Adding Decks to Drawing

 

The deck feature of SoftPlan Studio allows you to add custom designed deck to a building. Using this feature you can also add deck components such as stairs, railings and benches.  The use of Red Green and Blue Placement lines applies to drawing decks and the components of decks. 

 

To Draw a Deck

 

1.   Select Draw → Deck → Deck. The Drawing Grid appears.

 

2.   Trace the shape of your deck. To do this:

 

i.    Place your cursor on the drawing area where you want the deck to start, left click.

 

·    You may press the esc key on your keyboard to cancel drawing the deck.

 

ii.   Move your cursor in the direction you want your deck to extend. Left click.

 

      As you trace the deck:

 

      ·    The corners of the deck are indicated by red vertical lines.

 

      ·    If the edge of the deck is parallel to the drawing surface, the line is displayed green.

 

      ·    If the edge of the deck is not parallel to the drawing surface, the line is displayed red.

 

      ·    When you want to connect the lines to enclose the deck, a blue line indicates where the final line connects to enclose the shape.

 

Note 

 

You may want to trace the entire shape of the deck such that it is a closed shape. The information box informs you when the shape is closed. See Figure 7.

 

The information box includes the following information:

 

      ·    The length of the deck side in units of feet and inches

 

      ·    If the deck is not perpendicular to the drawing surface, the box indicates the angle away from perpendicular, in increments of fifteen degrees.

 

      ·    When the structure is a closed shape

 

      iii. Complete the shape and left click. Once the shape is enclosed the 3-D image of the deck is rendered.

 

 

You may also choose to trace an incomplete shape when you are drawing a deck.  To do this:

 

1.   Draw at least 2 sides of the deck in the same manner as described above.

 

2.   Right click or double left click to render the deck as a 3D image. The last deck edge will be drawn as a straight edge from the last left click to the starting position.

 

 

Figure 7: Closed Shape Message