or 3D Objects).
First of all close the existing project, if any, and get back to the LivePage.
In the Home tab of the Ribbon, select command Empty project.
As always, the Application will ask you the generic information about the project. After filling in the project details, you will get to the desktop; of course, it will be empty and the Application will now wait for you.

Before starting always remember that, in order to create a room, you have to create a closed shape (That’s why when we learned about the free hand drawing, we started and closed the layout in the same point).
So let’s start! Open the Ribbon tab dedicated to CAD 2D tools. Here you have available several entities in order to draw a layout.

• Line: as you enter the command, you can set the first point with the left mouse button or typing point coordinates + Enter keyboard button; for the second one you can use the mouse again, or typing the length of the line and the angle you want to have between the line and the X axis. The Application still remains in the line draw mood, so that you can draw a second line starting from the final point of the former one. If you want to stop drawing lines, press ESC keyboard button, or right click and select menu Cancel. If you want to modify the line later on, select it with the left mouse button, click over the node (the blue ball) and drag it somewhere else. If you pick the line in the middle, you can move it along the desktop.
• Rectangle: same as for the line, you can draw a rectangle using the left mouse button, or typing the first point coordinates and its horizontal and vertical extension (press Enter in order to confirm the typed values). Look at the negative values in the fields: once you have placed the first point of the rectangle, try moving the mouse all around: you will see the negative values changing depending on the sector you are moving the mouse over. That’s a very useful way to understand which direction the negative values will draw in. You can modify the rectangle (and every other CAD 2D entity) pretty the same way you did with the line just before, that’s to say by picking the lines in order to move it, or the nodes to change it.
• Circle: there are several ways to draw a circle. The most common one is to specify a center and a radius. You can set the circle center by using the left mouse button or typing the center coordinates, then type the value of the radius (or set it using the mouse again, also using the available snaps in the layout desktop). Try out yourself the other command for drawing a circle, as they are pretty self-explicable.
• Arch: - Point-point-radius: specify the points you want the arch to start and end with, finally the radius of the arch. As always, you can use the left mouse button in order to set the needed points, rather than type the coordinates of the first point, the distance and radius for the second one, the value of the radius.
  - 3 points: the Application asks you to set (one after the other) the first, second and third point of the arch
  - Tangent-point-radius: you need to select one of the existing lines to specify the tangent, the point you want the arch to start from, the radius of the arch, finally the extension (magnitude) of the arch.
• Curves: this command allows you to draw the so called splines. Splines are curved lines, where the shape and the angles are made of consecutive points.
  As you can see in this image, the curve follows up the tangent line made up by the last point you are drawing.
  You can stop drawing the spline by right clicking the mouse button and selecting the command Stop, while Close will close the shape, Continue will allow you to keep on drawing and Cancel will delete all the spline you are drawing. Once designed the spline, if you left click on it, you can modify it later on just by picking the nodes of the spline (the blue balls) and dragging them up to the new position. If you right click on the spline and select add, you can create a new node in the section of the curve where the mouse is.
• Polyline: this is the same behavior of the Free hand drawing command you already saw while creating a new project; in CAD 2D, by right clicking the mouse you can anytime decide to stop drawing (for open polylines) or close it. If you decide to close it, the Application will ask you if you want to use such shape to create a room or an object. This is the most common (and used) CAD 2D feature in order to draw objects and new rooms
• Polyline from selection: this command allows you to group different entities in a single polyline. Remember that all entities have to be connected each other; that shape can be a closed or open one. In order to create a polyline from selection, select all the entities (by picking them one by one with the left mouse button or dragging it in order to include all of them) and click right button once selection is complete.
• Room by selection: this command allows you to convert a group of entities to a room. There are conditions in order to be able to run this command: the entities you are going to select have to be one connected to the other, describing a closed shape. Moreover all those entities have not to be inside an existing room. Any new room, in fact, has to be designed outside the existing ones.
• Text: this command allows you to draw text and descriptions wherever in the desktop. Select the point where to start drawing the text, the height of the letters (by using the left mouse button or typing its value), the orientation of the text (horizontal, diagonal, …) and finally you will access the mask where to type the text you need and choose the text color. Remember that by right clicking the text once saved in the project, you can move, rotate, change it again, or delete it.
• Dimension: once you have completed your room layout, it may be useful to draw its dimension for printing purposes. The Application can automatically create a dimension for each wall of the room, by selecting the command DimensionAutomatic Dimension, and deciding if you want the lines to be placed inside or outside the room. Indeed, if you want to manually measure any detail of the layout, you need to select the command DimensionDimension: select the needed configuration, finally proceed picking up the starting and ending point of the dimension, together with the position you want the dimension to be placed in the layout. It is very easy to follow up the Application’s instructions while drawing it: remember that you can use any existing snap, such as the grid snap, existing objects, or CAD entities (sometimes it is useful to draw constructional entities in order to have available snaps in the project. Remember that CAD 2D entities won’t be seen in the graphic output of the project, as they are just construction entities).