Discover the intricate details of creating a wall structure in design, from reinforcing a simple gypsum wall to designing a more robust commercial metal stud wall. This article provides an in-depth, step-by-step guide on how to draft a precise and detailed metal stud block for a commercial project.
Key Insights
- The article discusses how to strengthen wall structures in design, highlighting the differences between residential and commercial wall structures. It also offers a detailed tutorial on drafting a six-inch metal stud, commonly used in commercial projects.
- Using AutoCAD, the article explains how to create a detailed stud model, including how to add thickness, round off corners, and hatch the inside. It emphasizes the importance of meticulous measurements for accuracy, such as using specific dimensions like 3/16ths of an inch for offsets and fillets.
- Finally, the article stresses the necessity to repeat these steps to create a row of studs, typically spaced 16 inches apart in commercial buildings. It also outlines how to correctly position and move these studs within a project for a realistic representation.
This lesson is a preview from our AutoCAD for Interior Design Course Online (includes software) and Interior Design Professional Course Online (includes software & exam). Enroll in a course for detailed lessons, live instructor support, and project-based training.
We have our wall, but is it very strong? We have gypsum board on one side, gypsum board on the other side, and insulation in the middle. The answer is no, it's not very strong. We could just kind of push it over.
We need to add structure to this wall. Now, in the United States and many parts of the world, that might be a wood stud wall. But if we transition over to a commercial project, that changes.
Very commonly, it's a metal stud, and they look a little bit different. Let's go ahead and challenge ourselves again and create our own metal stud block. So let's just draw it off to the side.
Our first step is to, number one, make sure we're still in model view, which we are, and then we're going to go to layer, and we change our layer to zero. We want to always create our blocks when possible on layer zero. Let's make that the current layer, close that down, and then we'll use the line command, L-I-N-E.
And we are doing six-inch studs, which is the larger size typically in commercial. Six-inch stud, nice big stud. We'll click one time.
Learn AutoCAD
- Nationally accredited
- Create your own portfolio
- Free student software
- Learn at your convenience
- Authorized Autodesk training center
With ortho turned on, we'll go to the right and type in six inches, and escape. So that is the long side of the stud. Then we'll use the line command again.
We'll click right here and go straight up, and we'll go 2.5 inches, enter. We have two and a half inch flange. The same on the other side, L-I-N-E.
Click right here, go straight up, 2.5 inches, enter. Okay, so that is our stud, and sometimes it is that simple. Just draw a U-shape, call it a metal stud, and we are good.
But let's make this a little bit more detailed. Let's go ahead and offset this and give it some thickness. Let's use the offset command, O-F-F-S-E-T.
The distance we want is 3 divided by 16 inches, enter. We'll offset every part of this stud 3 16ths of an inch. I'll hit escape, and we'll add our line command to just close off the tops here.
Line, line, right here at the top. That looks really good. Then we'll trim out the extra line work in the corners.
We don't need those. That looks pretty good. Now let's take it one step further and we'll do a fillet on these corners.
Let's type in the fillet command, and it says select first object or down arrow. I want the down arrow. I want radius, and the radius I want is 3 divided by 16 inches.
We will fillet the left side 3 16ths and the right side 3 16ths. Let's fillet again. Fillet, F-I-L-L-E-T.
Press the down arrow, and we want the radius again. Now I want the fillet on the outside, which will be double the fillet of the inside. I'm kind of lazy and don't want to do math, so we'll let AutoCAD do it.
Instead of 3 16ths, we'll double the top and we'll call it 6 16ths. That's a weird dimension, right? That way we click enter, and it does it automatically. We'll fillet the outside lines, this line to that line.
That looks really good, and this one to this one. Awesome. Now we want to add little kind of turn-ins at the top.
Let's hit escape, and we'll draw a line command, and we'll just make it a 3 16th box. We'll start on the left corner here. Click, go to the right with ortho turned on, 3 divided by 16 inches, enter.
Go down, type in 3 divided by 16 inches, enter, and then back. Perfect. Now select that little box, use the mirror command, and we'll mirror it across.
Click the midpoint, go straight up, and enter. And last but not least, tr to trim, and we'll trim out the little extra, gone, and gone. So there it is.
We have it, but we haven't made it into a block, and we haven't hatched inside yet. So our next step is to hatch, h-a-t-c-h, change our pattern to solid, which is all the way at the top, very top, solid. Click right in here, and it didn't go all the way.
So let's see if we zoom a little bit more. There we go. I had to zoom in a little bit further.
So I'm going to undo that. Let's try one more time. Hatch, go to the very top of the list.
We want solid. I'll click right in the middle here. There we go.
It recognized it. Sometimes AutoCAD has a little bit of issue recognizing a complicated hatch, but that worked. Enter.
There we go. Now we've got our stud. We will select it, and let's type in the word block.
Make sure everything is selected first, block, b-l-o-c-k, enter, and we'll give it a name, and we'll call it, just for fun, super-cool-stud. We'll do underscore six for six inches, and now we want to click on our base point. We'll click the little button that says pick a point.
Click that. I'll click right at the base midpoint. Brings me back to my block definition, and click okay.
So there's my block. All that worked, but now I can use it over and over again. Now we'll select it and move it to a layer.
We'll go to properties, and it's currently set to layer zero. Let's change that in properties, and we're going to move this to a-wall-struct for structure, and it's going to turn a blue, a-wall-struct, and we'll select it, and we'll do m for move. Grab that midpoint on the bottom, and we'll go up here.
How do we find the midpoint in this project? It's a little tricky. I think what we want to do is go to the very bottom. We know where the midpoint is here, and we'll find it.
We go click, and there it is. It kind of overlaps. Now we'll select it, and m for move.
Click a base, and move it straight up. How far? Let's go, let's say four foot seven inches. Enter.
There it is. That's one stud, and the last thing we need to know is that studs in a wall in a commercial building are typically 16 inches on center, or they could be as much as 24 inches on center, but we'll do 16. We'll select it, c o to copy, click, and go straight up.
Type in 16 inches, enter, and there it is. Now you can imagine as the wall marched along, there would be another one at 16 inches up, but that will be outside of our view. 16 inches.
You can see it's just past. Actually, it sticks up a little bit there, so maybe to make the detail more true, I can select these and move them even higher. M for move, enter, and move them just out of view.
Two inches, enter, and I can delete that one. And that looks really awesome. We have our plan view partition detail done.
