Help centre · Drawings and sheets

Plans, sections and elevations

Open the 2D drawings, cut sections in plan and in 3D, and add dimensions, notes and tags at the scale you need.

Stori3D draws your plans, elevations and sections from the model, so they change when the model changes. You open and annotate them in the 2D drawings view, then place them on sheets.

Open the 2D drawings

Click 2D drawings: plans, elevations, sections in the bottom toolbar (on a narrow screen it's More → 2D drawings). The view opens on the floor plan of the active level. To see another floor, make that level active.

Use the Drawing menu at the top to switch between:

• Floor plan, cut at the Cut height you set, with walls, door swings, stairs, dimensions, and room names and areas.
• South elevation, North elevation, East elevation and West elevation.
• East–west section and North–south section, which cut the whole building. Type the cut position and use Look the other way to turn the view round.
• Any section lines you've placed on the plan, listed as "Section A–A" and so on.

Show turns parts of the drawing on and off: Dimensions, Room names and areas, Objects below the cut, North arrow, Section marks and Annotations on plans, and Level lines on elevations and sections. Fit to view brings the whole drawing back on screen. Press 3D to go back to the model.

Place a section line on the plan

1. On the floor plan, click Add a section line.
2. Click where the section starts, then where it ends. Lines snap to 15° steps; hold Alt for any angle. Esc cancels.

Each line gets the next letter (A, B…) and a section mark on the plan. Its arrows show the way it looks; Look the other way turns it round. Pick it from Drawing to see the section, or add it to a sheet.

Cut the model in 3D

Click Section cut in the bottom toolbar, or press X. Its menu offers Plan cut (horizontal), Section along X and Section along Z. Drag the orange arrow in the view, or use the slider in Section cut settings, to move the cut. Cut faces are filled so walls and slabs read clearly.

Save a named section plane

• New section plane… then click a face: the plane cuts away what's in front of that face.
• Keep this cut as a section plane saves the cut you have now.

Section planes are saved with the project. One cuts at a time; pick it from the section menu or the Section plane list. You can rename it, use Flip side, move it with Position along it, or Look at it square on. Show other planes draws the others as outlines. Saved views remember which plane cuts.

Add dimensions, notes and tags

The tools down the left of the 2D drawings view work on plans, elevations and sections:

• Dimension: click the points (they snap to corners), then click clear of them to place the line. Enter finishes and Backspace drops a point.
• Text: click where the note goes, then type. Shift+Enter starts a new line.
• Leader: click what the arrow points at, then where the words go.
• Tag: click a wall, door, window or column, then where the label goes. It reads the element's name and size and keeps up when they change.

To choose what a tag says, select it and click Edit label. Type the words with fields in braces, such as {Name} {Width} × {Height} or {Type}, {Fire rating}, or click the fields under the box to put them in. Fields come from the element (its name, sizes, areas and volume) and from its custom properties, and keep up as they change. Leave it empty for the usual tag.

A dimension pinned to walls follows them when they move. Drag an annotation to move it, double-click to edit its words, and press Delete to remove it. Annotations go wherever the drawing goes: sheets, PDF, SVG and DXF.

Set the scale

The scale menu sets pen widths and text sizes. Pick a usual scale such as 1:50 or 1:100, or choose Custom… and type any 1:N, such as 1:75. Projects in imperial units offer US scales from 1" = 1'-0" to 1" = 100', such as 1/4" = 1'-0".

Choose cut patterns

Select a wall, slab, column, roof or stair and set Cut in drawings in Properties: solid, grey, outline, or a pattern from the library, such as Brickwork, Blockwork, Concrete, Insulation, Earth, Stone, Timber, Steel or Sand. The button under it applies the same pattern to every element of that kind.

To use your own patterns, click Load a pattern file (.pat)… and choose an AutoCAD pattern file. Its patterns join the list for the whole project, and the first is put on the element. Patterns show in plans and sections, and print and export to PDF and DXF as they look.

Set pens, line types and colours

Click Pens and labels in the 2D drawings toolbar. For each kind of line work (cut walls, doors and windows, what's below the cut, dimensions and so on), set the pen width, the line type (continuous, dashed, dotted or dash-dot) and the colour. Under Tags, do the same for everything on a tag: draw the Demolish tag dashed, or the Existing tag in grey. A tag's pen wins over the line work's. Every plan, elevation, section and sheet follows, and in DXF each styled tag gets its own layer with its colour and line type. Reset all goes back to the usual pens.

Change the room labels

Rooms in plans show their name and area. To show something else, open Pens and labels and type a template under Room labels, such as {Name} on the first line, then {Area} and {Perimeter}, or a custom property such as {Floor finish}. Click a field to add it on a new line. Fields are the room's name, area, gross area, perimeter and level, and any custom properties of its room tag. The first line is bold.

Export a drawing

Export offers Print or save as PDF…, SVG drawing (.svg) at paper size, and DXF for CAD (.dxf) in metres with CAD layers. See Exporting for more.

Still stuck? Contact us, or ask in the app: Help → Contact support.