Place and edit items
Updated 11 min readWorks without an account
Select a piece of furniture to move, turn, resize or recolour it. The card beside it holds its size, and All properties holds its name, colours, materials, a price and more.
Move, turn and resize
- Step 1: Select the piece
Click it on the plan and drag it to move it. Arrow keys nudge it 1 cm (⇧ for 10 cm).
- Step 2: Resize it on the plan
Drag one of the eight square handles: the four corners and the middle of each side. They change the width and depth, and do not keep the proportions. A piece that is small on screen shows only its corner handles, and below about 24 px none: zoom in to resize it.
- Step 3: Turn it
Drag the round handle with the circular arrow beside the piece. It turns freely and catches every 45° (0°, 45°, 90° and so on) when you come within 6°. Or press R to rotate it 90°, ⇧R the other way. Right-click › Rotate has preset angles and Custom angle….
- Step 4: Type exact sizes
The card shows its width (W), depth (D), height (H), rotation and elevation (E), the height it sits above the floor. Type a value and press ↵.
- Step 5: Mirror it
Press F to flip it left to right, or ⇧F front to back.
- Step 6: Open everything else
Click Appearance… on the card for its colours, or All properties for every setting.
Item properties
Lengths show in the project’s units; the ranges below are in cm. A value outside the range shows Min or Max under the field, and the field goes back to the old value when you leave it.
| Field | What it does | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| General › Label | The piece’s name, shown in the panel header, the Outline and the shopping list | 1 to 60 characters; it can’t be empty | The Library name |
| Width (W) | Size from side to side | 1–2000 cm | The Library size |
| Depth (D) | Size from front to back | 1–2000 cm | The Library size |
| Height (H) | How tall the piece itself is | 1–1000 cm | The Library size |
| Elevation (E) | How high its underside sits above the floor | 0–1000 cm | 0 cm for most pieces; wall items start at their hanging height |
| Position › X, Y | Where its centre is on the plan | −100000 to 100000 cm | Where you dropped it |
| Rotation | Its angle, in whole degrees. 90° beside it turns it a quarter turn. | Type −360 to 360; it is stored as 0–359° | 0° |
| Mirror › Flip ↔, Flip ↕ | Mirror it left to right, or front to back | Each click flips it | Not flipped |
| Appearance › Colour, or the part’s name with colour (such as Legs colour) | The colour of the whole piece, or of one part | Any colour | The Library colour |
| Appearance › Material | The finish of the chosen part | See Colours and materials | None (its original finish) |
| Light | Lamp on, Warmth and Brightness, for lamps only | See Lamps | On, 2700 K, 100% |
| Purchase | Price, product code, link and note | See Prices | Empty |
Kitchen runs, wardrobes, closet systems and vanities add their own section, such as Kitchen run or Wardrobe. See Kitchens, wardrobes and room sets.
Make it taller, or raise it off the floor
- Height (H) makes the piece itself taller or shorter. You can only type it, on the card or in All properties › Size. The handles on the plan change the width and depth only.
- Elevation (E) lifts the whole piece off the floor without changing its size, for a shelf, a wall cabinet or a TV on the wall.
- In the 3D view, select the piece and drag the arrow on top of it up or down. It changes the elevation in 1 cm steps and catches on the floor and on the tops of pieces under it. Hold ⌥ to move it freely, in 0.1 cm steps. The top of the piece stays below the storey height.
- How wall heights, room levels and floors fit together is in Heights and levels.
Put one piece on another
In the 3D view, drag a piece that stands on the floor over another piece, such as a lamp over a table. It rises onto the top of that piece, and comes down again when you drag it off. The piece below must be taller than 2 cm and at least half the floor area of the one you drag, and the centre of the dragged piece must be over it. A piece you raised by hand, such as a wall shelf, keeps its height.
On the plan, pieces do not stack. Type the Elevation instead: the elevation of the piece below plus its height. While you drag a new piece from the Library, a label with Overlaps and the other piece’s name warns that it overlaps a piece at the same height. Rugs and other pieces 2 cm tall or less never count.
Line it up
- While you drag a piece on the plan, its edges and centre snap to line up with other pieces and wall faces. Pink guide lines show what it lines up with, and the distance to the nearest walls.
- Push a piece front first against a wall and it turns round to face the room.
- Wall items hang flat on a wall near where you drop or drag them, facing into the room. They are everything under Wall lights and Wall art & hangings, plus TVs, mirrors, wall cabinets and shelves, radiators, sockets, switches, boilers and the like. Some go to a set height: a TV goes to 110 cm on a wall (it stands at 50 cm on a unit), a wall air conditioner to 210 cm.
- Ceiling lights dropped near the middle of a room snap to its centre.
- Hold ⌥ while you drag to move a piece freely, with no snapping.
- Right-click › Snap to nearest wall backs the piece onto the closest wall and turns it to face into the room. If no wall is near enough, a message says No wall close enough to snap to.
Colours and materials
In All properties › Appearance, a piece made of several parts shows a chip for each part, named after the part, as the model has them. The common ones are Body, Legs, Upholstery, Base, Frame and Cushions; a few models also have Doors, Handles, Worktop, Posts, Mattress or Headboard. Click a chip, then set that part’s colour (Legs colour, for example) and Material. A piece with one part shows a single Colour field.
- Click a colour field for 18 preset colours, a hex field (press ↵ or click away to apply it; a code that isn’t valid goes back) and Custom colour, the pipette that opens your system’s colour picker.
