Learn how to add wall openings to your AutoCAD drawings, starting with large walls and gradually breaking them down into smaller pieces, including doors and windows. This walkthrough provides a step-by-step guide on how to use interior faces, offsets, and trim tools to achieve a detailed and professional floorplan.
Key Insights
- Wall openings, such as doors and windows, are added to the wall structures after they are drawn as one continuous object. Walls are initially created as long singular objects, and openings are essentially small holes adjusted for scale.
- Standard measurements are used to draw the openings, such as a three-inch jam typical for doors and windows. Different techniques, such as offsets and trim tools, are used for precise and professional outcomes.
- Working from big to small and outside to inside is the recommended approach when dealing with AutoCAD drawings. This systematic method enables intricate detailing while maintaining the accuracy and neatness of the floorplan.
Note: These materials offer prospective students a preview of how our classes are structured. Students enrolled in this course will receive access to the full set of materials, including video lectures, project-based assignments, and instructor feedback.
Now it is time to add our wall openings, which in this case are every door and window. Remember, when we looked at the PDF, we talked about how we wanted to draw the walls as one continuous object and then cut them up into their smaller pieces.
That's because when we build the walls, they are constructed as long singular objects and the doors and windows are small holes. They look large on the floor plan, but that's just because of the angle we see them at. So let's get started.
The first thing we need to notice is that our three-inch jam typical is going to apply in a lot of these situations. Let's start down here at this bathroom window. The bathroom window is going to include that three-inch typical jam and then it's going to be two feet wide.
Now, to draw this, we can use the interior face of this wall as our offset guide. So let's go offset. The first distance is three inches.
Enter. That's this line to the right and click. Enter to say I'm done.
Learn AutoCAD
- Nationally accredited
- Create your own portfolio
- Free student software
- Learn at your convenience
- Authorized Autodesk training center
Enter to go back in. The next distance is two feet. Two feet.
You could type 24 for 24 inches, but I'll type two feet. Enter. 24.
And I'll go from this line to the right and click. Enter to say that I'm done. Now, to visualize the trim and to make it a little easier when we do the trim, I'm going to move these two lines down.
So I'll turn ortho on. I'm gonna go to move. Pick this line and this line.
Enter to say that I'm done. And this is going to be a distance and direction. In this case, the direction is up and down, but the distance really doesn't matter.
I'm going to click on the screen, move them down about this far and click again. Because we're going to trim the lines up, we don't need to know exactly how far we moved it. Trim will make nice corners in our window opening.
Speaking of trim, let's go to trim. And this is a simple pick process. One, two, three, four, five, six.
Enter to say that we're done. Let's continue on the outside of our building. And I'll go up to this wall.
The first door we need to do is door C. That also will include our three-inch jam typical, and it will include a two feet, eight inch distance. So let's start with our three-inch jam offset. Let's go offset, three, enter.
And again, this one will be from this interior face of the wall. Down and click. Enter to say I'm done.
Enter to go back in. Two feet, eight inches. Enter.
And let's go from that new line, down and click. Enter to say I'm done. Let's use the same move trick that we did earlier.
So I'll go move. I'll pick this line and this line. Enter.
Pick on the screen and move it any distance. Again, just far enough so that I can see my trim ends. Notice in this case that the line actually intersects this wall and continues off the screen to the right.
Using the simple trim tool is not good enough in this situation. We want to establish our cutting edges. If we had been zoomed in here, we would have never known that that line intersects our bathroom wall.
And we would have been left with extra geometry floating on the screen. We were zoomed out enough to see it in this case, but sometimes it's best to always establish cutting edges when using the trim tool. Let's go to trim.
T, enter to establish our cutting edges. And I'm gonna do this in one select. I'll pick down here to start a crossing window and I'll cross over all four of those lines.
And click. Enter. And it is now the same process.
Pick all six of those lines. One, two, three, four, five. But when I come down to this one, these are not cutting edges, so it skips right over them and trims it at our door.
