What do all these types of lines in architecture plans mean?

Enquire an Architect

What Different Line Types in Architecture & Blueprint Drawings Hateful

Thick lines, thin lines, lines with brusque or long dashes (or both!) — if you don't speak the language of all these line types, an architecture or design drawing tin be pretty mystifying. This primer on design drawing linework will requite you a starter toolkit and then you can tell what y'all're looking at.

July xvi, 2020

Dashed lines, solid lines, ones with dashes and dots, thick ones, thin ones… What do all these lines mean?

Have y'all always heard someone talk in a jumble of messages and have no idea what the heck they mean? Well, we hate using acronyms, equally they do a lot to make other people feel, well, not and then smart. No one likes feeling like they accept no idea what is going on. In the aforementioned respect, reading an architectural cartoon is something that can be incredibly confusing to people who don't know what the heck they're looking at. Merely like speaking in acronyms can sow defoliation, we've institute that when we show an architectural drawing to a customer, they ofttimes don't know what they're reading, and carrying a design concept can be muddled by the fact that they just don't quite know what they're looking at.

And then, in the interest of helping people empathise what an architecture, interior design, or landscape architecture drawing is communicating, here'south a quick primer on what those pesky lines signify. We'll notation, though, that at that place are going to be exceptions to the rules here, and non all architects are the aforementioned. Just most architects and designers are generally following these rules. We'll as well add, that if you lot don't empathize what something is y'all should absolutely feel OK asking, "What does this line mean?"

Solid Versus Dashed or Dotted Lines

The get-go and most basic rule of lines in blueprint drawings is that solid lines bespeak visible or "real" objects or surfaces, while anything drawing with dots and/or dashes indicates something that is unseen or "subconscious" from view. Lines can represent different things depending on what "view" you are looking at — for example, are yous looking at the face of one wall of your room and you run across lines that represent a window? That'south an "elevation" view. Or are you looking at the flooring and y'all can see lines that stand for all iv walls of your room? That'southward a "program" view. In both cases, the solid lines betoken the boundaries of what yous are looking at.

Solid Single Line

In a programme view, a solid unmarried line is normally something like the border of a cabinet, a floor threshold, the nosing of a stair, or the edge of a tabletop. Information technology isn't a wall (read more about what walls await like below). In an elevation view, a solid line is something that has an border or a corner, like a cabinet or a window frame or door jamb.

Solid, Single Lines – Types of lines or linetypes in architectural drawings.
Solid, Single Lines Viewed in a Floor Plan

Usually, this type of line is indicating something that is an edge, such every bit the border of a stair or the edge of a countertop.

Solid Single Lines in Elevation – Types of lines or linetypes in architectural drawings.
Solid, Single Lines in Elevation Views

Like in a program view, solid lines usually indicate things that are edges, like the border of a window or the edge of a chiffonier.

Two Solid Lines with a Hatch or Shaded Make full

This is a wall, and it only shows up like this in plan views. The hatch or shaded fill up inside the wall varies per builder or designer, and there should always be a fable that explains what that hatch or shade represents. Typically, we volition prove an existing wall with a calorie-free grey shaded fill in between the lines, and show new walls with a dark gray shaded fill in between the lines.

Solid, Paired Lines – Types of lines or linetypes in architectural drawings.
Pairs of Solid Lines with a Shaded Fill in a Floor Plan

These pairs of lines indicate walls. If there are only two lines, they indicate the surface of the wall finish on each side of the wall. If there are other, thinner lines within the hatch or shaded surface area, these can signal some of interior components that brand up the wall.

A Short-Dashed Line

In a plan view, nosotros announce a short-dashed line as something that is to a higher place what you can encounter in the rest of the drawing. A floor program is actually a representation of a house if someone basically sliced the top of your building off at iv feet in a higher place the floor, and then drew what they saw remaining. When that happens, there are things — like upper cabinets, or big, trimmed out openings in a higher place a pass-through between rooms — which you tin't see when the acme one-half of your building is cut off. To convey these things, every bit they're important to know that they're there, they are shown with a short-dashed line.

