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What is a Floor Plan? |
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A floor plan is a drawing that shows a room from above, making everything look flat. Floor plans are created on a small size, so an entire room or floor can fit on one piece of paper (or computer screen). Shrinking the size in a drawing is called "drawing to scale." The "scale" refers to how the small drawing relates to the actual size in real life. A common scale is 1/4-inch equals 1 foot. In the classroom floor plan to the right, the scale is listed as 1/4 inch equals 1 foot. This means that if a wall is drawn 6 inches long in the floor plan, it is 24 feet long in real life. That length (24 feet) is shown as a dimension line in the floor plan. Other dimension lines may show the lengths of windows, the distances from walls to windows, and so on. Dimension lines help builders see how big the room actually is. Architects draft ("draw") floor plans by hand, with a pencil, ruler, and graph paper, or by computer with computer-aided design (CAD) software. If something is drafted at the same size as it is in real life, it is called "full scale." Floor plans can also be quite large, like those for a subway system, and floor plans may even be printed on blue paper, as seen in construction sites! |
The above picture is a floor plan, drafted to 1/4"=1' scale, with dimensions shown. |
Click here to see examples of floor plans. |
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