How do I build a floor plan from Spaces?

Open the New plan dialog and choose Start with spaces, or pick a Space tool from the toolbar. Draw and arrange the Spaces, resolve their shared boundaries, then click Build plan in the Space Plan bar or properties panel. The result is an ordinary editable wall plan. Space Planning is free and needs no account.

For the architectural method—deciding what rooms you need, how much area to give them and how to test the arrangement—read How to plan rooms before drawing walls. This page explains the Gridsnap controls and lifecycle.

1. Start a Space Plan

Choose Start with spaces — Arrange rooms first, then build the walls in the New plan dialog. Gridsnap opens an empty plan with the Space tool armed and the Space Plan bar visible.

You can also start from the toolbar. The Space group has three modes:

• Rectangle — click two corners; after the first, type Width, press Tab, type Depth and press Enter for an exact size.
• Polygon — click the corners; click the first point again or press Enter to close it.
• Envelope — draw the region the Spaces should fill.

A Space records planning intent. It is not a wall-derived room, does not appear in quantities and is not inspected by Plan Check.

2. Name and size the Spaces

Before drawing, the properties panel can set the next Space’s Type, Name and Target area. After drawing, select the Space to edit those values and see its Current area and Difference from target.

Switch to Select to edit the geometry. Drag:

• a corner to resize in two directions;
• an edge handle to change one dimension;
• the body to move the Space;
• a shared ⇔ boundary to give area to one Space and take it from the other.

With a target set, an edge can snap when that target area is reached. Use Edit shape to add, move or remove individual polygon corners.

3. Use an envelope when the footprint is fixed

An Envelope is the region the Space Plan should fill. Space edges snap to it. Once it exists, the Space Plan summary reports Unassigned area inside it and Space area outside it. The envelope does not clip, fill or resize anything for you, and it does not become a wall by itself.

The same summary reports overlaps and boundary readiness. A warning can remain when it is intentional. Items marked ✕ must be fixed before Build plan is available.

4. Decide the shared boundaries

Select a Space to see its Boundaries. Every shared run has three choices:

• Auto — no explicit decision; currently builds as an interior wall.
• Wall — explicitly build an interior wall.
• Open — build no wall along that shared run.

Click a boundary row to highlight the run on the plan. You can also click the ⇔ handle to select the boundary or double-click it to cycle through Auto, Wall and Open. Resolve overlaps before editing a contested boundary.

5. Build the plan

The Build plan section shows the Outer and Inner wall presets, how many walls will be created, warnings and blockers. The same readiness appears in the Space Plan bar above the canvas.

Click Build plan when the boundaries are resolved. In one undoable action, Gridsnap:

1. creates exterior walls from the Outer preset;
2. creates interior walls from Wall and Auto boundaries using the Inner preset;
3. leaves Open boundaries without a wall;
4. detects ordinary rooms and transfers Space names where possible;
5. archives the Space Plan as the building’s read-only source.

No doors or windows are placed. Add those after the walls exist.

Interior walls are centred on the shared planning boundary; exterior walls grow outward. The resulting clear room area can therefore be smaller than the planned area by part of an interior-wall thickness.

After the build

The Spaces leave the canvas and the walls become authoritative. Edit them like any walls drawn by hand. The Built from spaces control in the top bar can:

• View source as a faint, read-only overlay;
• Create variation by reopening that source as an editable Space Plan;
• start a new Space Plan beside the current building.

If walls already stand on the floor, Build plan… asks whether to build the draft as a design option (Pro) or Replace current plan…. Replacement lists exactly which building elements will be cleared before you confirm it.

What this doesn’t do

• Space Planning does not automatically arrange or optimize rooms.
• It does not evaluate adjacency, privacy or circulation requirements.
• Build Plan does not place doors, windows or furniture.
• Wall edits do not reshape the archived Space Plan source.
• A second building scheme is not stacked into the same project; use a design option or replace the current plan.