Sketch - Draw

Drawing the Sketch

The Sketch section holds a sketch or floor plan of the dwelling, and the standard it was measured to. For a condo, that's the unit itself, not the whole building. In this lesson, we'll draw it right here in DataMaster. Open it from the section list.

We're providing one

Sketch or Floor Plan Provided is the one question that's always required. We're providing a sketch, so answer Yes, and the rest of the section appears. Measurement Standard is how the areas were measured: ANSI, AMS, or Other, for example when state law requires a different standard. ANSI is the standard most appraisers measure to, and the one we use here, so choose ANSI. Any ANSI declarations the measurements need go in Sketch Commentary. We don't have any, so it stays empty. My Sketches holds what you draw here. Click Start new sketch.

What we're drawing

The editor fills the screen. Name the sketch up here: Floor Plan. For this course, we'll draw a simple plan made from the unit's recorded living area: two levels, each 21 feet by 35, for 1,470 square feet in all. On your own report, you'd draw what you measured. Parking here is in an open lot, so there's no garage to draw.

One area per level

Start with the first floor. Pick Rect, then drag from one corner to the opposite corner: 21 feet by 35. When you let go, the area's details open. Name it First Floor. Effect on Square Footage is Add, so it counts toward the total, and it's Level 1, Above Grade, and Finished, which is right for this unit. Save the area. The bottom bar reads 735 square feet, and the editor has already saved it. There's no save button to remember. The second floor has the same footprint, so it goes beside the first. This time, let's type the lengths instead of dragging. Pick the Area tool, and click where the outline starts. Press the Right arrow to aim the line, type 21, and press Enter. Press Down, type 35, and press Enter. Then press Left, type 21, and press Enter. Press Control K, or Command K on a Mac, and the editor closes the outline, square. Name it Second Floor, and set its Level to Level 2. Save it. The total is now 1,470 square feet: the living area this report carries.

Lay out the rooms

Press F to fit the whole drawing on the screen. Then the Wall tool draws interior walls: click one end, click the other, and press Escape. Walls divide the picture, but they don't change any figures. Here are the rest, on both floors. The Label tool names the rooms: click, type, and press Enter. We'll add the rest of the rooms the report lists: the dining room, kitchen, stairs, laundry, and half bath downstairs, then the two bedrooms, stairs, and full bath upstairs.

Check it and finish

That's the unit. Click Close. Your work is already saved. The sketch now has a card under My Sketches, with a thumbnail, each area's square footage, and the totals by grade and finish. It reads 1,470 finished above grade, which agrees with the living area we report. The checkbox next to the name is what puts a sketch in the report. A new sketch starts checked, so this one's already in. Turn on Show figures on sketch to print those totals under the drawing. To see how it will print, open Preview from the right-hand rail. There are both levels on the report page, just as we drew them.

Dwelling Exterior

That completes the Sketch section. Next, Dwelling Exterior.