How to Add Exterior Finishes to Your 3D Floor Plan

If you are working on a custom home, full home renovation, or outdoor renovation, your exterior design is a key part of the project. Using the 3D floor planner, you can start to bring this vision to life by adding windows, doors, exterior cladding materials, outdoor surfaces, furniture and more.

Please Note: While we are always adding more features, you are not able to adjust roofing materials or create elevation drawings at this time.

Getting Started

Before you update the exterior part of the home, it's important to build out the walls to create the external structure. To do this, use the Draw Wall tool in the toolbar at the top of your 3D floor plan. Read How to Create a 3D Floor Plan and How to Create Accurate Wall Lengths to learn more about getting started.

Once your walls are built, you are ready to start updating the exterior.

Add Windows and Doors

You can add windows and doors to your 3D floor plan in both Floor Plan and Dollhouse mode, though Floor Plan is a little easier for proper placement.

To access all the door and window options, click the Structures icon in the right menu, then select Doors or Windows from the dropdown.

There are a wide variety or door and window styles to choose from. For doors, you can select interior and exterior doors, single or double doors, sliding glass doors, barn doors and more. For windows, you can select picture windows, bay windows, sliding windows, double hung windows and more.

Click on your preferred door or window to add it to your floor plan.

Once your door or window is on the floor plan, you can adjust the placement by clicking and dragging the product. If you need a precise measurement from the product to the wall, you can change the measurement number directly on the floor plan to move it. You can also duplicate, flip or delete the product by selecting the relevant icon on your floor plan.

On the right side of your screen, you can adjust the product dimensions, as well as change the product finish/paint colour and hardware finish (if relevant). For windows, you can also adjust the window distance from the floor.

Continue to add the relevant windows and doors as needed. Once they are added, you can view them in Dollhouse mode to make sure the placement, finish and overall design looks good.

Add Exterior Cladding

After adding windows and doors, you can then select the relevant exterior cladding. There are a wide variety of cladding materials, including brick, concrete, metal cladding, stone, wood cladding and paint. You can even customise the paint colour for each material so it better reflects your design.

To access your exterior material options, click the relevant exterior wall in Dollhouse mode, then select Wall Style Material in the right menu. If you want to apply a material to multiple exterior walls at once, hold down the Shift key, then select all the relevant walls.

The Materials Library will appear. Select the dropdown menu at the top, then select Walls (Exterior) to find the cladding options. Choose the preferred material from the menu to view the colour and design choices. Once you find the style you like, click on it to view it directly on your 3D floor plan.

If you would like to customise the cladding colour instead of selecting from the available options, you can select one of the Customisable Paint options at the top of the cladding list (as shown below). You will then be able to choose from our extensive paint list to find the perfect colour.

To quickly find a material that you've already used in the current floor plan, select In This Floor Plan from the Materials dropdown. You'll see all the materials recently used in the floor plan so you can easily use them over and over again.

Material Settings

To change the settings of a material applied to your exterior wall(s), click the customise icon next to the material in the Wall Style section of the right panel. If you're still in the Materials Library, exit out using the X in the top right. Once your Material Settings are open, you can change the following (where applicable):

• Dimensions: Adjust the dimensions of the individual pieces of the material. This includes length and width, for materials like shingles or brick, and plank width, for materials like board and batten or vertical cladding.
• Finish: Choose from Matte, Semi-Gloss or High Gloss.
• Rotation: Adjust the angle of rotation using the slider or by typing in a degree.
• Horizontal Shift: Adjust where the material starts or ends by shifting it horizontally (left or right).
• Vertical Shift: Adjust where the material starts or ends by shifting it vertically (up or down).

For materials with length and width settings, the aspect ratio is locked by default. This means if you adjust one measurement, the other will automatically adjust accordingly to maintain the original, uniform shape of the material. To allow non-uniform scaling of materials, click the lock to the right so it's unlocked, then make adjustments as desired.

Pro tip: To present a truly professional and accurate design to your client, use the horizontal and vertical shift settings to line up your materials correctly, like with the corners of the walls or around windows and doors.

Edit or Delete Exterior Siding

If you already added exterior cladding and would like to change it or delete it, click on the wall(s) you want to adjust. Select the current material selection under Wall Style Material to open up the Materials Library and adjust. Select the bin icon to delete the current material selection and start from scratch.

Add Outdoor Surfaces

To expand your 3D design, you can build out the home exterior with outdoor surfaces like decking, grass, paving and more. At this time, raised decking and porches, as well as detailed landscaping, are not available.

To create an outdoor surface, click the Draw Wall dropdown in the 3D floor plan toolbar at the top of your screen. Select Draw Outdoors and draw lines to create the outline of the space.

To adjust the surface material, click the relevant space in Floor Plan or Dollhouse mode, then select Surface Style Material in the right menu.

The Materials Library will appear. Select the dropdown menu at the top, then select Outdoor Landscaping to find the landscaping options. Choose the preferred material from the menu to view the colour and design choices. Once you find the style you like, click on it to view it directly on your 3D floor plan.

To learn more details about building outdoor surfaces, including grass, paving, decking and more, read How to Create Outdoor Surfaces on the 3D Floor Planner.

Add Garden Furniture

Finally, you can complete the look of your outdoor space by adding garden furniture in either Floor Plan or Dollhouse mode.

To find garden furniture, click the Generic Products icon in the right menu, then select Garden Products. Click on the product to add it directly to the floor plan. Once added, you can rotate, duplicate, and change the colour and/or finishes.