- Apply legs look to all parts (named after the chosen part) copies its colour and material to every part.
- Original, at the top of Appearance, appears once you change the look. It puts back the Library colour and clears every part’s colour and material.
| Swatch | What it does |
|---|---|
| None | The piece’s original finish (its tooltip says Original finish) |
| Linen, Velvet | Fabric, in the part’s colour |
| Leather | Satin leather, in the part’s colour |
| Oak, Walnut | Wood grain; picking one also sets the part to that wood’s colour |
| Painted | A satin paint, in the part’s colour |
| Brushed metal | Metal with a brushed grain |
| Marble | Polished marble; picking it also sets a pale marble colour |
| Glass | See-through glass |
| Fabric weave, Wood grain, Plaster | The round swatches at the end. They add relief and sheen over the part’s colour in the 3D view. |
Each swatch previews in the part’s current colour.
Swap it for another piece
Right-click the piece and choose Replace with…, or click Replace with… under Replace in All properties. The Library opens at the piece’s own subcategory with the message Pick an object to replace the followed by the piece’s name, and the next piece you click takes its place. Stairs and lifts can’t be picked. Similar size under Replace lists close alternatives to click instead. Pieces that are not from the Library show Not from the library and can’t be replaced.
The new piece keeps the old one’s place, angle, a name you typed, its price, link and note, and a colour you chose (with part colours and materials the new model also has). Its width, depth, height and elevation become the new piece’s, unless you turn on Keep my size under Replace. That switch stays as you left it until you reload the page.
More actions
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Snap to nearest wall | Backs it onto the closest wall, facing into the room |
| Reset size | Puts the width, depth and height back to the Library size. Colours, materials and elevation stay. Greyed out (At default size) when nothing has changed. |
| Bring to front, Send to back | Changes which piece draws on top on the plan |
| Flip horizontal, Flip vertical | Mirrors it |
| Save to My items | Keeps this customised copy in the Library (see Your shelves) |
| Save as furniture pack | Keeps the selected pieces as a set to place in any room |
Lock a piece
Lock a piece from its padlock in the Outline, or lock all furniture at once under Lock against edits (see Layers and the Outline). A locked piece’s panel says This item is locked. with an Unlock button, and every field is read-only. On right-click, everything except All properties and Copy is greyed out with Locked: unlock it in Outline to change it.
Prices and the shopping list
| Field | What it does | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Price, with the currency symbol in brackets, such as Price ($) | The price of one piece, in the project’s currency (set in Settings… › Region › Currency). Type a number in the project’s number format; anything else warns Enter the price as a number, like 12500. Empty shows Not set. | Up to 14 characters |
| Product code | The shop’s code or SKU | Up to 60 characters |
| Product link | The product page. It must start with http:// or https://, or a message says so. Open product page then appears and opens it in a new tab. | Up to 2000 characters |
| Note | Anything else, such as the shop’s name | Up to 500 characters |
There is no separate shop or vendor field: put the shop in Note, or use the Product link. Pieces with a price add up in the shopping list and budget in Schedules and budget.
Lamps, curtains and blinds
Floor lamps and most table, wall and ceiling lights have a Light section in All properties. Pieces without one cast no light.
| Field | What it does | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lamp on | Switches the lamp’s light on or off | On or off | On |
| Warmth | The colour of the light. The label names it: Candle below 2500 K, Warm white below 3200 K, Neutral below 4500 K, Daylight above. | 1800–6500 K, in 100 K steps | 2700 K (Warm white) |
| Brightness | How strong the light is | 10–300%, in 10% steps | 100% |
- Lamps shine when the 3D view’s Lighting is Evening or Night, not Day. With Sun on, they fade in as the sun gets low and shine fully after dark. Every lit lamp glows, but only the four nearest the camera cast real light. Fast quality leaves out the soft halo round the glow.
- Curtains and blinds added to a window follow it when it moves or resizes. Detach from window frees them.
On a phone or tablet
Tap a piece to select it and drag it to move it. Resize or turn it on its card, and save it to My items to reuse it.
Questions
How do I make a piece taller?
Type a new height in H on its card, or in All properties › Size › Height (1 to 1000 cm). Dragging on the plan changes only the width and depth.
How do I hang a shelf or a TV higher on the wall?
Select it and type a new elevation (E) on its card. It is the height of its underside above the floor. In the 3D view you can also drag the arrow on top of it.
How do I put a lamp on a table?
In the 3D view, drag the lamp over the table and it rises onto the tabletop. On the plan, type the lamp’s Elevation as the table’s height.
Why does a piece jump to the wall when I drop it?
Wall items such as mirrors and TVs hang on a wall near where you drop them, and ceiling lights snap to the room’s centre. To move one freely, drag it on the plan while you hold ⌥.
I made a piece too big. How do I undo the size?
Right-click it and choose Reset size: it puts back the Library width, depth and height and keeps your colours. Reset in the Size section of All properties puts back the size too, but it also clears your colours and materials. Neither changes the elevation. ⌘Z undoes the last change.
How do I rename a piece?
Open All properties and type the new name in General › Label. The name shows in the Outline and the shopping list, and stays when you replace the piece.
Can I move furniture in 3D?
Yes. Click a piece in the 3D view to select it and drag it over the floor. Turn it with the ring around it, in 15° steps (⌥ turns it freely), and raise it with the arrow on top.