How to Draw Sections Faster Than in AutoCAD — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Hi, I'm Chris, an architect based in the
2. 0:02UK, and today I'll be showing you how to
3. 0:04draw a section faster than you would
4. 0:06with Ultaciad. We'll cover both the
5. 0:08fundamentals like choosing the right
6. 0:09section cut and practical tips like line
7. 0:12weights, material representation,
8. 0:14annotations, and more. I'll be using
9. 0:16Rayon Design, a free browserbased tool
10. 0:18for 2D architectural drawings. With its
11. 0:21wall tool, style presets, and massive
12. 0:23block library with side views, it helps
13. 0:25me work twice as fast. If you want to
14. 0:27follow along, just create a free account
15. 0:29and open the template linked below. So,
16. 0:32let's dive in. Sections and elevations
17. 0:35are 2D architecture drawings that reveal
18. 0:37a building's vertical aspect, either by
19. 0:39slicing through it with a section or
20. 0:41showing it from the outside an
21. 0:43elevation. They're essential for
22. 0:44communicating spatial relationships,
23. 0:46materials, and structures. And they're
24. 0:48required in almost every drawing set,
25. 0:50whether you're working on a renovation
26. 0:51or a new build. Okay, so you can
27. 0:54currently see that we're in a Rayon
28. 0:55model where I've drawn my floor plan,
29. 0:58but if you're working with another tool,
30. 1:00you can always import a DWG, a PDF, or
31. 1:03an image of your drawing directly into
32. 1:04Rayon that you can trace over. It's time
33. 1:06to create a few sections. And for that,
34. 1:08I'm going to start organizing the file.
35. 1:10I'll make a new layer, call it sections,
36. 1:14and then inside it, I'll put a nested
37. 1:16layer. So, I'll create another layer,
38. 1:18call it guidelines this time. Drag it
39. 1:21down, hover over, and then intersection.
40. 1:24So, you can see there that it's nested
41. 1:25inside. That will make it much easier
42. 1:28for me to lock and hide reference lines
43. 1:30as I go. With that all set up, now it's
44. 1:33time to decide where to cut through in
45. 1:35our floor plan. You want to convey as
46. 1:37much information as possible. So, I want
47. 1:39you to look for a section that will
48. 1:41convey multiple rooms and cut through
49. 1:43doors and windows. You want to make the
50. 1:45most of explaining the interior
51. 1:47relationship between spaces. So in this
52. 1:50case, we're going to create a section
53. 1:51here for this apartment on this side.
54. 1:55Cutting along this area here. So this
55. 1:58shows the entrance, the kitchen, the
56. 2:01living space, the bathroom space, and
57. 2:04then the external terrace. To indicate
58. 2:06that properly, let's start by grabbing a
59. 2:08section symbol from the rayon block
60. 2:11library. So we'll go over to library.
61. 2:13We'll scroll down to title blocks and
62. 2:15annotations. Um, and you can see there
63. 2:18section line. So, we can drag that in.
64. 2:20Scale it up so it's visible.
65. 2:24And I'll just duplicate that. Copy and
66. 2:26paste.
67. 2:28I will mirror it. So, we've got two
68. 2:31tails of the section line. And then I'll
69. 2:34mirror it the other way because we're
70. 2:37looking down um how we currently are.
71. 2:40So, let's just drag this
72. 2:43over to one end of our line. Rotate. Do
73. 2:48the same on the other one.
74. 2:56And then we could change the line style
75. 3:01into a dash.
76. 3:09We go. So that's our section line set
77. 3:12up. You can obviously duplicate that and
78. 3:15put however many sections you want
79. 3:16across the floor plan. Alongside the
80. 3:18section lines, there are a huge array of
81. 3:20different types of annotations, scale
82. 3:22bars, elevation marks, north symbols. Um
83. 3:26and it's not just annotations. There's,
84. 3:28you know, so much array of different
85. 3:30furniture types. So bathrooms, um even
86. 3:33people and and animals, um doors,
87. 3:37windows, everything you would want. um
88. 3:39not only plans but also sections and
89. 3:41elevations which we'll come on to use
90. 3:43later all within the rayon block
91. 3:45library. Next, I'll use a view to
92. 3:47duplicate the floor plan and rotate it.
