Placing the Door Accurately

Placing the Door Accurately
The next step is to add the entry door shown in the bottom image in Figure 6.15. In doing that, you’ll
use a number of new tools together to streamline the drawing process.
In this exercise, you’ll practice using the Osnap Tracking feature and the From Osnap option to
place the entry door at an exact distance from the upper corner of the floor plan:
1. Right-click the Command window, and choose Recent Commands  Insert from the shortcut
menu to open the Insert dialog box.
2. Select Door from the Name drop-down list.
3. Make sure the Specify On-Screen option is checked in the Rotation group but not in the Scale
group, and then click OK. You’ll see the door follow the cursor in the drawing window.
4. Shift+right-click the mouse to open the Osnap shortcut menu, and then choose From.
5. Make sure the Osnap and Otrack buttons on the status bar are on; then, use the Endpoint Running
Osnap to pick the corner where the upper horizontal wall line meets the bathroom wall.


6. Move the cursor over the Osnap marker so that the Osnap Tracking vector appears from the
corner. Now, move the cursor to the right, and you’ll see the Osnap Tracking vector extend
from the corner.



7. Continue to move the cursor to the right so that the tracking vector readout shows roughly
6˝, or 15 cm for metric users.
8. With the cursor in this position, enter 5↵. Metric users should enter 13↵. The door is placed
exactly 5 (or 13) units to the right of the corner.
9. At the Specify rotation angle <0>: prompt, enter 270↵. Or, if you prefer, turn on Polar
Tracking to orient the door so that it’s swinging into the studio. You’ve now accurately
placed the entry door in the studio apartment.



10. Make sure the door is on the Door layer.
TIP For a shortcut to setting an object’s layer, you can select the object or objects and then select
a layer from the Layer drop-down list in the Layers toolbar.
Next, add the finishing touches to the entry door:
1. Add 5˝ (13 cm for metric users) door jambs, and change their Layer property to the Jamb
layer, as shown in the bottom image in Figure 6.15.
2. Choose the Break tool in the Modify toolbar, and then select the header over the entry door.
(See the bottom image in Figure 6.15.)
3. Type F↵ to use the first-point option; then, select the endpoint of one of the door jambs.
4. At the Specify second break point: prompt, select the endpoint of the other jamb, as
shown in the bottom image in Figure 6.15.
5. Draw the door header on the Ceiling layer, as shown in Figure 6.16.



6. Click Offset on the Modify toolbar, and offset the top wall lines of the unit and the door header
up 5˝ (13 cm for metric users) so they connect with the top end of the door jamb, as shown in Figure
6.16. Don’t forget to include the short wall line from the door to the bathroom wall.
7. Choose File  Save As to save your file as Unit.
Other Methods for Using the Break Command
In the exercise for finishing the Unit plan, you used the Break command to accurately place a gap in a line over
the entry door. In Chapter 4, you broke a line at a single point to create multiple, contiguous line segments.
In both cases, you used the F option. You can also break a line without the F option with a little less accuracy.
When you don’t use the F option, the point at which you select the object is used as the first break
point. If you’re in a hurry, you can dispense with the F option and place a gap in an approximate location.
You can then later use other tools to adjust the gap.
In addition, you can use locations on other objects to select the first and second points of a break. For example,
you might want to align an opening with another opening some distance away. After you’ve selected the
line to break, you can then use the F option and select two points on the existing opening to define the first
and second break points. The break points will align in an orthogonal direction to the selected points.