Floor plans | Arcol Help Center

Arcol allows you to turn extrusions into buildings, enabling accurate metrics like square footages, height, and area counts.

Creating a building

To create a building:

Create an extrusion with the push/pull tool
Select the extrusion
Click the + button in the Floors section of the right sidebar

Editing a building

Buildings contain a floor count and floor to floor heights per floor. You can add or remove floors via the Count input in the right sidebar when a building is selected, or you can use the push/pull tool on the roof of the building.

The Height input in the right sidebar when a building is selected will set all floors of the building to the same floor to floor height. You can set the height of an individual floor by clicking on the floor of the building and setting the Height input in the right sidebar for the selected floor.

Creating a new floor plan

To create a new floor plan:

Select the floor of the building you want to have a different floor plan
Click the floor plan name (likely “Floor Plan 1”) in the right sidebar
Click the + button in the menu that appears

The new floor plan will automatically be assigned to the selected floor and you’ll see the floor plan in split view for editing. A corresponding view with the floor plan name will also automatically be created.

Assigning a floor plan

All floors of a building correlate to a floor plan. If changes are made to a floor plan, all floors assigned that floor plan will update accordingly.

To assign a floor plan:

Select the floor of the building you want to have a different floor plan
Click the floor plan name in the right sidebar
Select the desired floor plan from the list of floor plans in the menu that appears

Changing floor plan view orientation

By default floor plan views are oriented to true north. If a project north has been set, they will default to project north. However, you can customize the orientation per floor plan view if you wish.

To change a floor plan view’s orientation:

In a floor plan view - in the View tab of the right sidebar, click the Set grid orientation button
Select the axis you want to align to (X or Y) in the menu that appears
Click on the line in the floor plan that you want to align to the selected axis

Alternatively you can click the rotation buttons shown in the top right of the Grid section in the right sidebar to rotate the floor plan view in increments of 90 degrees.

Floor plan underlays

Floor plan underlays are useful for when you need to ensure lines are in the same location across multiple floor plans.

You can underlay a floor plan by selecting one in the Floor plan dropdown, found in the Underlay section in the View tab of the right sidebar (in a floor plan view).

You can also import a DWG/DXF and use it as an underlay:

Click the Import DWG button in the top right of the Underlay section
Click the Choose a file button in the menu that appears, select the DWG/DXF you want to import from the file browser, and click the Open button on the file browser
Select the desired units
Click the Import button → the DWG/DXF will be placed in the center of the floor plan sketch by default.
To align the DWG/DXF to your floor plan, click the Align DWG button that appears in the Underlay section after importing a DWG/DXF. Select a line in the floor plan sketch you want to align to, then click a line in the DWG/DXF to align it.

Floor plan labels

Floor plan views show area and length labels by default. You can toggle their visibility in the Labels section of the View tab in the right sidebar (in a floor plan view).