Canfield Research Group LLC

Updated to reflect how walls snap differ from other objects

Getting FloorPlan to snap to a grid is a bit tricky. To make matters worse sometimes the grid appears to change makng it very hard to align new walls with old especially between locations. Making matters even worse is that FloorPlan will automatically adjust wall lengths as the move up against each other, sometimes merging walls is very strange ways.

Try creating a wall 10’ long. The create another wall 2’ above that one that is 5’. Now move the first wall to the other side of the second one. Sometimes FloorPlan will adjust the length wall being moved or even attach it to the second wall. Even worse sometimes FloorPlan will not allow the walls to get closer than the grid difference.

Speaking of the grid it is also rather difficult to use. The following settings appear in the Tools / Options / General dialog box. The appear to work as follows.

• Show Grid : When checked the grid will appear unless it is too small at the current scale.
• X/Y Spacing : Grid spacing. These are only used if if the Show Grid box is checked.
• Snap to grid : If checked then the above spacing is used when drawing objects. If unchecked then an internal 1” grid (regardless of spacing setting) appears to be in place with a further limitation that walls cannot be drawn except in even increments of the Angle setting below.

• Angle : This can only be edited if Snap to grid is unchecked. This controls the angles that can be drawn with walls. The default of 15 allows 15, 30, 45, etc. angles to be drawn.

Some general rules:

• Walls are placed to the grid based on the center line of the wall and the starting end.
• Angled walls are snapped per their length. For a grid of 1/4” the wall will be drawn in 1/4” increments regardless of the angle. In this case there is no end snap, it is a length snap instead.
• Walls do NOT resnap to the grid unless moved and then only snap per the direction of movement.
• FloorPlan’s minimum snap appears to about 1/16”. Anything under 1/8” is rounded to 0” on the display but the snap distance appears to be 1/16”. Entering 0” also seems to default to 1/16”.

• With Snap to grid off walls default to 1” grid. Other objects appear to use FloorPlans minimum grid of 1/16”.

• With Snap to grid checked
  • X/Y grid spacing can be changed
  • Objects can be placed on the grid and moved to any grid point
  • Walls can be ANY angle making long walls a little tricky to place. Remember walls cannot be rotated once placed.

• Walls can be resized per the grid.

• With Snap to grid unchecked
  • X/Y grid spacing cannot be changed.
  • For Walls an internal fixed grid of 1” is used. Custom X/Y settings are ignored.
  • For non-walls the precision appears to be finer than 1/16” and depends on the zoom factor. I have placed stairs to a precision that appears to exceed 1/32”. I use this level of precision mostly for rendering reasons and to work around FloorPlan’s 1/16” minimum snap and associated precision issues.

• Walls are limited to even increments of the angle listed. The default is 15 which allows for 0, 15, 45, etc. angles.

A wall can be changed after is is created. For example to make a 25’ 3/8” wall the easiest (especially regarding getting the wall straight) way is to do the following.

• Uncheck Snap to grid and set the angle to 15 (or 90).
• Draw the wall to approx 25’
• Check Snap to grid and make sure X/Y settings are at 1/8”

• Resize the wall by clicking on an end until it is at the desired length.

Problems

• Be careful with old wall widths. For example a 1” wall will be snapped based on its center line. This means that on a 1” grid you will never be able to move walls adjacent since they are 1/2” from the next snap. This applies to 3”, 5”, etc. walls as well. Temporarily setting the grid to 1/2” or less then adjusting your walls if often the only way to sole this problem.
• Remember that walls snap to 1” if Snap to grid is unchecked.
• Sometimes no matter how hard you try you walls cannot be moved against each other. Even moving both walls to try and re-snap them does not work. It’s almost as if there is an invisible width component on the walls preventing them from being adjacent. All in all very confusing.
  • As an experiment create a room with one wall alone in the center. Move the wall adjacent (long wise) to either end of the room. It it aligns stretch the room one grid point and try again. You will discover that some grid points work while others prevent the walls from being adjacent. Very strange.
  • My best guess is that FloorPlan is not using a high enough floating point precision and that some grid locations and widths of objects confuse it and it thinks they would collide.

• PARTIAL SOLUTION Set the grid to 0” to allow the walls to get as close as possible. The walls may still be 1/16” apart which is enough to ruin some renderings but it often is close enough.