Appearance
Room tool
Shortcut: R
Toolbar: Draw group
Place a sized room on the active level. Jodu creates the room space and its supporting geometry; this is the space-first alternative to drawing every wall manually.
Prerequisites
- An active level in Plans.
- A room preset selected in the Room placement panel.
Plot dimensions are useful context but are not required for room placement.
How do I place a room?
- Press R or choose Room in the Draw group.
- Choose the room Type and size in the Room placement panel.
- Click an empty area of the canvas to propose the entered width × length there, or drag to set the footprint yourself. A proposed room appears as a dashed outline.
- Press Enter or choose Place. Esc or Cancel discards it.
The preset dimensions are used when a drag is too small to give a meaningful size. To enter an exact footprint, type it in the width × length fields before you click.
How do I place a room next to another?
- With the Room tool, click just beside an existing room. The proposed room snaps against it — the panel says Snapped flush to the adjacent room — so the two rooms share that wall.
- Drag the proposed room to slide it along the shared wall. Dropped near a wall, it snaps flush again. Other stack positions offers the other sides of the neighbour (Left, Above, Below).
- Press Enter or choose Place.
Snapping guarantees the shared wall, not that the two rooms' ends line up; slide the proposed room to where you want it before placing.
Room shapes
Two drawing methods share the placement panel, chosen under Rectangle / Polygon at the top:
- Rectangle — drag on the canvas, or click to place the entered width × length.
- Polygon — click each corner in order; an L-shaped room needs six clicks. Click the first point again, or press Enter, to create it. Press Esc to discard the outline.
Width × length fields and Swap belong to Rectangle. A polygon takes its size from the corners you click.
Size precedence before you place anything: choosing a room type with a catalog size preset adopts that preset only when you have not entered a custom size; picking a size preset explicitly replaces the custom width × length with the preset's dimensions; changing only the type keeps the dimensions you typed. Types without a size preset keep the current dimensions and say so. An already placed room is never silently resized.
Editing a placed room
Select the room to open its properties. Changing its size has two separate routes:
- Open-edge footprint — the Width and Depth fields. Wall-backed edges stay put; edges with no wall behind them expand or contract. This is the exact numeric route for an open footprint, and it is offered only for a rectangular room.
- Adjust boundary — moves one wall-backed edge to an exact clear distance and reviews the affected neighbouring rooms before anything changes. It needs a straight wall edge with a single parallel wall directly across the room. Shared walls that continue past the room, curved or virtual edges, and outlines with more than one wall straight across stay unavailable; the button is disabled and shows why.
- Divide room — splits a rectangular room in two along a clear depth from a chosen edge. The maximum depth is shown for that edge, and the original room keeps its identity on one side. The line must be clean: furniture or fixtures crossing it block the split until they are moved clear.
Rooms from walls you already drew
If walls already enclose an area, you do not need to draw it again. The enclosed region appears on the plan as a dashed Enclosed area. Click it and choose Assign room to give it a name and type — the existing walls are reused rather than duplicated. The Room placement panel notes when enclosed areas are waiting on the current level.
Why nothing happened
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Click does nothing | Room placement requires a drag | Click and drag to position the room |
| No ghost appears | No preset is selected | Choose a preset in the Room placement panel |
| Placement is blocked | The proposed room overlaps incompatible geometry | Move it to an open area or resolve the overlap |
| The room snaps to an unwanted target | Normal snapping found nearby geometry | Hold Ctrl while dragging to suppress snap for that placement |
| Adjust boundary is greyed out | No straight wall-backed edge with one parallel wall directly across the room | Read the reason under the button; move the wall with the Wall tool, or use the open-edge fields |
| Divide room is refused | Furniture or fixtures cross the partition line | Move the highlighted contents clear of the line, or pick another edge |
| An L-shaped outline will not close | Fewer than three corners, or the first point was not re-clicked | Click the first point again or press Enter |
Tips
- Mix room-first and wall-first authoring in the same plan.
- Use Polygon for L-shaped and stepped rooms instead of combining several rectangles.
- Walls that already enclose an area become a dashed Enclosed area; assign it rather than drawing the room again.
- Area labels appear for rooms that meet the display threshold; use the canvas view settings if labels are distracting.
- After placement, use Select to move or delete the room and review any merge warning before continuing.
Related
- Wall — wall-first alternative
- Select — move or delete placed rooms
- Precision input — exact room size and modifiers
- Plan workspace — full tool index