SpaceDesign

SpaceDesign is where a programme becomes a drawing. It is a single environment with both a 2D plan view and a 3D view of the same model — press 1 for 2D and 3 for 3D; you are not switching documents, only how you are looking at one.

The tools

Tools are grouped on the left rail. Groups with more than one tool show the last-used one and reveal the rest on a long press or a click of the group's chevron.

Alongside the rail there are dedicated actions for drawing a void, placing a column and drawing a beam.

Drawing at right angles

Line, Polyline, Arc and Spline find directions the way SketchUp does. Once the first point is down, move near a main axis and the line snaps onto it and takes its colour: red along X, blue along Y and, when you draw on a wall face, green straight up — the colours of the axis lines in the view. Near the direction of the segment you just drew, or square to it, it turns magenta — Parallel to Edge or Perpendicular to Edge. The label beside the cursor says which. A corner or an edge under the cursor still wins. A spline places each control point this way; a guide in the axis colour runs from the last point while the curve itself keeps its ink.

• Hold Shift to lock the direction the line has now. While it is held, hovering a corner further away sets only the length; let go to unlock. Release it before you type a length.
• Press → for the red axis, ← for blue and ↑ for green (on a wall face), or ↓ for parallel or perpendicular to the previous segment. The lock stays on while you type, until the segment ends or you press the same arrow again.
• Type a length and press Enter to draw it in the direction the line shows.
• Ortho, under Settings → Snapping, still keeps every segment on the plan axes. A lock overrides it.

Copies: unique vs instance

This distinction is worth learning early.

Copy as unique

An independent duplicate. Editing it does not affect the original.

Copy as instance

A linked copy. Editing one updates every instance — the right choice for a repeated room type or a standard bay.

Boolean operations on spaces

Spaces can be combined: merge (Ctrl+M), intersect (Ctrl+I) and subtract (Ctrl+-). These operate on the selection.

Levels

Use Define levels to establish the storeys of the building. Levels govern what push-pull produces and how the model reads in 3D.

Blocks also make levels of their own. Pull a block up to 20 m and Level 1 is at 20 m; pull a second one to 8 m and that becomes Level 1, with the 20 m storey renumbered to Level 2. Push a block's floor up from underneath — or pull it down for a basement — and its underside becomes a level too. Levels are always numbered by height. While you push-pull a top or a floor, it snaps onto the levels already there when it comes close, so blocks finish at the same storey heights; anywhere in between, it makes a new level. To add levels only by hand, turn off Auto-level on extrude in the Levels panel.

Auto-cut levels, in the Levels panel, slices every space into storeys at the height you set: a level every 3.2 m, say, from a block's base to its top. Only blocks with Is Space ticked are cut, so untick it for massing that should not make storeys. It is live: change the height, flip the switch or the checkbox, and the levels follow at once, on blocks you pulled up earlier too. Delete one cut level and only that storey goes.

Double-click a level's height in the Levels panel to change it. Everything standing on that level moves with it, and a block whose top makes the level grows or shrinks to meet it. The floor views (one floor below, one floor above) show the nearest floor something actually stands on, not an empty level a block's top made.

To move a block up or down between levels, start moving it — with Move, or by dragging it — and press Z. Its underside and top snap to levels as they pass and it can stop anywhere in between; type a rise, or the height its underside should land at, for an exact move. The levels it makes appear in the Levels panel as you go, the levels above renumber, and the move undoes in one step. Press Z again to go back to moving across the plan.

To repeat a floor plan up the building, select what to copy — one room, a whole floor, a stair core — and choose Copy to levels above: in the Copy group of the toolbar, in the properties panel, or as Copy up in the Levels panel. Pick the first and last storey to copy onto; storeys that don't exist yet are created at the height you give. Copies keep their place in plan, doors and windows come with their walls, and the whole copy undoes in one step.

Escape behaves progressively

Esc walks back through a chain of states rather than dropping everything at once — it cancels the in-progress operation first, then the selection, then the active tool. Press it repeatedly to get all the way back to a clean canvas. It is the one binding that cannot be rebound.