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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.
Single parallel lines
Learn how to draw single parallel lines and use them as walls.
Parallel polylines
Learn how to draw a set of parallel lines for mulitple walls.
Extrude parallel lines
How to add additional walls using the Extrude parallel lines.
Editing parallel lines
How to change the styles and options for parallel lines.
Parallel line thickness
How to change the thickness of internal and external walls.
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.
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.
Parallel line tool:
Create a single wall at any angle.
Parallel polyline tool:
Create a chain of walls following on from the previously placed wall.
Parallel polygon tool:
Create a chain of connected walls, with each new wall starting from the end of
the previous one. Double-clicking will complete the sequence, automatically,
connecting the final wall back to the starting point to create a room.
Extrude parallel line tool:
Create a single wall from an existing wall, such as internal walls.
Extrude parallel polyline tool:
Create a chain of walls from an existing wall.
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.
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.
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.
Tips and information
If you want to change the options before you drawn a parallel line, make sure you change the settings in the option strip that appear at the top of the drawing area, when the parallel line tool is selected. To change the setting after you have drawn, you can select the parallel line, and then use the options in the Properties panel.
Tips and information
While drawing, you can hold the Shift key down on the keyboard, to constrain the drawing to 45 degree increments. Also, if you make a mistake when placing a parallel line point, you can use the Backspace key on the keyboard, to delete the previously place point or press the ESC key on the keyboard to exit the whole drawing mode to start again.
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.
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.
Tips and information
While drawing, you can hold the Shift key down on the keyboard, to constrain the drawing to 45 degree increments. Also, if you make a mistake when placing a parallel line point, you can use the Backspace key on the keyboard, to delete the previously place point or press the ESC key on the keyboard to exit the whole drawing mode to start again.
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.
The Extrude Parallel Line tool allows you to add new parallel lines to the existing ones that you have drawn, joining them together.
Tips and information
When placing the first point with the Extrude Parallel Line tool, you can click anywhere in between the lines of the parallel line.
The Extrude Parallel Polyline tool allows you to add multiple linked parallel lines to the existing ones that you have drawn, joining them together.
Tips and information
When using either of the extrude parallel line tools, you don’t always have to click on the existing wall to finish the new parallel line. You may wish to create a new parallel line that ends on it’s own, unconnected to the existing lines. To do this you simply double-click the mouse button to finish drawing.
You can either change the parallel line thickness of all the selected parallel lines, or change the thickness of individually selected ones.
Tips and information
In addition to the colors you can also change the line style of the border around the parallel lines and the line/stroke thickness.
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.
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.
Related Links
MacDraft User Guide
Keyboard Shortcuts
Contact the Microspot team
Related Tutorials