93. 3:50So, where I'm cutting my section, I'm
94. 3:52going to be looking up into that space.
95. 3:54It'll enable me to crop it and help me
96. 3:56build a grid for my drawing and my
97. 3:58section. So, we're going to go to layers
98. 4:01and then where the plus sign is. So,
99. 4:03where you would normally add a new
100. 4:04layer, we can go from view and model
101. 4:07canvas. And that will create this new
102. 4:09duplicated window showing our floor
103. 4:12plan. So, the point to remember that
104. 4:14this isn't the actual drawing. This is
105. 4:16looking at that drawing. So, you can't
106. 4:18actually edit the drawing itself in this
107. 4:20view, but you can turn on and off layers
108. 4:22and change line styles. So, I can drag
109. 4:25this out. What I can do is rotate this.
110. 4:33So now I'm looking up into my section.
111. 4:36So this is you can see my section cut
112. 4:38lines. That's the way I'm looking. Um
113. 4:40and when I draw my lines to project um
114. 4:43my section, I know I'm I'm exactly
115. 4:45looking in the right place. Okay, with
116. 4:47that now rotated, I want to now um
117. 4:50change the aspect ratio of my view
118. 4:52clipping plane. So I've double clicked
119. 4:54on it and I can now just drag
120. 4:59my points out. So the frame that I'm
121. 5:02basically viewing the plan from,
122. 5:05remember, I'm not touching the plan. I'm
123. 5:06just looking at it through a different
124. 5:08way.
125. 5:10I can reorientate that. Um, so I remove
126. 5:13any kind of unnecessary information when
127. 5:15I'm drawing my section. So I can just
128. 5:17drag out to there. Maybe bring this up a
129. 5:20little.
130. 5:23And now I'm parallel to my section line.
131. 5:25And all my lines that will be projecting
132. 5:27up are coming perpendicular to that. And
133. 5:30then my original drawing is still here.
134. 5:33I haven't changed it. It's still in the
135. 5:35same orientation. I'm just looking at it
136. 5:37through a different lens. Okay. So,
137. 5:39we've rotated our view. We've aligned it
138. 5:42with the section line and cropped it
139. 5:44down. So, now we're going to draw our
140. 5:45grid lines. Um, this will help us create
141. 5:48the section above. So, I'm going to go
142. 5:51to line. Um, and I'm just going to draw
143. 5:53one line as an example cutting through
144. 5:56this door. So, I can go in there. I can
145. 5:58edit the style
146. 6:01solid line instead. And then I just copy
147. 6:04across each of these. So, if I go to the
148. 6:07copy tool, I can just
149. 6:11copy these lines across
150. 6:14when I cut through things.
151. 6:18So you can see here that there's only a
152. 6:20few elements that I'm actually cutting
153. 6:22through. The others I am looking at. So
154. 6:25I might want to have a different style
155. 6:26of line so I can understand what I'm
156. 6:29looking at rather than what I'm um
157. 6:32cutting through.
158. 6:34So we can detach that style. We can
159. 6:36create a new one and call that maybe
160. 6:39elevation.
161. 6:43And I could do that in a different
162. 6:44color. So now every element that I'm
163. 6:48looking at rather than cutting through
164. 6:50has a line to project up
165. 6:54and then the windows
166. 6:58for the elements that I'm looking at. So
167. 7:02you can see there that's our sort of
168. 7:03grid line area set up. The whole reason
169. 7:06we do this is to help anchor those
170. 7:08elements. So when I start to draw floor,
171. 7:10ceiling heights, furniture, and
172. 7:11structure, it gives me a guide. Now it's
173. 7:14time to use the wall tool. One of the
174. 7:15reasons that drawing a section with
175. 7:17rayon is so much faster. It's incredibly
176. 7:20responsive. You just draw and it
177. 7:22automatically applies wall thickness and
178. 7:24fill, which you can edit later from the
179. 7:26style panel. This is already faster than
180. 7:28drawing and offsetting lines in AutoCAD,
181. 7:31especially when you need to make
182. 7:32changes. Okay, with our guidelines set
183. 7:35up, we can start using the wall tool.