Short-Dashed Lines – Types of lines or linetypes in architectural drawings.
Short-Dashed Lines Viewed in a Floor Plan

Lines made of brusque dashes in a programme view indicate things that are overhead, or rather, over the height at which the program was "cutting" — usually things above about 4' from the floor.

Short-Dashed Lines in Elevation – Types of lines or linetypes in architectural drawings.
Curt-Dashed Lines in an Superlative View

In an acme view, these short dashed lines are usually indicating something you can't run into. In the program view, y'all couldn't see them because they were to a higher place the view plane. In an meridian view, you can't see the things because they are behind doors, or otherwise subconscious from view.

A Long-Dashed Line

A unlike type of dashed line (and it isn't always consistent between blueprint firms) can evidence things that are slightly different than a short-dashed line. In a program view, a line with long dashes is often something that is much higher above you than something that would be shown with a short-dashed line, like the eaves of a roof. These can be helpful for reference and are chosen out in a different line type than their shorter-dashed sibling.

In an elevation view, long and short-dashed lines are usually depicting dissimilar elements that are all hidden from view, like shelves behind a cabinet door and a microwave sitting on that shelf. But they can also be used to delineate spaces that are "open" and not to be dislocated with a solid wall.

Long-dashed Lines – Types of lines or linetypes in architectural drawings.
Long-Dashed Lines in a Flooring Plan

Lines composed of longer dashes as well prove things that are higher up the view, just are used to show things that are much higher, like the eave of a roof overhead.

An Alternating Long and Curt Dashed Line

This alternating long and short dashed line has a name, a centerline. This line is not "real" per se, information technology indicates the exact center of whatever it is passing through for purposes of alignment and spacing.

For example, y'all might see a centerline passing through a doorway or a toilet to betoken the location of these objects in the context of their environs. Sometimes (equally with a toilet shown in a programme drawing) it has round edges, and the symbol for it in the cartoon is a stand-in for the actual toilet. If its location is designated past the centerline of it, rather than a side edge, these small-scale variations are accounted for.

Centerlines – Types of lines or linetypes in architectural drawings.
A Line with Alternate Short and Long Dashes

These are centerlines, and they can show up either in plan or elevation views. They mark the centers of objects for the sake of locating them for structure.

In other cases, like the doorway, information technology could be that the nearly of import thing virtually the location of the doorway is that information technology is centered in the room. Indicating how far the door jamb is from the corner of the room might not stop up with the desired results, specially if the width of the opening changes during construction, whereas indicating its centerline is oriented in the room will.

This line tin can as well be accompanied past the CL symbol, which is a helpful reminder of "Middle Line" written in a fancy autograph.

A Single, Curved Line Forming Part of a Circle

This is hands the one that I near frequently forget to explain to clients and a lot of people (you're not lonely!) accept no idea what this means! It is usually fatigued as a solid line (although some architects draw information technology as a dashed line) and conveys where the door will swing. This is shown to assist convey how the door swings to the contractor and to ensure that the door, equally information technology swings, won't smack into something.

Door Swings – Types of lines or linetypes in architectural drawings.
Arrondi Lines in a Flooring Programme

These arcs are attached to the end of rectangles that represent doors. The arcs are tracing the swing of the door every bit it opens, from the edge of the door to the jamb.

Thicker vs. Thinner Lines

Is the line thin or thick or somewhere in between? Back in the proverbial day, when drawings were washed by mitt, the thickness of your lines helped convey the importance and hierarchy of what was depicted in the cartoon. As nosotros take moved into 2D and now 3D drawings, the weight of a line still conveys hierarchy. Typically, a thick line is either something closer to you (similar in an elevation or building department), or is something more principal, like the edge of a wall in a plan. A thin line is either something further away or something less important. This helps your brain understand and translate what you're seeing.

Sometimes, clients already know what they're looking at, simply — we figure — amend safe than lamentable. Besides, like nosotros said, not all design teams follow these rules exactly, and so what y'all might accept understood in years past working with another designer might not always translate perfectly. When in dubiety, just inquire. We always appreciate information technology when clients ask us questions!