← Back to Tutorials

Drawing, editing and styling walls in MacDraft

Creating walls is important when drawing all types of plans. The control you have over the walls can help to speed up your design process and make it easier to manage your drawings. MacDraft has a bunch of tailored tools to help you draw and edit walls in your plans.

What you’ll learn

What are Parallel Lines?

Parallel lines are two lines which sit next to each other which if you extend them infinitely they would never meet. This is a mathematical description of what they are and although this is true, in MacDraft they are primarily used for creating walls in your floor plans and diagrams. For the rest of this tutorial we will refer to these lines/tools as both parallel lines and walls.

Understanding the parallel line tools

This tutorial requires that you are running MacDraft PE or MacDraft Pro version 7.0.3 or later. The reason for this is that the parallel line tools were improved in version 7.0.3, adding new features.

1. Open MacDraft and open a blank document.
2. Locate the Parallel Line tools in the Left panel or in the Drafting Tools palette, click and hold the mouse button down while selecting the tool.
3. You will now see all of the parallel line tools.

Above are the 5 different wall tools. Select the Parallel Line tool and you will see options appear at the top of the drawing area, which are used to define the settings of the parallel line you are about to draw. Draw a single parallel line anywhere in the document. When you have drawn the parallel line, select it and you will notice the right panel change to show options.

Parallel line options

This tutorial requires that you are running MacDraft PE or MacDraft Pro version 7.0.3 or later. The reason for this is because the parallel line tools were improved in version 7.0.3, adding new features.

• Alignment: Select to change the point you draw from, Top, Centre or Bottom.
• End Caps: Change the end caps to have the parallel lines open ended or closed.
• Corner: Similar to End Caps, turn these on or off to show a corner line on your walls. 
• Thickness: Edit the thickness of the selected walls.
• Select Segment: Change the thickness of a selected part/segment of the wall.

Now we have taken a look at all the tools and options, let’s take a look at how to use each of the parallel line tools in MacDraft.

Drawing Parallel Lines (Single Walls)

1. Open the Walls Tutorial.md70 file provided.
2. When it opens, you will see 6 rectangles, zoom in and focus on Part 1.

3. Select the single Parallel Line tool (first tool) and practise drawing a couple of lines in the box. Try drawing at different angles and changing the options before you draw and after you draw. Once you are happy and understand the options you are drawing with, you can move onto the next part.

Drawing Parallel Polylines (Open Walls)

1. Zoom in and focus on the Part 2 - Parallel Polylines part of the drawing.
2. You will notice a set of black lines and a set of orange lines in part 2.

3. With the Parallel Polyline tool selected, use the black line as a guide and single mouse click on the end points of each black line to create the shape, shown in the images below.
4. To end the polyline, double click when placing your final point.

Editing the position of parallel lines

Now that we have drawn a set of parallel lines we are going to learn how to reposition the editing handles to change the shape and location. We are going to use the orange line as a reference line.

1. Make sure the Arrow tool is selected and click on the parallel line object. You will notice editing handles appear on the parallel line.
2. Move the mouse to he first handle.
3. Click and hold the mouse button down on the first handle and move the mouse to drag it to the first part of the orange line. Then release the mouse button to position the handle.


4. Do the same with the other handles and reposition them onto the orange line. This is how you manually move and reposition parts of the walls.

Drawing Parallel Polygons (Closed Walls)

This tool works in the same way as the parallel polyline tool, allowing you to draw multiple linked parallel lines. The difference is that, at the end of drawing, the shape will become closed, creating a room. You will end the drawing of a closed shape, by double clicking the mouse, on the point you place just before the start point. This creates a connecting parallel lines between your last point and your first, automatically.

1. Zoom in and focus on the Part 3 - Parallel Polygons part of the drawing.
2. You will notice a set of orange lines creating a closed shape.

3. With the Parallel Polygon tool selected, use the orange line as a guide and single mouse click on the end points of each orange line to create the shape, shown in the images below.
4. To end the polygon, double click when placing the point just before the first point you drew. This will connect and end the shape, ceating the closed set of parallel lines.

Editing the parallel line options

Now that we have drawn a room, there are some more editing options to take a look at. We will be looking at changing the Alignment, End Caps, Corners and overall Thickness.

1. Make sure the Arrow tool is selected and click on the parallel line object. You will notice editing handles appear on the parallel line.
2. You will notice the options in the right panel change to suit your selection. Navigate to the Parallel Line Options.
3. You can experiment with the other options, but at this point just set the Thickness to 8”.

Add a single parallel line to existing lines

The Extrude Parallel Line tool allows you to add new parallel lines to the existing ones that you have drawn, joining them together.

1. Zoom in and focus on the Part 4 - Extruding Walls part of the drawing.
2. You will notice a small orange line, which we will use a guide.
3. Select the Extrude Parallel Line tool. Move the curosr to start of the orange line and click the mouse button.
4. Then move the mouse to the second point and click the mouse button to place the new parallel line, extruded from the original.

Adding linked parallel lines to existing lines

The Extrude Parallel Polyline tool allows you to add multiple linked parallel lines to the existing ones that you have drawn, joining them together.

1. Zoom in and focus on the Part 5 - Extruding Parallel Polylines part of the drawing.
2. You will notice multiple orange lines, which we will use a guide.
3. Select the Extrude Parallel Polyline tool. Move the cursor to start of the orange line at the bottom and click the mouse button.
4. Use the images below as a reference and place the points of the new parallel line.




5. As previously, use the images below to add the second set of new parallel lines.

Changing the parallel line thickness

You can either change the parallel line thickness of all the selected parallel lines, or change the thickness of individually selected ones.

1. Use the parallel lines you’ve just created and select them.
2. Go to the Parallel Line Options in the Propeties panel and locate the Select Segment button, which allows you to select individual parts of the parallel lines.
3. Click the Select Segment button and it will become highlighted with your system color.

4. Now move the mouse over the Parallel lines your wish to select for editing. You can hold the shift key down while selecting to select more than one parallel line. Use the images below as a reference for which lines to select.
5. Once selected, change the Thickness to a higher number - we have used 10”.

Changing the parallel line colors

1. Select the Arrow tool from the tools panel on the left.
2. Select the parallel lines we have been working on in Part 5.
3. Locate the Colors & Patterns section in the right panel and change the colors of each of the options, to control the Stroke, Parallel Line Fill and Fill colors.

Advanced Step (MacDraft Pro users only)

Adding and removing handles

MacDraft Pro gives access to an Add/Remove Handles tool, that lets you add new handles to existing shapes and remove handles. This is perfect for managing complex shapes.

1. Select the Arrow tool from the tools panel on the left. Then select the parallel lines.

2. Select the Add/Remove Handles tools, from the Advanced Tools section in the panel on the left.
3. Move the mouse to the parallel lines click to add handles to it. The image below shows an example of adding some new handles. To remove handles, you can hold the ALT key down on the keyboard, move the mouse to the handle you would like to delete and click the mouse button.

Summary

With this tutorial you should now be familiar with the Parallel Line tools and how to work with them and their options. Experiment with the skills you have learnt to create more complex rooms and produce your floor plans much faster.

Helpful resources

Related Links

MacDraft User Guide
Keyboard Shortcuts
Contact the Microspot team

Related Tutorials