In this lesson I will explain to you what the so-called Room Object. It is an element that occupies a real space inside an object, so it is often identified with rooms. It is for this reason that the functions for working with this type of object are in a separate section, and I will use the opportunity to click on the button with the inscription Room and start the function of the same name. I could achieve the same effect via the keyboard by pressing the R and M keys. At that moment, an icon representing the Tag on Placement option will appear at the end of the palette, and since it is active for me, I can move the cursor to the free surface of the screen and I show the symbol that will be used when marking the rooms. As you can see, it is composed of two elements, where the blue frame represents the perimeter, while the smaller rectangle with the inscription is intended for the name and tag of the room (Tag). If I turn off this option in one go, the new room will not get any label, which in some cases is a satisfactory solution. I will however opt for the normal mode where Tags are used and turn this option back on. If after that I return to the drawing and press the left mouse button, a new element will appear on the screen, but at the same time, a warning will be displayed, which draws my attention to the fact that the program was not able to correctly determine the boundaries of the future room. To explain what it’s really about, I’m going to cancel this function by selecting the Modify button and cancel the current selection with one click. At that moment, the warning will disappear from the screen and with it the frame that represented the new room. On the other hand, its mark will still be visible, which confirms that I have inserted a new element into the drawing. If I move the cursor towards it and press the left mouse button, I will be able to select the entire symbol again, which means that some parts of it were only temporarily removed from the screen.

Before I continue, I’ll press Control and Z to undo the previous step and remove the element I used as an illustration. After that I can run the Room function again and place the cursor inside one of the existing rooms. As you can see, the program will automatically determine its boundaries, and if I press the left mouse button, a completely new mark will appear on the drawing. If I mark the next room in the same way, the program will make sure that these marks are aligned, which makes their positioning much easier. On the other hand, if I place the cursor in the middle of the object, the program will not be able to determine clear boundaries, so the other rooms will be treated as a whole, which I cannot allow. Before I tackle this problem, I’ll take the opportunity to point out the rooms that are not so complicated, and these two bathrooms and storage rooms belong to that group. The same applies to the smaller units located next to the entrance, so I just need to press the left mouse button a few times and complete this part of the job.

Before I go any further, I need to cancel the current function by selecting the Modify button and look for an icon called Room Separator in the palette. It allows me to manually set appropriate boundaries and thus separate individual rooms. To that end, it is enough to click on the points located at the opposite corners and draw a line that clearly separates the upper part of the living room. After that, I have to press the Esc key because I need a completely new line to separate the corridor, and if I repeat the same process two more times, all future rooms will be clearly demarcated.

Since the lines I just drew act as room separations, it won’t be difficult for me to run the Room function again and check if the program will be able to distinguish between them. This is obviously not a problem, so to mark the remaining rooms I can use the function Place Rooms Automatically and complete the whole operation in one go. In this case, a total of 6 new rooms were found, so I have no choice but to select the Close button to remove this notification.

Applying the function Place Rooms Automatically is undoubtedly the fastest way to mark all rooms, but you cannot influence their order and some other problems may occur. More specifically, in this case, the program automatically marked the space that actually represents a vertical shaft for the placement of installations, and that was certainly not necessary. To correct this error, I will first terminate the current function by selecting the Modify button and then click on the redundant element. At this point, I would like to remind you that the rectangular frame and the name of the room represent independent elements, which means that I will need help in the form of multiple presses of the Tab key for the correct selection. Only then will I be able to select the complete mark and possibly remove it from the drawing.

To make it clearer to you what it is actually about, I will use as an example the mark that belongs to the central room, because with it I can very easily hit one of the diagonals and thus select the entire object. The same applies to any of the marked rooms, but if its dimensions are too small, you will have to use special tricks, to use the Tab key.

In any case, as soon as you successfully select the desired element, you will be able to see its characteristics. They are displayed in the Properties section, and since I just selected one of the rooms, it won’t be difficult for me to go down a little further and display additional information. As you can see, on this table you can easily see the area and perimeter of the selected room, its name and numerical code, as well as other less important data. On the other hand, if I select only the label, completely different information will be displayed on the left side. In fact, the label does not have any special characteristics because all the important data is in the element that represents the room and the label is only one of them. To prove it to you, I will click on one of the diagonals and look for the field called Number in the table. After that, it will not be difficult for me to enter a completely new value instead of the automatically generated number, 102. In the same way, I can change the next parameter (Name) and instead of the general name Room, enter something more specific, Living room. If I then click the Apply button, these changes will be transferred to the drawing which means I have successfully completed another operation.

Although there is a direct connection between the object representing the room and its label, it can be broken at any time. To prove it to you, I will remove the name and number of the room from the living room in one move, and the program will remind me that it is still present. Unfortunately, if I deselect the free surface by clicking, there will be nothing left in the drawing that could indicate that there is still an object there. Nevertheless, if I place the cursor again inside the living room, the characteristic diagonals will immediately appear on the screen, so it will not be difficult for me to click on one of them and display all the accompanying information.

If it turns out that deleting a tag was a mistake, you can easily put it back in place. It is enough to look for the Tag Room function in the Architecture section, click on the icon of the same name and mark the appropriate room with the mouse. The program will automatically download all the necessary data from the memory and re-generate the appropriate label.

I have already drawn your attention to the fact that the program can make mistakes when automatically determining rooms, which is why it happened that even the shaft for installations has a special label. It is admittedly not difficult to remove, but I would not want any superfluous element to remain in that place. Since the box that represents the room is directly connected to the label, I will use a little trick for the selection. Namely, if I select the mark itself with one click, an icon representing the Select Host function will appear on the palette, and if I click on it, the program will automatically include the rest of the room in the selection. This method can make it much easier for you to select elements that have relatively small dimensions, so I will first click on the number that indicates the location of the installation pane and then start the Select Host function. After that, it won’t be difficult for me to clear the entire facility in one go and remove the extra room. Program will draw my attention to the fact that there is still some information related to this element, but I will not go into it at this time.

Instead, I’ll use the rest of this lesson to show you how you can solve a smaller problem, such as unfavorable position of the mark. At the moment, the worst situation for me is in the kitchen, because the room label is placed very close to the existing elements, so it is difficult to read. Fortunately, this can be corrected very easily, so for that purpose I will first select the mark itself with one click and then move it to a free part of the drawing. In doing so, I will be able to match its position with similar elements because the program will automatically offer me the most favorable location. The same principle applies to all rooms, so I will take the opportunity to move the marker in the living room as well, because it seems to me that it should be at the same height. For moving, it is best to use this quadruple arrow, although it is possible to achieve the same result by choosing another element.

The same principle applies to the diagonals that mark the room itself. You can also move them to a more favorable location by selecting the same quadruple arrow. I will do my best to match the position of the diagonals in the kitchen with the mark and thus complete this drawing.

The second thing I wanted to show you is about changing the content of the tags themselves. This can be achieved in several ways, and on this occasion I will show you the simplest one, which involves selecting the appropriate element and directly entering new data. On this occasion, I will mark the corridor with the number 101 and immediately correct its name, enter Entry instead of Room. This will be immediately reflected in the drawing, which means that the task has been successfully completed.