Learn the technique of adding dimensions to your design plan using the layer method. This article provides a run-through of how to dimension a kitchen elevation, from wall to wall and floor to ceiling, with tips on including the full cabinet runs, countertop height, and even the kitchen island.
Key Insights
- It is essential to start the dimensioning from wall to wall, starting with the left wall, going to the first cabinet line, and then pulling the dimension down, repeating this process.
- Pay attention to the full length of cabinet runs, including the countertop height, which is usually 36 inches. Other notable dimensions to include are the space between the counter and the bottom of the cabinets, and cabinet height.
- Dimensions should also cover the kitchen island, ensuring to capture the counter height and the full run of the cabinets. The floor to ceiling dimensions should also be added, including any gaps, to provide a complete and accurate design plan.
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Now let's add our dimensions. Let's begin by going to Layer, and then from there, we want to scroll to the top, and we're looking for A Anno Dims. Make that the current layer, and close down our layers.
Now let's go ahead and type Dim Linear. And we'll start with this leftmost elevation. A couple of rules of thumb.
First rule of thumb, we want to go wall to wall, so we start with the left wall. And we'll go to that first cabinet line, click, and then pull that dimension down. We'll do Dim Linear again.
And the other rule of thumb is we want to dimension the full length of our cabinet runs, all the way across. So from there to there, four foot 10, and then we want to complete wall to wall. We can't stop there, we have to go to the farthest wall there and wrap that up.
That looks pretty good. Now we can also dimension the countertop height. 36 inches would be standard.
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We want to show it is standard, or if we have something different, we want to show that as well. We'll show that countertop height, and then we'll click Enter to enter our Dim Linear again automatically. And then we show the space between the counter and the bottom of the cabinets.
That's a good one to show. And then we want to show our cabinet height, especially in this case where we're using the taller than typical cabinets there to there. And we could take that a step further and label this.
Double-click on the three foot six, and we can delete that out, and we can call it 42 inch tall, and we can actually put a return cabinets. And there we go, 42 inch tall cabinets. And just like we went wall to wall, we also like to go floor to ceiling.
We'll put one more Dim Linear. Right at the top to show that these cabinets don't go to the ceiling. There's a one foot gap there, and we'll show it just like that.
So that's our first one. Let's continue on. So over here, we want to start at the wall corner and go to the beginning of our cabinet run.
And that beginning includes the spaces. So that full cabinet run, it lets the cabinet builder know the full run they're working with. And then from that corner all the way to our hearth, and then we'll dimension the hearth.
Now, normally we don't dimension all the existing things, but it's right here in the center. We do want to go wall to wall. We're going to go ahead and dimension it.
And now we'll just repeat those dimensions on the other side, because again, it is symmetrical. So there we go. And the final dimension gets us to the right wall.
And then on the right, we will do that cabinet height. There it is, our countertop height. And then in the spirit of going from floor to ceiling, we'll go to floor to ceiling right there.
Okay, that one looks pretty good. Now let's go down here. And we want to start with our wall, go to the first two feet there, then do our cabinet run, run of cabinets there to there.
And we've done wall to wall. We don't necessarily need to dimension this because it's already dimensioned on the floor plan. We'll leave that for now.
And then we'll go to countertop height. And then it's a great idea to dimension the backsplash. We'll dimension that entire backsplash.
And then to the ceiling, right to there. Perfect. That was dimensioned.
And then now we will take care of our kitchen island. We want to do our counter height, and then we'll dimension our full run of cabinets here. Whoops, and I might not have hit it.
Let's go again, corner to corner. There we go, that's right. And then we'll come down, click there, and we want to go the full length of the island.
So there we go. Now we are all set with our dimensions for these kitchen elevations.
