THE SCREEN LAYOUT

TITLE
The top of the screen will show the name you give the drawing with a file extension .PLN for the ground floor, .PL1 for the first floor above, and .PL2 for the second above the ground floor
If you use the layout design rooms option from the FILE / NEW dialogue box, the extension starts as .LYT and changes to .PLN after you mark the external walls

MENU BAR
The menu bar headings all conceal drop down lists of functions. Just click on one with the left mouse button, and a list will drop down - always check the Guide Line at the bottom of the screen for information on using the selected function.
Grouping of functions are as follows :-
FILE contains file new & open, save as, file manipulations, print & exit functions.
VIEW view any of the drawings generated by the programme
ZOOM zoom up, fit on screen or shrink drawing on screen
EDIT has copy, paste, move/rotate, change text & delete functions
TOOLS contains your basic drawing tools - line, circle, text etc., also changing colours, line thickness & line style. These tools should be used to draw items to add to your libraries
WALLS contains automated functions to draw 2 & 4 line walls, extend & shorten walls, expand & shrink the house floor plan base
DESIGN ROOMS functions to let you create and move, rotate, find maximum size available & change size auto aligning rooms, makes good design easy.
OTHER FUNCTIONS draw complete room with text & dimensions, centre drawing, manual dimensions, draw single & multiple doors, windows & external doors, stairs
CUSTOMISE by altering the default (as used on programme start up). Door opening angle, door thickness, text font, offsets & text size for dimensions & rooms and more
LIBRARIES bath & kitchen fixtures, furniture, electrical, and adding to libraries
HELP contents, context help (help on the part of the programme you are working on at that time ( you can also use the F1 key for context help ), hints & reminders and examples.

ICON BAR
The row of icons are in groups of similar functions. Run your cursor along the icon bar and look at the guide lineat the bottom of the screen. You will see the Icon name and what it does, also, if you leave the cursor over an icon, a small tool tip will appear

CURSOR POSITION BOX
In the middle of the icon bar is the cursor position box, which updates the cursor position. the cursor box shows either metric or feet & inches, screen measurements increase from the bottom left corner, angles to 2 decimal places - zero degrees above, going clockwise.. below this is the drawing screen, generally the cursor will change to a cross hair in this area.

NOTE
When you have a plan or layout view, the programme uses the top left corner of the external walls (plan view) or boundary rectangle (layout view) as the datum reference point that the current cursor position is measured from

GUIDE LINE
At the bottom of the screen - guides, hints & messages are shown, usually current drawing tool hints, what the icon function is, or telling you that pressing F1 key gives context help. at the right end of the guide bar is a small area which shows which drawing tool function is in use and in some cases the line thickness.

HINTS
Pressing Help on the programme menu bar drops down various ways to obtain help on all subjects, pressing the F1 function key gives you help on what you are doing at the time (context help)
The Screen is purposely left uncluttered, and the drawing area as large as possible, all helping to make this extremely powerful programme very easy to use, and, although it contains a large number of complex functions, these are highly automated