Joins
Walls, slabs, roofs, columns, beams, footings and ceilings can meet. Where they do, plans and sections clean up the junction: the overlap is drawn once, with one outline, and the layers that run through are drawn running through.
Automatic joins
You don't have to set anything. Each pair of layers that meet is compared, and the stronger layer cuts through the weaker one:
- Structure (block, concrete, timber frame) is the strongest.
- Substrate (sheathing, battens) comes next.
- Insulation, air gaps and membranes come after.
- Finishes (plaster, render, cladding) are the weakest.
A layer's function is set in its assembly. When two layers are equally strong, the kind of element decides: a column cuts a wall, and a wall cuts a slab. When the elements are of the same kind, the one drawn first wins. Two layers of the same material that meet merge into one, with no line between them.
For example, where a floor slab meets a wall, the slab's concrete runs into the wall's block and stops at its insulation. The wall's plaster stops at the slab.
Wall junctions
Walls that meet at their ends join as a corner, a T or a cross:
- Two walls meet in a mitred corner.
- Three or more walls that end at the same point make a node. The two walls that run most nearly straight through the node continue through it as one wall. The other walls stop at those walls' faces, and their structure runs on into the through walls' structure. If no two walls run straight, the thickest pair goes through.
- A wall that ends on the side of another wall makes a T.
Walls join at a node only when they are drawn to the same point. Ends that stop short of each other are left unjoined.
Corner presets
Where a wall's end meets one other wall at a corner, pick how the two join: right-click the wall near that end, Corner join, or in Properties › Junctions the row for that end.
| Preset | What it does |
|---|---|
| Auto | As the walls join by themselves: every layer meets its partner on the mitre |
| Cores lap, finishes stop | The finishes meet on the mitre; the stronger wall's core (the thicker, or the one drawn first) runs on to the far face of the other's core, and the other's core stops square against it |
| This wall runs through | Every layer of this wall runs to the other wall's far face; every layer of the other stops at this one |
| The other wall runs through | The other way round |
| Mitre every layer | Every layer on the mitre, as Auto does at a corner |
| Not joined | Both ends stay square, overlapping at the corner |
The preset is kept with the two walls, so it stays when either moves. Layer ends moved by hand (see Edit mode) are offsets from where the preset puts them.
Setting a junction by hand
Select the two elements (Shift+click the second), then right-click:
- Switch join order: the other element now cuts through where the two overlap.
- Don't clean up the junction: both elements are drawn whole, each with its own outline. Pick it again to clean the junction up.
- Join automatically: goes back to the automatic join, by layer priority.
Junctions set by hand are listed under Junctions in each element's Properties, where you can also change their order. Each change is one step for Undo.