How to use the surface tool

Using the Surface Tool to draw wall tiling or floor covering

Draw a surface

Complete the following steps to draw wall tiling:

1. Open an Elevation area and remove all Display Settings that may clutter your surface drawing.
   
   
2. In the Work Area toolbar, make sure the Item Snap and Ortho Mode buttons are activated.
   
   
3. In the Items ribbon, select Surface
   
   
4. On the Elevation, select the starting point of the surface area.
   
   
5. Select all remaining points on the surface. The selected area is identified with a bright green line.
   
   
6. Right-click when you are finished drawing the closed shape of the surface area.
   
   
   
   
7. The Attributes dialog box opens and displays the dimension of the surface in square feet. In the Texture field, select the tiling that you want to use.
   Note: You can rename the surface by changing the User Code field.
   
   
8. Click OK to close the Attributes dialog box.
   The following figure provides an example of ceramic tiles drawn behind a cooking surface in an elevation area.
   
   
   
   The following figure provides an example of the rendered wall elevation with ceramic tiles.
   
   

Floor Surfaces

Floor surfaces are drawn using the same method, except snap points may not be as crucial, depending on your layout.

Editing a surface

Complete the following steps to edit a wall or floor surface:

1. Point to the surface, right-click, and select Edit in the surface menu.
   
   
2. Point to the surface again, right-click, and select Move, Rotate or Add Point.
   
   
3.  If you select Add Point, you can move the added point around the surface lines and then click to set the position.
   
       To change the surface shape, select a point (green square) and move it.
4. Once the editing of the surface is completed, click on Accept Changes.