Appearance
Finishes aspect
Use the Finishes aspect to assign materials to the house: plaster, paint, cladding, flooring, ceiling finishes, and stair finishes. Finish authoring is role- and target-based; it is not a paintbrush that changes one surface at a time.
Prerequisites
- Open Plans and select the storey you want to work on.
- Draw the shell or place rooms in Shell. An empty model has no rooms, walls, or openings to finish.
- A finish can be previewed without a complete cost profile, but its quantities and estimate stay unresolved until the required rate information exists.
How do I change a wall finish?
- Open the Finishes aspect.
- In Common finishes, choose the relevant group: Exterior, Interior, or Stairs.
- Select the role row for the wall surface. The row shows its current choice and coverage.
- Choose a finish swatch and inspect the preview.
- Apply the choice using the visible Apply action.
The role applies to every matching surface on the current scope. It does not change wall geometry, wall thickness, or the structural wall type. Change those in the Wall tool.
How do I finish a room?
- Open Finishes → Rooms.
- Choose Room type to target rooms by type, or Specific room to search for one room.
- Select the room or room type.
- Choose the surface row: Floor, Walls, or Ceiling.
- Choose a finish, review the coverage, and click Apply.
Use Specific room when one bedroom or other named space needs an exception to the room-type default.
How do I finish doors and windows?
- Open Finishes → Doors & windows.
- Check the doors or windows to target.
- Choose a compatible finish role, or choose Unchanged or Clear.
- Set Apply to to This selection, All doors on this level, or All windows on this level.
- Review the affected openings in the panel, then use the central decision dock in the viewport to Preview consequences and Apply.
This changes the selected opening finish material. It does not choose the opening style, hardware, certification, or add missing grill geometry; edit those through the relevant door or window workflow.
What does Preview mean?
The selected swatch is a temporary candidate until Apply succeeds. The central decision dock holds staged choices for surfaces, openings, railings, and future finish families. Preview shows which surfaces or openings the choice will affect and helps expose overrides or conflicts before they become part of the model's finish state.
Railing changes follow the same flow: choose an infill, purpose, or profile value, review the staged preview in the central dock, then Apply or Discard without changing the model first.
Where do finishes end up?
Applied finishes flow into the finish schedule, quantities and estimate, and the 3D House view. Schedules and estimates can still flag a finish as missing, conflicting, or unpriced; a material choice alone is not a completed cost assumption.
Why is Apply disabled?
Usually there is no valid target, no finish choice, or the current choice is unavailable for the selected role. Select a target and a compatible swatch, then review the preview. If the panel reports a conflict or missing rate, resolve that finding in the panel or review it in Schedules and Quantities and BoQ.
What do the panel readings mean?
| Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Coverage | The matching surfaces or openings and their area/count |
| Default | The finish a role falls back to when no more specific choice exists |
| Current | The applied choice already in the model |
| Preview | The temporary candidate before Apply |
| Installed rate | The rate entered for the finish, if available |
| Installed cost · before GST | The rolled-up cost before the configured GST assumption |
| Unresolved | A missing, conflicting, or unpriced decision that still needs review |
Related
- Plan aspects — how aspects work
- Facade — the outside of the house in 3D
- Quantities and BoQ — where finish cost lands
- Schedules — the finish schedule