0005 Savannah Central - Measuring Up

(Note - my posts are sometimes delayed for a day or so in case I want to change something)

It's Friday!  Only two more working days until Monday.  The little woman went to bed early, as did the children, so its quite time here in the basement.  The radiant heater is on so my toes don't freeze and I've got a big glass of ice water.  Let's draw.

 The first thing we'll do is create a DIMENSIONS ROOM layer, turn off the track generator and leave the color black.

 This is also a great way to check your dimensions again!  We start by saving the room drawing again.

 We'll make our hash lines and draw in the lines and arrows on the East wall.  Using 2.5" type I record the line length.  If I did everything right the arrow lines will match the length of the wall lines.  Why not just use the line length option?  The dimensions can't be turned off by layer like hand drawing can, and they are too small to read.

 See?  I told you that this was a good way to find errors!  My room is 3" longer than the other side, so it is not square.  This is a VERY common problem and the reason I use the 2" to the wall rule of never putting anything within 2" of the wall.  I'll have to make some adjustments and remeasure the room.

 Ok, we've got the South wall complete.  Let's move on to the West wall.

 Now let's dimension the bay window wall.  There is a built in bookcase and cabinets here, which are really nice for my many train books so we aren't going to build here.  All of the dimensions are not critical.

This is a bad picture, but it gives you the general idea.  I'm working to move all my Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette magazines to these shelves.  I have them all!!!

 Once we get the North wall done, we have all the dimensions completed.  Great!  The room measures to the drawing and everything has been checked twice.  We are ready to track plan!

One last quick check.  We'll turn off the DIMENSIONS ROOM layer and see if any were set to the wrong layer by accident, which happens often when you move things around.  Looks like we are good.

Oh, my buddy Thayne sent his electrician friend over yesterday to see how much it would take to get a large 4 lamp room light installed so that I can get better lighting.  The price was excellent, so we'll do that Sunday.

Next stop...railroad design!