Doors and windows

Add a door or window

12

1. 1
   Step 1: Open Door & window

   Click Door & window in the tool dock, or press D for a door or N for a window.

2. 2
   Step 2: Pick a type

   The tiles above the dock are Door, Double, Sliding, Pocket, Bifold, Garage, Window and Passage. You can also drag a tile straight onto a wall.

3. 3
   Step 3: Click a wall

   Each click on a wall places one opening and selects it. A click away from any wall says Click on a wall to place it.

4. 4
   Step 4: Slide and resize it

   Press V to go back to Select. Drag the opening along its wall, or drag the bar at either end to resize it. The card shows W (width), H (height) and Opening type. A window’s card also has S (Sill height) and Window type.

The size a new opening gets

New doors and windows take their sizes from Settings (⌘,) › Drawing › Defaults for this project. Changing a default only affects openings you add afterwards. Lengths show in the project’s units; this guide gives them in cm.

• The project’s region fills these in, so other regions start from slightly different sizes.
• Stock widths: pocket door 32 in (81 cm), bifold door 48 in (122 cm), garage door 16 ft (488 cm), open passage 100 cm. Doors and passages always sit on the floor.
• On a basement floor a new window gets a basement size instead. In a wall of a bedroom or kids room it is an escape casement, 36 × 36 in at a 42 in sill (90 × 90 cm at 100 cm). Anywhere else it is an awning window 32 × 16 in (80 × 40 cm), 15 cm under the top of the wall.

Door and window properties

Select an opening to edit it on its card, or press ↵ for All properties. For how sill and head heights relate to the wall and the floor, see Heights and levels.

• To make a door or window taller than the wall allows, raise the wall’s height first, or lower the window’s sill.
• Openings on the same wall keep 5 cm of wall between them. Dragging one along its wall stops at its neighbours.
• Drag an opening close to another wall and it jumps onto that wall at the nearest free spot.
• Dragging an end bar snaps the width to a common size when it comes within about 8 screen pixels (6 cm at most), and shows the width beside the wall.
• Select several doors and windows to set Width, Height and Sill height on all of them at once. Fields that differ show Mixed.
• The Elevations card edits a door or window’s Width, Height, Sill and Head too.

Flip a door or window

What F and ⇧F flip depends on the type. Only a single Door has a hinge end that F moves. The same switches are in All properties, and the right-click menu starts with the flips that apply.

Casements from 1 m wide and tilt-and-turn windows from 1.25 m wide are pairs, so they have no hinge end. A window or open passage has nothing for the keys to flip: with one selected, F and ⇧F pick the Double door tool, as F does with nothing selected.

Window types

Change a window’s type on its card, under Window type in All properties, or by right-clicking it. Each type has its own plan symbol and its own sashes in 3D, and the window schedule lists each type on its own line.

Change the type

Pick another Opening type on the card or in All properties, or right-click › Change type. The opening keeps its place in the wall. It keeps its width only when that width suits the new type; otherwise it takes the new type’s stock width.

• Into any door type or a passage: the sill becomes 0. An opening that had a sill, or is lower than 180 cm, takes the new type’s stock height: 210 cm, or 80 in for pocket and bifold doors and 7 ft for a garage door.
• Into a window: an opening with a sill keeps its height and sill. One without a sill, such as a door, gets 130 cm at a 90 cm sill and becomes a Casement.

Right-click an opening

• The flips for its type, as in the table above.
• Width with the common sizes and Custom width…, Window type for a window, and Change type.
• Centre on wall, Duplicate along wall, Copy, Cut and Paste here.
• For a window, Add curtains and Add blind.
• Select all windows on a window, or Select all doors on a door, then All properties and Delete.

Curtains, blinds and window wells

• A window’s All properties has a Window dressing section with Add curtains and Add blind, the same as its right-click menu. They size to the window, hang above it and follow it when it moves or resizes. Once added, the buttons read Select curtains and Select blind.
• On a basement floor, a window’s All properties also has Basement egress › Add window well outside. It puts a corrugated well outside the wall, reaching 36 in out from it, at least 42 in wide and at least 15 cm wider than the window on each side, with its floor 20 cm under the sill and its rim 10 cm above grade, and selects it.
• A window in an inside wall gets the warning A window well goes outside a window in an outside wall. A window that already has a well selects that well.

On a phone or tablet

Tap Door & window in the tool dock, pick a type and tap a wall. Drag the opening later to slide it along the wall.