Flooring and Ceiling are BIM object types for finish floors and false ceilings. Draw them as a freeform outline or as an offset strip along a sketched path, then set their type and thickness in the Properties panel. Flooring also takes tags and an Area Type, and carries a space's tags through Sketch to BIM and into Revit.

Before you start

Flooring and Ceiling are drawn in BIM Mode. BIM Mode is available on the Pro, Organization and Enterprise plans.
Flooring is not the same as Floor Slab. Floor Slab is the structural slab. Flooring is the finish floor that sits on top of it. In older projects and earlier help articles, Floor Slab may appear as Slab and Flooring as Floor.
When you convert spaces with Sketch to BIM (in the BIM Mode toolbar), Snaptrude creates Flooring for you. Draw Flooring by hand for extra floor areas, such as a zone with a different finish.

Draw flooring or a ceiling

Switch to BIM Mode.
Pick a draw tool from the top toolbar: Line (L), Arc (A), Circle or Rectangle (R). The Object Type Panel appears.
In the Object Type Panel, choose Flooring or Ceiling.
Pick a type from the type dropdown, for example Generic Floor or Generic Ceiling.
Set the thickness with the slider, or type a value.
Choose a draw mode: freeform or one of the offset modes (Center, External or Internal). The next two sections cover each mode.

Tip: For a ceiling, switch to the 2D plan view of the story you want before you draw. It is easier to trace room outlines in plan.

Draw in freeform mode

Use freeform mode to draw the full outline of a floor or ceiling area.

Select freeform mode.
Click on the canvas to place each corner of the outline. To draw exact sizes, type a dimension while you draw.
Close the outline to create the object.

Tip: To close the outline quickly, double-click the last vertex before the start point.

Draw in offset mode

Offset modes make a strip of a set width along the path you sketch. This works well for bands of a different finish or material with a precise width.

Select Center, External or Internal. This sets which side of your sketched line the strip grows on.
Enter the offset width.
Sketch the path on the canvas. You can type dimensions as you go.
Press Enter to finish.

Edit type, thickness and other properties

Select the flooring or ceiling.
Open the Properties tab in the right panel.
To change the type, open the type dropdown and pick one from the list.
To change the thickness, use the slider or type a value. The thickness is the total of the type's construction layers. Changing it resizes only the structure layer.
Check the other details the panel shows, such as area, volume and story.

Flooring and ceilings also support custom properties, and they keep a changelog, like floor slabs and roofs. In projects with more than one building, use the Properties panel to move an object to a different building.

For further shape edits, use the standard editing tools, such as Push/pull, Copy/Array (C), Rotate (Q), Flip and Draw Void (V). To split a floor or ceiling into separate pieces, use the Offset tool (F): click an edge, then move the cursor or type a distance. The Offset tool does not work on objects whose edges you have already edited, and it has limits on objects with voids.

Add tags to flooring

Flooring uses the same tag system as spaces. Use tags to record things like department or phase. Tags follow the floor into Color Mode and Revit export.

Select the flooring.
In the Properties tab, find the tags section and pick a value for each Tag Category, or create a new one.

Tag Categories and values are shared between spaces and flooring. A category you create on flooring also appears on spaces, and the reverse.
Sketch to BIM copies each space's tags onto the Flooring it creates. Custom program columns are not shown after conversion, but their data stays linked to the flooring and exports to Revit rooms.
When Color Mode is set to a tag category, flooring gets the matching tag color.
When you export to Revit, custom tag values on flooring become Room parameters. Default tag values are not exported.

For more on Tag Categories, values and tag-based selection, see Working with Tags.

Set how flooring counts toward area

Flooring has an Area Type setting, just like spaces, so BIM and massing models give the same area totals.

Select the flooring.
In the Properties tab, set Area Type to Net, Gross or Excluded.

This controls how the floor counts in the Areas tab of the right panel and in program reports.

Floor Slabs and Roofs (Flat and Sloped)
Sketch to BIM
Working with Tags
Construction Layers and Custom Properties
Push/Pull, Edit and Edit Length
Buildings and Stories
Export Snaptrude to Revit

Flooring and Ceilings