This KB Article describes, in brief, the floor plan layout function and capabilities.

This KB Article includes the following:

When you create a floor plan layout, it is important to note that you MUST select a FLOOR within your building. To select a floor either double click or tab select the desired floor, the floor will highlight blue when selected. You will not be able to edit the floor if the "building" or "block" is selected.

When you select the desired floor, navigate to the top left of your screen and select the Floorplan tab

There are a few options when you start a floor layout. One of the initial steps you can take is adding a catalog to the layout. Do this by selecting the Catalog tab and clicking the "Select catalog" button.

Picking the Select Catalog button will allow you to select which catalog should be applied to the building. Selecting the blue "+" button in the lower right of one of your catalogs will apply that catalog to the building.

Notes:

When you create a new layout, your interface undergoes slight modifications. You enter a 2d view of the floor, and the functions on both the left and right sides are altered.

This means you are in the layout editing tool.

The Catalog tab on the left shows all of potential units which can be applied to floor layouts.

To bring in catalog unit elements, simply drag the desired unit from the catalog into the floor space.

Once you do this there are a variety of different editing features Skema offers. Refer to the Unit Layout article for information on all the editing capabilities.

You can also create custom massing in your layout. Do this by selecting the massing tool and drawing the mass you want on the floor.

You have the ability to have multiple layouts. This can be in the form of different elements-units as one layout, core as another, utility rooms as another. This is one way to organize various elements that you may want to apply to other floors.

You have the option to rename this new layout as well. You can name the complete layout as well as make different variants-iterations-of that layout.

As you start to create more layouts with different variants, you will have the option to toggle them on and off. Under the floorplan layouts tab on the top right of the screen, you will see all the named layouts with boxes next to them. you can check and uncheck the boxes to toggle each of the individual layouts on and off.

To make an edit to an already created layout, hover your mouse over one of the elements in the layout, select the 'tab' button on your keyboard and click on the layout. You may need to do this twice to deselect the individual elements and have the whole layout selected.

From here you can rename the layout, create another variant, and apply the layout to multiple floors.

After creating a layout you can apply it to multiple floors in a building. Tab select to get to the Layout edit.

On the right side of the screen you will see a tab that says Multi-story controls. From here you can select multiple Floors that you want the layout applied to.

If you have different variants in your layout, you can decide which one is applied to each floor.

This feature becomes extremely useful for core elements, and various other vertically repeating elements in a project.

Using these tools you can create as many layouts, variants, and variations as you want within a project.