The starter house
CreaBIM opens on the Maple Lane House, a two-storey family house with a single-storey kitchen wing. It is a complete small project: the model, the drawings made from it and a set of sheets ready to print. Nothing in it is special. It is built with the same tools you have, so you can take it apart to see how it works, or change it and watch the drawings follow. To get it back, use File › New starter house.
What is in the model
- Levels: Foundation (-800), Ground Floor (±0) and First Floor (+3000). See Levels.
- Grids A–E and 1–3, which the dimensions measure from. See Grids.
- Walls built from layered assemblies: white render or timber cladding on insulation and block, with stud partitions upstairs. The walls join at corners and tees. The first-floor walls follow the roof up into the gables. See Walls.
- Doors and windows that share types, with frames. Some are flipped to open the other way. A plain opening joins the kitchen to the living room. See Doors and windows.
- A curtain wall: the three-bay garden glazing in the kitchen wing, with a door in its middle bay. It cuts its own opening in the north wall. See Curtain walls.
- Floors: an insulated ground slab, a concrete first floor with a hole for the service riser, and paving for the terrace, the loggia steps and the front path. See Slabs.
- A stair turning at a landing, with a handrail and a balustrade. A shaft cuts the stair well through the first floor. See Stairs and railings.
- Roofs: a slate gable roof at 35°, a green flat roof over the wing and the terrace, and a zinc canopy over the front door. See Roofs.
- Structure: a steel column at the loggia corner that rises through both floors, two terrace posts, and steel beams under the balcony and along the eaves. See Columns and beams.
- Footings: concrete strips under the walls and pads under the columns. See Footings.
- Furniture and fixtures from the catalogue in every room: kitchen units, sofas, beds, a bath and WCs, sockets, switches, lights, radiators and a boiler. See Furniture and fixtures and Electrical, plumbing and HVAC fixtures.
- Rooms: sixteen of them, from 0.01 Study to 1.07 Balcony, with their finishes and occupancy. Their areas follow the walls. The loggia, terrace and balcony have drawn outlines. See Rooms.
- Ceilings: plasterboard over the first-floor rooms, which the partitions stop at, and a suspended tile ceiling over the WC, store and utility room. See Ceilings.
The drawings
The project browser lists the views. Each one is made from the model, so it updates as soon as you change something.
- Plans of the ground floor, the first floor, the foundation and the roof. They show room tags with each room's name, number and area, tags on every door and window, and chains of dimensions. See Dimensions and Tags.
- Sections A-A through the stair and B-B through the loggia and the wing. See Sections and elevations.
- Elevations of all four sides, shaded.
- 3D views from the street and from the garden.
- Schedules of doors, windows, walls, structure, furniture, fixtures and rooms. See Schedules.
The sheets
The Sheets group holds a set of drawings like one sent for planning permission. Each sheet has the project's own title block, filled in with the job, the client and the status. See Sheets.
- A000 Cover, with the garden view and the drawing list
- A101 Ground Floor Plan and A102 First Floor Plan, 1:50
- A103 Foundation Plan, 1:50, and A104 Roof Plan, 1:100
- A201 Section A-A and A202 Section B-B, 1:50
- A301 Elevations, 1:100
- A501 Details: section C-C at 1:25 and three details at 1:10
- A601 and A602 Schedules, and A603 Room Schedule
- A901 3D Views
Things to try
- Select a wall in the 3D view and drag its end. The floors, the dimensions and the room around it follow in every view.
- Pick a window and pick another type in the Type picker in Properties. Its tag and the window schedule change too.
- Print the whole set with File › Sheets as PDF. See Save and export.
- Right-click a roof in the 3D view and pick Hide category in view to look inside. See Visibility and X-ray.
- Export the house with File › IFC4 (.ifc) and open it in another program. See IFC.
Tip: The room tags read from the rooms, so when you move a wall the area in the tag and in the room schedule changes with it. Create › Check doorways lists any furniture or fixture standing in a doorway or a door's swing; the starter house has none.