184. 7:37So, we'll select a wall tool down here.
185. 7:39And just to start, I'm going to draw a
186. 7:42floor.
187. 7:43So the floor here, I can change the
188. 7:46thickness to say 250 mil.
189. 7:51I can have that in maybe a hatch.
190. 7:54So I'll call it an oblique hatch. I can
191. 7:57change the scale of that. Maybe 0.25. Go
192. 8:01from there. And then I can save that
193. 8:04style. And I'm going to call that
194. 8:06section
195. 8:07dash floor. And then when I draw my next
196. 8:12wall
197. 8:15or floor
198. 8:18that will retain that exact same style.
199. 8:21So that is drawn as a floor. Then for
200. 8:25example I want to draw a wall. I can
201. 8:28draw here. And the reality is that this
202. 8:32wall as drawn in the section through my
203. 8:34section cut is 397 mm. So I can create a
204. 8:40new style. Make that 397.
205. 8:45Save style or section dash wall.
206. 8:50The other thing I wanted to show you is
207. 8:52that we can then use these walls for the
208. 8:55elevation walls as well. So if we're not
209. 8:58cutting through it is if it's an
210. 8:59elevation, I want to get rid of the
211. 9:01hatch. So I can detach that style. Make
212. 9:04that wall. How thick is this one? 70
213. 9:08mil. So, we can change that to 70. We
214. 9:12can give that a solid white fill because
215. 9:16we're in elevation.
216. 9:20And we can call that elevation
217. 9:24dash wall. So, if I came back to the
218. 9:28drawing later and actually decided that
219. 9:30the hatch style wasn't right for me, I
220. 9:32wanted a solid color. So I can just go
221. 9:34into these styles, edit the style. You
222. 9:37can see them all down on this side as
223. 9:39well. So there's a style bar here. So
224. 9:41we'll scroll down to walls. So you can
225. 9:44see walls there. And you can see our
226. 9:47wall styles here. So for example, I can
227. 9:50edit them all here and actually say I
228. 9:52don't want that as a hatch. I want that
229. 9:54as a solid color.
230. 10:01Same thing with the floor
231. 10:06and then I can change them all. So,
232. 10:07obviously, if you're doing um you know,
233. 10:09informative drawings or illustrative
234. 10:11drawings, being able to change that
235. 10:12style very easily is perfect. With the
236. 10:15basic section set up, now let's start to
237. 10:18drop in some elements from the block
238. 10:21library. Rayon's got over 4,000
239. 10:23different types of blocks. And they all
240. 10:25allow for front, top, and side views,
241. 10:28which means that I don't have to search
242. 10:30for any of the sort of matching symbols
243. 10:32or convert anything manually like I
244. 10:35would have to with AutoCAD. I can just
245. 10:37drag and drop them in and know that they
246. 10:39correspond with the element that I've
247. 10:41placed on the floor. This is
248. 10:43particularly helpful when I'm drawing
249. 10:44those sections and elevations. Okay,
250. 10:47with that in mind, we'll get started
251. 10:48adding blocks. So, we go to the block
252. 10:50tab. We go to libraries and I want to
253. 10:53start adding a door in for the entrance
254. 10:56to our apartment. So, we go down to
255. 10:59openings
256. 11:01um and we'll find a
257. 11:04standard door which is here for example
258. 11:08and you can see this purple family tab.
259. 11:10So, if you click on that it includes not
260. 11:12only the plan, the section but also the
261. 11:15elevation. So we can drag this in
262. 11:21and we can place that
263. 11:23neatly in our door position. So now
264. 11:25we've got a door in section. Similarly
265. 11:28with something like the kitchen
266. 11:30cabinetry. So we can see the kitchen
267. 11:31units down here and in our section line
268. 11:34which is here. We can see them in
269. 11:36elevation. So I can find them in the
270. 11:41library again. I can go down to
271. 11:45kitchen.
