---
title: Creating Floors and Rooms
category: Floor Plans
tags: floor plans, floors, rooms, blocks, grid, coordinates
contextKey: floorPlans.creatingFloorsAndRooms
micro: Add floors and room blocks, then shape them into useful story spaces.
quickTitle: Creating floors and rooms
quickSummary: Build a plan by adding floors, placing location blocks, resizing them and using grid coordinates to keep the layout clear.
screenshot:
---

# Overview

Start a Floor Plan by creating the broad container: a house, office, school or other story location. Then add floors and place blocks for the rooms, corridors, gardens and other spaces that matter.

The plan does not need to be perfect on the first pass. Start rough, make the important rooms clear, and refine the layout as the story asks more of it.

# Floors And Levels

Each floor has a Level value. Level controls vertical order:

- Deep Basement can be `-2`
- Basement can be `-1`
- Ground Floor is usually `0`
- First Floor is usually `1`
- Second Floor is usually `2`

Stairs use Level to find the floor above or below. Negative levels are allowed.

# Grid Size

Grid width controls how many columns the floor has. Grid height controls how many rows it has. Increase them when you need more drawing space.

The visible grid uses friendly coordinates: columns are labelled A, B, C and so on, while rows are labelled 1, 2, 3 and so on. PlotDirector stores coordinates internally in its own way, but you do not need to worry about that.

# Adding Blocks

Use Add block to place a Location on the active floor. You can use an existing child Location or create a new room/location as you add the block.

Choose a block type to give it the right visual role:

- Room for normal rooms
- Corridor for halls and passages
- Open Space for courtyards or large open areas
- Exterior for gardens, drives or outdoor spaces
- Stairs for staircase spaces
- Other for anything that does not fit neatly

Size presets give you a useful starting point. You can resize manually afterwards.

# Moving And Resizing

Drag a block to move it. Use the resize handle to change its width and height. You can also edit the selected block's X, Y, width and height values directly.

X uses the grid column letters. Y uses the grid row numbers. Width and height tell PlotDirector how many grid squares the block occupies.

# Complex Room Shapes

If your room is not a neat rectangle, do not fight the grid. Add another block, link it to the same Location, and place it beside the first one. PlotDirector treats the two blocks as the same room and hides the internal join where they touch.

This is useful for L-shaped drawing rooms, long corridors, irregular lounges, split halls or any room that needs more than one rectangle to read properly.

# Deleting

Deleting a block removes it from the plan. It does not delete the linked Location. Deleting a floor removes the blocks on that floor, so check before confirming.

# Related Guides

- [Reference Floors, Backgrounds and Grid Guides](/Help/Article/floorPlans.referenceFloorsBackgroundsAndGrid)
- [Floor Plan Best Practices](/Help/Article/floorPlans.bestPractices)
