Floor Plans & Facilities Center

HOW TO DRAW FLOOR PLANS (cont'd)

Modify the New Shape
Once your shape is complete you can modify its borders and fill color just as you would with any other shape.

Simply choose a command from the Shape Style group on the Home tab. For example, you can add a photorealistic texture to your object. SmartDraw comes with over 100 textures divided into categories like Granite, Marble, Wood, Grass, Water, Fabric, and more!

Just choose a texture using the previews or click on More Textures to bring up a dialog of the entire texture collection. You can even import your own texture for a truly custom shape and look.

Grouping Shapes to Create a New Object
Sometimes (especially when drawing your own objects) you'll want to group several shapes together into a new composite object.

Let's say you have drawn a custom sofa using a series of curves, lines, and shapes. Now you want to make it behave like a single object.

First, select all the shapes in the sofa by drawing a box around them with a mouse or by Shift clicking on each shape individually.

If you group these shapes using the Group command (under the Design tab), the sofa will act as a single unit.

You can rotate it, move it, and stretch it as one object.