272. 11:46Okay. So, we'll find our um casework for
273. 11:50our kitchen. We'll click on the purple
274. 11:52one. We'll drag in the unit with the
275. 11:55door. And then we can place that here.
276. 11:59Go to our copy tool and then copy that
277. 12:04across. Center that within the space.
278. 12:08There we have it. And that corresponds
279. 12:09with the kitchen below. Just for
280. 12:11clarity, we can then come out of the
281. 12:13block
282. 12:15area and then go to layers and we can
283. 12:18turn off our guidelines
284. 12:21and then you can start to see the
285. 12:23beginnings of a section. One last thing
286. 12:25I just want to show you is that I could
287. 12:27add people for example. So, um, if we
288. 12:30wanted to animate the space, um, you
289. 12:33know, make our viewers understand it a
290. 12:35little bit better, have a bit of a
291. 12:37better understanding of scale, we can go
292. 12:39to people, which will live in the block
293. 12:41library as well. Um, we'll find someone
294. 12:45just standing up um
295. 12:49over here. So, again, that's in plan
296. 12:52view, but we can find um a side view and
297. 12:55a front view. So, we can drag in the
298. 12:57side view.
299. 12:59There we go. Perfect.
300. 13:02And maybe we'll mirror her walking away
301. 13:05from the door. And again, that
302. 13:07automatically brings the drawing to life
303. 13:08and gives you a sense of scale for the
304. 13:10space. All within the block library. All
305. 13:13very simply, just drag and drop in
306. 13:15those. Um, and I can also put a person
307. 13:18into the plan drawing, for example, um,
308. 13:20that corresponds in exactly the same
309. 13:22place um, with those other views based
310. 13:25on that model. You are also able to edit
311. 13:28um the blocks. So we can go into this
312. 13:30kitchen cabinet block for example um and
313. 13:33say for my presentation drawings I don't
314. 13:34want to see the legs of the kitchen
315. 13:36cabinet. So I can just double click on
316. 13:38that um find the element I want to get
317. 13:41rid of and you will see any block that
318. 13:45is a representation of that same block
319. 13:48it affects all of them. So that deletes
320. 13:50in all of them. Similarly, I want to
321. 13:54change the line style um of the uh the
322. 13:59swing of the door. Um I wanted that in
323. 14:01red for example. If I do it to one, I
324. 14:04can do it to all. And that's perfect
325. 14:07because again that gives me that
326. 14:08flexibility later on when I'm changing
327. 14:10styles in the drawing um that it affects
328. 14:13any view related to that. Um the other
329. 14:16thing you can do is import your own
330. 14:18blocks. So you can import a DWG um
331. 14:21create your own block from it and then
332. 14:23you can c curate those blocks into your
333. 14:25own model or use them within team
334. 14:28library so you can repeat them for other
335. 14:30projects. Okay, so I've just spent a
336. 14:32little bit of time refining the drawing
337. 14:34down adding all the elevation elements,
338. 14:36the section elements, the furniture um
339. 14:39just to you know make it appropriate for
340. 14:42what I'm trying to illustrate. So now
341. 14:44I'm going to add some dimensions, some
342. 14:47annotations, things like finished floor
343. 14:49height, ceiling heights, um, and
344. 14:51anything that's really going to help
345. 14:53communicate what I want it to do as a
346. 14:55drawing. So we'll start over here by
347. 14:57finding a um, floor level um,
348. 15:00annotation. So we'll go to our block
349. 15:02library again. We'll go to title blocks
350. 15:04and annotations. Um, and then we will
351. 15:08find a
352. 15:11height marker. Here we go. So, we'll
353. 15:14drag that in.
354. 15:16We'll increase the size of it. And then
355. 15:20we can position that
356. 15:23where we want to. So, we go to the move
357. 15:25tool. This will snap it to our floor
358. 15:29level. And then we can go into there and
359. 15:32change the number to plus you 22.5
360. 15:38something like that. We can then add
361. 15:40dimensions. So, say we wanted to
362. 15:42dimension this um kitchen cabinetry.
363. 15:46We can click on our dimension tool here.
