3. The floor plan editor

An overview of the drawings the program can produce is given on the Circuit diagram maker page. An introduction to the floor plan editor can also be read on the Electrical floor plan maker page. The floor plan editor opens full screen (without the menu) so that the canvas has room. The ← button takes you back to the project.

Layout

• Top bar: floor selector, Wall elevations, Colour by circuit, Designations, Layers, symbol set selector, DXF, undo/redo, Print, Save. If there are unsaved changes, the “Unsaved” badge is shown.
• Left side: the toolbar (drawing tools and symbols).
• Centre: the canvas; at the bottom, the status bar shows the cursor position (cm) and a tip on using the current tool.
• Right side: the Properties panel. When nothing is selected, it shows the floor data, and the Checks, Circuits and Underlay panels.

Saving: is done manually, with the Save button or with Ctrl+S. If there are unsaved changes, both the browser and the program ask before you leave. If the drawing has been changed elsewhere in the meantime, a warning appears: Reload (your own changes are lost) or Overwrite with mine. In the viewer role, the editor is in “Read-only” mode.

Drawing tools

With any tool, the right mouse button switches back to selection (while drawing it shows a menu: Finish, Delete last point, Cancel).

Walls, openings, rooms

• The properties of a wall: length (the end point moves), thickness, height (empty means the ceiling height of the floor). Those of a node: x, y.
• A door/window can be switched to the other type; width, height, sill height (for windows) and the distance from the start of the wall can be given.
• The name and number of a room can be given; the program calculates the area. The Detect all rooms button of the Properties panel automatically adds the enclosed wall areas as rooms. The room's Wall elevations button opens the wall elevation (see the Layers, underlay, dimensions and wall elevation chapter).
• Thickness of new walls: quick buttons (Exterior / Interior) on the floor panel set it.

Multiple selection, copying, blocks and room templates

• Multiple selection (devices and cable routes): Shift + click adds an element to the selection or removes it; with the Select tool, a rectangle dragged from an empty area or from inside a room selects the elements that lie entirely within it (a device by its centre, a cable route by all of its points). Shift + drag adds to the existing selection. Selection also works in the viewer role. Esc clears it.
• Group operations (also in the right-hand panel): grabbing any member of the selection, the whole selection can be dragged together (snapped to the grid); the arrow keys move it by one grid step (Shift + arrow: ten times the step); Q rotates the selection by 90° about its centre; Del deletes it; in the panel, a common circuit can be set for all elements (not for the distribution board device). A cable route end connected to a device outside the selection stays in place (the cable route “stretches”); a cable route outside the selection moves together with its end connected to a moving device. After moving, a wall-mounted device does not snap to the wall again (the relative arrangement is kept). One operation is one undo step.
• Copy and paste: Ctrl+C puts the selection on the clipboard (it is kept in the browser, across floors and after reloading), Ctrl+V pastes it at the cursor (snapped to the grid) with new identifiers, with the cable routes connected to the new devices. Ctrl+D duplicates the selection with a 500 mm offset. Within the same project, circuit references are kept; when pasted into another project, they are lost. After pasting, the new elements remain selected, so they can be moved immediately; one paste is one undo step.
• Saved block: in the multiple selection panel, Save as block puts the selection, with a name, among your own blocks (without circuit references). It can be placed in any project from the Blocks group of the left-hand bar. A block can be deleted with its small trash-can icon (after confirmation; items already placed on drawings are kept). In a shared project, the blocks of the project owner are shown, and only the owner can delete them. Walls, openings and rooms are not included in a block (a whole floor is transferred by copying the floor and by import from another project).
• Room template (for apartments: Apartment electrical design): when a room is selected, the panel's Apply template… button places the devices according to the rule in the room in one step: socket-outlets along the walls (skipping openings and corners, in proportion to the usable wall length), a switch next to the first door on the latch side (at a height of 120 cm), a luminaire at the centroid. The built-in templates: Room, Living room, Kitchen, Bathroom (protected socket-outlet), Hall; the program suggests one from the name (e.g. “Bedroom”). The values (socket-outlets / wall length, count limits, height, number of luminaires, switch) can be changed in the dialog; the devices to be placed appear faintly on the canvas. The Create circuits checkbox adds two new circuits for the room (socket-outlets: B16, NYM-J 3×2.5; lighting: B10, NYM-J 3×1.5). Save as template puts the modified template among your own templates. The template values are practical suggestions: the designer should review them; the layout does not replace sizing and checking.

Stairs and floor links

Stairs can be straight or L-shaped; their direction (up/down), width, number of steps and tread depth can be set, and for the L shape the turn direction and the landing. The program shows the riser height calculated from the floor height and warns if it is not regular.

Stairs and risers can be connected with a floor link to their counterpart on the other floor (Create counterpart on this floor). The link is also used by the take-off: the rise between floors is added to the cable length. The adjacent floor shows through faintly on the Adjacent floor layer.

Furnishings (sanitary fittings, appliances, furniture)

To help position the electrical elements, furnishings can be placed on the drawing. In the Sanitary fittings group: WC, washbasin, shower tray, bath, water heater (tank), washing machine and dryer; in the Furniture and appliances group: sink, fridge, radiator, bed, sofa, table and wardrobe. These are real-size line drawings, not electrical elements: they are not included in the take-off, the quotation, the circuits or the legend.

• Placing: choose the object in the left-hand bar (the groups are collapsed by default, expand them), or press B (it gives the last chosen object; the first time, the WC), and click. Near a wall, the object sits with its back against the wall and faces into the room; near a corner, it also aligns to the corner. Away from walls, it snaps to the grid; Q rotates it by 90°.
• Selecting and dragging: an object is selected by clicking its area (above the wall and the room, below the devices and cables) and can be dragged by the grabbed point; while dragging, it snaps to the wall.
• Properties: the kind can be changed, the width and depth can be edited in cm (the Default size button restores the usual size of the kind, e.g. 90 × 90 cm for a shower tray), and the rotation can be set with buttons.
• Layer: the Furnishings layer can be hidden separately (e.g. for printing) and locked (so that it does not catch clicks while drawing).
• The water heater is two separate things: the Water heater (tank) is the space it occupies, while the Water heater symbol in the Fixed connections group is the electrical connection point (2 kW), which is what goes into the take-off.

Moving around the canvas

• Wheel: zoom around the cursor. Middle button or space + drag: pan the drawing.
• Ctrl+Z undo, Ctrl+Y (or Ctrl+Shift+Z) redo, Del or Backspace delete, Esc end of chain / clear selection / back to the floor plan.
• Keyboard shortcuts are not active in input fields.

There is no mirroring. For repeating similar floors, use copying the floor and import from another project; for repeated parts (e.g. a bathroom), use a block.