Copyright: (C) 1996-1997 Visio Corporation
Citation: (C) 1996-1997 Visio Corporation


Home - Large Plan Template

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The Home - Large Plan Template opens with the Wall Utility toolbar in place. You can use the Wall Utility buttons with the Double Line Wall and other shapes to form a T-joint or corner joint between walls, extend a wall to meet another, match doors and windows to wall thickness and angle, and move and size the building shapes precisely on the page.

For information about how a particular shape behaves, right-click the shape, then choose Shape Help from the shortcut menu.

Before you draw your home plan:

•	Measure the rooms to get the dimensions.

•	Measure the size of the windows and doors, and note which direction the doors open.

•	Measure the size of the appliances, cabinets, and other objects you want to include in the plan.

Laying the foundation

By default, the Home - Large Plan Template opens a scaled drawing page in landscape (wide) orientation. You can change these settings at any time.

To change the page settings and drawing scale:

1.	Choose File > Page Setup.

2.	On the Page Size tab and Drawing Scale tab, choose the settings you want for the drawing page size, the printed page size, and the drawing scale, then click OK.

To change the measurement units, click the Page Properties tab and choose the unit you want to use from the Measurement Units list, then click OK.

See also:

Rotating and resizing pages

Setting page orientation and scale

Drawing to scale

When you're choosing a drawing scale for a home plan, keep the following things in mind:

•	Drawing units are sizes in the real world. Page units are sizes on the printed page. The ratio of page units to drawing units is the drawing scale.

•	The smaller the drawing scale, the larger the area you can represent. A scale such as 1/8 inch = 1 foot allows you to draw an entire floor on one page. A scale such as 1/2 inch = 1 foot allows you to focus on one room.

•	When you drop shapes on a scaled drawing page, they adjust automatically to the scale you've set.

See also:

Setting page orientation and scale

Creating a home plan

The first step in creating a home plan is to use guides and wall, window, and door shapes to build the framework.

To assemble the framework and position walls, doors, and windows:

1.	Drag guides from the horizontal and vertical rulers and position them on the page so that they indicate the perimeter, the number of rooms in the drawing, and correct dimensions.

TIP  After you set up the guides that make up the framework, you may want to turn off the drawing page grid and use only the rulers and guides to position and glue shapes. To turn off the drawing page grid, choose View > Grid.

2.	For each wall, drop a Double Line Wall shape so that the shape's endpoints glue to the intersection of the horizontal and vertical guides.

The selection handles turn red, indicating that the shapes are glued.

3.	To join the wall shapes at the corners, use the Join Walls button on the Wall Utility toolbar.

4.	Glue Horizontal and Vertical dimension line shapes (from the General - Dimensioning, Architectural stencil) to the endpoints of the walls, or to the guides, to indicate the length of walls.

5.	Position window and door shapes on the walls, gluing the endpoints to the guide.

If necessary, use the Align To/Match Walls button on the Wall Utility toolbar to rotate the window and door shapes to the angle of the wall on which you drop them. To flip or rotate door shapes so the doors open in the appropriate direction, right-click the shape and choose the appropriate command.

6.	To reposition walls, drag the guide to which they're glued. Window and door shapes move with the walls.

After you assemble the framework and wall structure, add shapes for electrical symbols, fixtures, appliances, and furniture. You can size many home-planning shapes by right-clicking them and choosing the appropriate command from the shortcut menu. To size other shapes precisely, use the Shape > Size & Position command.

See also:

About positioning shapes precisely

Using layers with home plans

A layer is a named category of shapes. When you create a home plan, Visio places the shapes on layers. For example, the wall, door, and window shapes are placed on the Building Envelope layer, sinks, bathtubs, and cabinets are placed on a Fixtures layer, appliances are placed on an Equipment layer, and so on.

When shapes are assigned to separate layers, you can treat the layers of shapes separately. For example, you can hide or lock all layers except the one you want to work on or you can print shapes based on their layer assignments. To modify layer settings in a drawing, use the View > Layer Properties command.

To view only one layer in a drawing:

1.	Choose View > Layer Properties.

2.	In the Layer Properties dialog box, under Visible, uncheck all the layers except the one you want to view, then click OK.

See also:

About layers

Measuring area and perimeter

You can use the Measure tool to calculate the total perimeter and area of any closed shape drawn with the drawing tools, such as a shape that outlines the floor area of a floor plan. To run the Measure tool, choose Tools > Macro > Visio Extras > Measure.

TIP  To measure the perimeter and area of a drawing constructed with shapes that contain height and width, first trace the boundary with the pencil tool, then run the Measure tool on the simple boundary shape.

You can use the Area Analysis tool to calculate the area of a room or space created using the Double Line Wall shape. To run the Area Analysis tool, choose Tools > Macro > Facilities Management > Area Analysis. Or if a Facilities Management Template is open, choose Tools > Area Analysis.

See also:

Using the Area Analysis Tool

Using the Measure Tool

Working with shape properties

A custom property is a field in which you can store information. For example, a wall shape might include a field for the material used to build the wall. To associate additional data with your home planning shapes, you can run the Custom Properties Editor to add properties.

To run the Custom Properties Editor:

•	Choose Tools > Macro > Custom Properties Editor.

See also:

Adding, editing, and deleting custom-property fields

Generating reports from properties

If you've associated custom-property data with your home planning shapes, you can run the Property Reporting Wizard to generate inventory or numerical reports based on the data. For example, you could create a list of materials for the appliances needed to remodel your kitchen.

To run the Property Reporting Wizard:

•	Choose Tools > Property Report.

See also:

Creating reports from custom data

Linking shapes to other drawing pages, other files, or World Wide Web locations

You can add navigational links to any shape in your diagram, so that users of the diagram can right-click the shape to jump to separate drawing pages, separate files, or documents on an intranet or the Web. For example, you can link a Sofa shape to a furniture designer's Web site for information on upholstering.

To add links to shapes:

•	Choose Insert > Hyperlink.

See also:

About using hyperlinks

Placing Visio drawings on the World Wide Web

You can easily convert a Visio drawing to a format Web browsers can read. Then you can distribute the drawing on an intranet or the Web.

See also:

Exporting shapes and drawings in .jpg or .gif format

Saving drawings as HTML pages


Creating the home plan

Drawing to scale

Generating reports from properties

Laying the foundation

Linking shapes to other drawing pages, other files, or World Wide Web locations

Measuring area and perimeter

Placing Visio drawings on the World Wide Web

Using layers with home plans

Working with shape properties