364. 15:50We can select what we want. Drag that
365. 15:52out. So, obviously that's coming in very
366. 15:54large. So, we can then go in and edit
367. 15:56the style. So, we can change the size of
368. 15:59the font.
369. 16:01We can change the color if we wanted to.
370. 16:04Um
371. 16:06we can change the stroke. Say I don't
372. 16:08like the end points and I wanted them as
373. 16:12little arrows
374. 16:17and we can make the stroke red if we
375. 16:19like. Maybe a little bit
376. 16:22thicker.
377. 16:26And then we could save that as a style
378. 16:27and call that section
379. 16:30dim for example.
380. 16:33And then when we draw our next
381. 16:35dimensions
382. 16:39that style will match. The other thing
383. 16:41with dimensions which is helpful is if
384. 16:44you wanted to draw them as a chain you
385. 16:48can
386. 16:53select the chain element and then that
387. 16:55just keeps drawing them. So there we
388. 16:57have some dimensions. Um and also we can
389. 17:00add some annotations. So that's in the
390. 17:03leader tool which is down here. So we
391. 17:07click on what we want, click out and
392. 17:11then call it kitchen cabinet
393. 17:17washing machine
394. 17:20behind for example.
395. 17:24And again
396. 17:26we can go into our style. We could
397. 17:28change that to red for example. The same
398. 17:31thing with the line.
399. 17:35We could change our arrow head
400. 17:39so we have some level of consistency
401. 17:41between our dimensions and say actually
402. 17:44we want the text to be a little bit
403. 17:47larger. So when we go to do another
404. 17:50annotation for example the highle
405. 17:52cabinets. So we could say highle kitchen
406. 17:56cabinets.
407. 17:58And then because we've set that up as a
408. 18:00style, we can use the pick a style
409. 18:02thing. Click on that and then it becomes
410. 18:05consistent with the um the style again.
411. 18:07And again, those styles live within that
412. 18:09library um and can be used throughout
413. 18:11the project. Now that our section is
414. 18:14ready, we can add a sheet referencing it
415. 18:15in our architecture drawing set. Section
416. 18:18drawings are usually placed towards the
417. 18:20end of the drawing set at a scale of
418. 18:21around 1 to 50. So let's use Rayon's
419. 18:24canvases, pages, and views to set up a
420. 18:27new sheet. Okay, so you can see the
421. 18:28refine section here and we're currently
422. 18:31in the model canvas. So you can see just
423. 18:33up on here above layers there is paper
424. 18:36canvases as well. So this is where we'll
425. 18:38be drawing our presentation um and our
426. 18:40sheet. So we'll click on paper canvases
427. 18:43and you're left with the warning your
428. 18:45paper canvas does not contain any pages.
429. 18:48So we'll create a page. Here it is. And
430. 18:51it will set as a A4. We want that as an
431. 18:53A3. And we're at a scale of 1 one. So
432. 18:56this is our paper space similar to
433. 18:58AutoCAD. With that paper space at 1 one,
434. 19:02we're going to be viewing our model file
435. 19:04at a scale. So when we bring that
436. 19:06section view in, we will scale that at 1
437. 19:08to 50. The good thing about viewing our
438. 19:10paper space at real scale is that it
439. 19:13obviously represents what we're going to
440. 19:14be looking at when we export or print
441. 19:17our documents. Okay, so now we can add a
442. 19:20view. So we'll go over to the layers tab
443. 19:21and click on the plus. We go down to
444. 19:24view and we want to create a new view
445. 19:26from the model canvas. So click on that
446. 19:28and here it pops up. We want to set that
447. 19:31scale at whatever we want. We want it at
448. 19:331 to 50.
449. 19:35And then if we hold down command
450. 19:39whilst dragging, we can change the crop
451. 19:43region of
452. 19:46the model space. So we only focus on our
453. 19:48section drawing. This edits those
454. 19:50borders down. and then I can click on it
455. 19:53and then move it to my paper space. So
456. 19:55it's a one one A3 page with a 1 to 50
457. 19:59view of that section. We can then go
458. 20:03into the block library. So Rayon's block
459. 20:05library has a number of title blocks. So
460. 20:08we can go down to title blocks. The
461. 20:11other thing it has is a search feature.