Enter to say that I'm done. Okay, now let's go up into our two bedrooms. The two bedrooms each have a window which are both four feet wide and they're both three feet from the top of the building.
That's this exterior line. We can actually do a fun trick here to make this process go a little faster. Let's offset a total distance of three feet.
Enter. From the top line down. Click.
I'll hit ENTER to say I'm done and enter to go back in. A total distance of four feet. Enter.
And that's from this line down. And click. Enter.
We can actually see that the geometry is there for not only the window on our left, but also the window on our right. And that's because we used the exterior line. These end points are right on the exterior lines on the left and right.
So let's use trim again and make sure we establish our cutting edges. Trim. T, enter to establish our cutting edges.
And I can select these four lines and these two lines. I'll hit ENTER to lock in that selection. And now it's as simple as clicking once in the middle and twice in the middle and then picking our outside trim edges and our outside trim edges.
Enter to say that you're done. There are no windows on the top of our building. So let's finish by doing door A and our window number one.
Door A has that three-inch jam typical and a total width of three feet. Let's start there. So I'll go offset.
Three, enter from this interior face here. Down and click. Enter to say I'm done.
Enter to go back in. And that's a distance of three feet or 36 inches. Enter.
I'll choose that bottom line and come down and click. Enter to say I'm done. And before I do trim, let's add the lines for our window.
Let's use offset. And this is a distance of one foot, six inches. One foot, six, enter.
From the exterior line here and up, click. Enter to say I'm done. Enter to go back in.
And this is a total distance of four feet. Enter. And I'll click here and go up and click.
Enter. Now these two lines don't need to move, but the top two do. So let's go move.
I'll pick this line and this line. Enter. With ortho on, I'll slide them to the right.
Now they cross both our interior and exterior lines. Remember, select your cutting edges because over here on the left, we intersect a lot of geometry we don't wanna mess with. So let's go trim.
T, enter to select cutting edges. I'll use a crossing window to select all of these geometries and enter to lock it in. And now I can go up one, two, three, four, one, two on the outside.
We didn't move these two, so we didn't have any, we didn't move these two, so we don't have extra geometry hanging off to the right. And now I can pick inside my window and inside my door. Enter to lock it in.
Zoom extends. And CTRL+S to save. Quickly, we can do our three interior doors as well.
Let's go into here and do the bathroom door. I'll choose this line because it's a little longer and easier to see. This is an offset of three.
Enter for our jam. Click. Enter to say I'm done and enter to go back in.
The next distance is two feet four. Enter. This line to the right and click.
Enter to say I'm done. Two feet. And then I can pick these two lines.
Move. Click on the screen and slide them up with ortho on. Trim.
And I can pick one, two, three, four, five, six. Enter to say I'm done. Let's go up to the bedroom.
Notice that our door on the right is a three-inch jam and a width of two feet eight. And the door on the left is two feet four from this datum and then a width of two feet eight. Let's start by doing the three-inch jam, then the two feet four, and then we'll finish with both two feet eight offsets.
Offset. Three. Enter.
I'll pick this wall edge and go to the right and click. Enter to say I'm done. Enter to go back in.
Two feet four. Enter. Clicking this line and going to the left and click.
Enter to say I'm done. Enter to go back in. Two feet eight.
Enter. And now I can make both door widths here and here. Enter to say that I am done.
Now I need to move both of these to intersect the bottom edge of the wall. So I'll go move. One, two, three, four.
And enter. And again with ortho on, I'll move them down and click. And now we can do a simple trim.
This time, however, I want to use the crossing window to speed up my selection. Trim. I'm not going to establish cutting edges.
I can use a crossing window to cut straight across here and click. Click. I'll pick these two.
Notice it's using fence automatically. To select my cutting lines. Enter.
Zoom extents and CTRL+S to save. Now we started with our long walls and we have added in our door and window openings. Remember, this is working big to small and outside to inside.
This is how we should always work through our AutoCAD drawings. I'll see you in the next video.
