Guide

How to draw a section or elevation

A plan shows the building from above. An elevation shows a face from the side; a section shows a slice through it, revealing how floors, walls and roof are built. Both are drawn in 2D, straight from your plan.

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Elevation vs section

An elevation is what you would see standing in front of the wall: windows, doors, roof line. A section is a cut through the building, showing what is inside the walls and floors.

Start from the plan

Draw a horizontal ground line. Take widths straight from your plan and heights from your measurements: floor to ceiling, window sill and head, eaves and ridge.

Build up the layers

For a section, draw each layer with offset — e.g. 100mm block, 100mm insulation, 102mm brick. Fill each with the matching hatch.

Label it

Add leader notes for each material, dimension heights, and title it "Section A–A" or "Front elevation".

Questions

What scale for a section?

1:20 for construction details, 1:50 for a whole-building section.

Tools for this

Offset PROParallel copy at an exact distanceHatch & fills PRO27 patterns: brick, insulation, tilesLeaders PROArrow callouts with notesDimensionsLinear, angle, radius, diameterLineStraight lines with snapping

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