Adding Dimension Annotations to Finalize Floor Plans for Your Renovation Project

Add Key Measurements to Bring Your Renovation Plans to Life

Finalize your digital architectural plans by adding annotations and dimensions. This article walks you through the steps to add key details such as dimensions to your projects, enabling you to complete your proposed plans.

Key Insights

  • The process of adding annotations and dimensions to your architectural plans includes making the annotations layer current, then following a pdf guide to add key dimensions.
  • Utilizing commands such as "dim linear" allows you to define specific measurements on your plans, improving their accuracy and detail. This is especially useful for defining dimensions of significant areas like kitchen counters and walls.
  • To annotate doors or windows, a useful trick is to use the "m2p" command which finds the midpoint of the door or window. This helps in maintaining precision and consistency in your architectural drawings.

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Awesome job reaching this project milestone. We have our new kitchen drawn, we have our new pantry, our new powder bathroom, our expanded bathroom upstairs, our walk-in closet, and our new owner's room. Awesome job getting to this point.

Now we can move forward and complete our proposed plans by adding in annotations. Let's begin with our dimensions. Let's go ahead and go to layer and we're going to look for our ANO dims.

Let's double click and make that the current layer. With that layer current we can follow our pdf as a guide and add in some of these key dimensions. To start the dimension command we type in dim linear d-i-m-l-i-n-e-a-r and we'll start with this dimension string going up.

We'll click on both corners of this wall that sticks out and we'll drag that out to about here and we'll repeat that process. We know the little shortcut we can just click enter again and we're right back to dimension. We'll go from this wall to the countertop and I like to click the adjacent dimension to make sure they line up and then we'll click enter again and we'll go from the edge of this counter and you could go to the inside corner.

I actually like to go kind of to about where the dimension string is and that kind of makes it a little bit cleaner. All right so that one's done and we'll do dim linear and we'll do the other kitchen string that goes vertically here right here at the island. We'll start there six feet, enter to do it again, click up here on the edge of the counter and right there three six.

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Now let's do these other strings just really quick. We'll hit ENTER be right back into our dimension mode and we'll just click away. The first dimension here is one foot and then five four from here to the island.

The island itself is three ten and the island to the end of this wall here also three ten and then two foot two to wrap it up. Perfect now we need this vertical dimension right here and we'll start right here at this wall corner go to the top of that wall and pull that out a little ways. Five feet right there and from that same point to the fireplace back right there.

Perfect and that's our first floor. Now we'll do the dimension strings for our second floor. So dim linear again we'll do this first horizontal string.

Now there's a trick right here that we've used before we'll use it again also for dimension. So I'll start right here in this corner and for the doors I want to dimension to the center of the door. We don't have to dimension that way but it is one common way to dimension doors or windows right to their center line.

Now I need to get the midpoint there is nothing in the center of the door so my next point will be m2p enter and it's going to get a midpoint between two points. Now I'll click the left side of the door and the right side of the door and magically it comes up with the center point of the door. Pretty cool I love that command.

We'll click there and we'll go back to dim linear and the cool thing is once we have that point as a part of the dimension we can click on it again and just use it over again. We've got another door so we're going to do m2p again and we'll do the left side and the right side and there we go nine foot ten and then we'll continue with our dimension string right from the center of that door over to the wall and we're good to go. Just like that.

All right now we have some more dimensions here and while I work on these I might explain why aren't we dimensioning everything and it can be customary in a residential remodel to dimension all of the new items especially the new walls the new dimensions. Everything existing kind of is what it is so often we don't need to re-dimension the portions of the building that are essentially staying the same. Closet door this is a double door so we don't need to use the m2p command we just click where the door swings land together here and here and we've got a little vertical string right here we'll do that real quick there and to that corner is like that.

Perfect you know what I'm going to break from that let's try that one more time we'll do that last dimension sometimes it is better to dimension to that interior wall for this interior remodel it's a little bit redundant but I think that's okay something like that. Okay so there we go we've got all of our dimensions and we've now begun adding these annotations to our project.

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Reid Johnson

Reid isn't just someone who knows CAD and BIM; he's a licensed architect and contractor who deeply integrates these technologies into every facet of his career. His hands-on experience as a practitioner building real-world projects provides him with an invaluable understanding of how BIM and CAD streamline workflows and enhance design. This practical foundation led him to Autodesk, where he shared his expertise, helping others effectively leverage these powerful tools. Throughout his professional journey, Reid also dedicates himself to education, consistently teaching university courses and shaping the next generation of design professionals by equipping them with essential CAD skills. His unique blend of practical experience, industry knowledge gained at Autodesk, and passion for teaching positions Reid as a true specialist in BIM and CAD technology, capable of bridging the gap between theory and real-world application.

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