How to Resize and Block Out a Bathroom Window in AutoCAD

Resizing and Converting a Bathroom Window in AutoCAD

Discover how to effectively construct and scale a bathroom window in this comprehensive guide. It covers all aspects from building the outline, adjusting geometry, exploding blocks, to creating a smaller window while maintaining its aesthetic appeal.

Key Insights

  • The guide emphasizes the importance of starting with a clear outline of the bathroom window, considering aspects such as sill height, proper scaling, and utilization of pre-established geometry.
  • The process of modifying an existing 40 by 40 window into a 2x2 window is thoroughly explained. It is crucial to explode the block, stretch the geometry in the right direction and distance, and take into account the thickness of the glass pane trim and the window trim.
  • Adjustments to the multiliter (arrowhead) are crucial to maintain the window's aesthetic appeal. Nudging it into place, exploding the multiliter, and stretching it accordingly are key steps in this process. This ensures the window size is correct and maintains a neat appearance.

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 let's take a look at our bathroom window. I'll go to my View tab, switch to my left view, and this is where my bathroom window goes.

If we check the handout, we can see the sill height of the bathroom window is at four feet eight. So let's start by building that outline. So I'll go Offset, four feet eight, Enter, from my finished floor, up and click.

Enter to say I'm done, Enter to go back in, two feet, Enter, from here to here, Enter to say I'm done. Now we could fill this around and make a rectangle. That might help us block it out, especially if I was blocking all of my geometry out and then coming back to it later.

However, we already have some geometry that we might be able to use. Let's bring in an extra copy of our 40 × 40 window. Now I'm going to place it at this intersection, but we can obviously tell, escape, escape, escape, we can obviously tell that it's much too large.

But if I grab the window, grab my grip, right click Scale, and I'll scale this one over two, one half, we can tell that this doesn't look quite right. The trim has scaled, the window panes have scaled, the arrow has scaled. This window, while it is technically now two feet zero by two feet zero, does not look right in our drawing.

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Instead, I'll delete this block, and let's just pan over here to the side and bring in a new window. This is our 40 × 40 window. I'll hit escape, escape, escape after I've placed one right here.

Now what I want to do is use this geometry and edit it to make a smaller two feet by two feet window. So let's see how we can do that. The first thing we need to do is explode this block.

We can't stretch individual elements in a block without going into the block editor, and we're not going to do that right now. So first, let's explode, and now our geometry is back to being lines and a multileader. So let's stretch our geometry.

We want to make this window two feet tall. So I can simply stretch all of this top geometry down with a distance and direction move of two feet. I have ortho on, that's great.

So let's go stretch. Remember, go right to left with a crossing window. I'll grab all of the geometry on the top half of my window, enter to lock it in.

I'll pick any base point because we're doing distance and direction. My direction is straight down, and my distance is two feet, enter. Now we've made a four feet wide by two feet tall window.

Let's stretch it again. This time, I'm going to stretch this panel right here. We could stretch this side to the right or all of this geometry to the left.

To keep it simple, I'll make my selection like this, and we'll stretch it to the right. So I'll go stretch, grabbing the geometry right to left with a crossing window, click, enter to lock it in. My base point can be anywhere.

My direction is to the right. My distance is one foot, enter. Let's do the same thing on the right side of the window.

Stretch, I'll grab this geometry here, enter to lock it in, and I'll stretch to the left this time, 12, enter for 12 inches. Now the window is the correct size and still retained the same thickness for our glass pane trim and the window trim. But you might've noticed your arrow has gone away.

The multiliter has become too short to support the arrowhead. So I need to stretch this back out a certain distance in order for my arrowhead to reappear. But now this line is too long and in the wrong spot.

So I'm going to undo my stretch, and I'm only going to stretch this portion of the window without grabbing my multiliter. Stretch, grab not the multiliter, but I'll grab these three window edges, enter, and now I'm stretching to the left, 12 inches, enter. Okay, now let's work on this multiliter.

If we stretch the multiliter too short, the arrowhead disappears, but we want that arrowhead to match our other windows. So in this case, we're going to do something that should not be done very often, which is to explode a multiliter. We do not like to explode dimensions, and we do not like to explode multiliters because it becomes very hard to work with them, especially when there's dimensions or multiliter text involved.

But in this case, this is just an arrow, so we can explode it for its geometry. Before I explode it, I want to use nudge, Control and the arrow keys, to nudge it into a place where the arrowhead is almost touching the middle of the window. You can see that here.

So I've nudged it to the left with Control and the left arrow key, and now I can grab it and explode. This line is now a polyline, and I can pick it and stretch it with Ortho to the left, right here. You might notice an extra line or two has been generated and left in space.

If there has, go ahead and select it and hit the Delete key. There we go. Now our window has a short arrowhead with a short leader, but it did not have to be scaled down or have the arrowhead disappear.

Now this window is two feet by two feet, and I can check that with my quick measure tool. If I come up top, I can see that there is a distance on the inside of two feet. It's the gray text on my screen.

And if I come over here, I can also see a gray text saying two feet. Of course, the outer dimension is two feet seven by two feet seven, because our trim is three and a half inches on each side. Escape, escape, escape.

Now let's right block this window as well. I will go ahead and type in WB for right block, Enter. It remembers our settings from last time, so we are going to convert to block, but we still need to select our new objects.

I'll pick this geometry here. In this case, there are eight found because we exploded the multiliter. I'll hit ENTER to lock it in.

In this case, I'm going to delete it from drawing because we're about to place it back in using the Import command. Our base point I'll pick to be the same point, which is here. And let's browse.

Make sure we're in the correct folder. And I will type in WDW-2020. And I will hit Save.

I'll hit OK. And you'll see the block disappear. Now, because the block disappeared, it's not in our drawing.

So you'll see here, no window. Let's browse for it. Jump out of our title blocks folder.

There we go, Elevation Doors and Windows. And there it is, 2020. Now I'll hit Open.

And I can place it here at the intersection. Once I've placed it and hit Escape, Escape, Escape, you'll see it appear in our current drawing blocks panel. Excellent.

Now we can delete this structure construction geometry because we can see the window fits in the appropriate location. I'll do a Zoom Extents and Control S to save. In the next video, we will start working on our front and back doors.

I'll see you then.

photo of David Sellers

David Sellers

David has a Bachelor of Architecture Degree from Penn State University and a MBA from Point Loma Nazarene University. He has been teaching Autodesk programs for over 10 years and enjoys working and teaching in the architectural industry. In addition to working with the Autodesk suite, he has significant experience in 3D modeling, the Adobe Creative Suite, Bluebeam Revu, and SketchUp. David enjoys spending his free time with his wife, biking, hanging out with his kids, and listening to audiobooks by the fire.

  • Licensed Architect
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  • Autodesk Certified Professional: AutoCAD, Revit, Fusion 360
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  • SketchUp Certified 3D Warehouse Content Developer
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