462. 20:12So this is what I find particularly
463. 20:14helpful. So if we just search for A3, we
464. 20:17have a number of A3 title blocks. We can
465. 20:19pick whatever we like. drag it in and
466. 20:23align it with um our A3 sheet. So we can
467. 20:28move our view about. Obviously we can
468. 20:30edit all the information on the uh the
469. 20:34block as well. So we can add our own
470. 20:35logo in um add information about the
471. 20:38project um and even keep a track of when
472. 20:41drawings are issued. Um another thing we
473. 20:44can do is add in another view. So
474. 20:47obviously when you're looking at a
475. 20:49section, a really key thing is to
476. 20:50understand where it's being cut from. So
477. 20:53the next thing I'll do is go back to
478. 20:55layers, add a view, model canvas again,
479. 20:59and again we're looking at that drawing.
480. 21:03Now if we double click, we can zoom
481. 21:04inside and we can find our original
482. 21:08floor plan. Now I want to clean up this.
483. 21:11So we can turn off maybe some of the
484. 21:13annotations,
485. 21:15the hatches
486. 21:17and let's say we want that at 1 to 200
487. 21:21say. So again if we hold command we can
488. 21:24bring in our cropping boundary and then
489. 21:26we can arrange that on the page. So with
490. 21:30that as a key plan we can then look for
491. 21:32a section line. So again, we can drag
492. 21:34that in. Copy
493. 21:38and then mirror and then they will
494. 21:41mirror that
495. 21:43vertically.
496. 21:45Rotate onto our drawing. So then when
497. 21:48I'm looking at this drawing set, I can
498. 21:50see my section and I can have a small
499. 21:53key plan that tells me exactly where
500. 21:55it's being cut and the way that I'm
501. 21:56looking, which is incredibly helpful.
502. 21:59Okay, with the sheet finalized, we can
503. 22:01now export it. So, I'll just change the
504. 22:03sheet name to
505. 22:06section one. And then in the little
506. 22:10burger bar, the three lines, we can go
507. 22:12to export. And then we can export the um
508. 22:16sheet as a number of formats. So, you
509. 22:18can see here if we want to export it as
510. 22:20a PDF for example, um we can go to
511. 22:23section one paper canvas um we can call
512. 22:26it section one.
513. 22:30decide on the file size, the format, um,
514. 22:35press export, choose a location for it,
515. 22:38and then off it goes. Alternatively, you
516. 22:41can share it as a presentation. So, you
517. 22:43can go up to the top right hand side
518. 22:45where it says share, and this is where
519. 22:47you would gain um or provide access to
520. 22:49other people to the um project, but you
521. 22:52can also share as a presentation. So if
522. 22:55you update here, it will give you a link
523. 23:00and then that will take you to
524. 23:03your uh presentation. And here it is,
525. 23:06which is obviously really helpful if
526. 23:07you've got a client that you want to
527. 23:09send it to. And here you have it as part
528. 23:11of a full drawing set. So we've got our
529. 23:14plans,
530. 23:15our elevations, our plan of our
531. 23:18apartment that we were looking at with
532. 23:20the um section line referenced. We then
533. 23:23have our section with our key plan. And
534. 23:25obviously you can use the same tools to
535. 23:27create far more detailed sections,
536. 23:28details with dimensions,
537. 23:31um, you know, joinery information. Um,
538. 23:35the world's your oyster. And all this
539. 23:37far quicker than they would be in
540. 23:39AutoCAD.
541. 23:42And that's it. That's how I draw a
542. 23:44detailed and sleek section in Rayon
543. 23:45twice as fast as I would in AutoCAD with
544. 23:47fewer manual edits. If you want to try
545. 23:49this exact setup, open the template in
546. 23:51the link below. It's fully editable and
547. 23:53free to use. Thanks for watching. If you
548. 23:56found it helpful, don't forget to
549. 23:57subscribe for more speed boosting
550. 23:59tutorials just like this one.