Sketch - Draw

Drawing the Sketch

The Sketch section holds a sketch or floor plan of the dwelling and any outbuildings, and the standard it was measured to. In this lesson, we'll draw the sketch 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. We don't have this home's floor plan, so for this course we'll draw a simple one from the report's figures: one level, 2,137 square feet of living area, and a 400 square foot attached garage. On your own report, you'd draw what you measured.

Areas and the total

Start with the main body of the house. Pick Rect, then drag from one corner to the opposite corner: 48 feet by 40. When you let go, the area's details open. Name it Main Level. 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 house. Save the area. The bottom bar reads 1,920 square feet, and the editor has already saved it. There's no save button to remember. The family room sticks out from the side of the house, so use the Area tool, which draws any shape. Click on the wall where it starts, so the two line up exactly. Press the Right arrow to aim the line, type 15.5, and press Enter. Press Down, type 14, and press Enter. Press Control K, or Command K on a Mac, and the editor closes the outline, square. Name it Family Room, and save. The total is now 2,137 square feet: the living area this report carries.

Drawn, but not counted

Now the garage, with Rect again: 20 feet by 20, against the side of the house. A garage isn't living area, so set its Effect to None. It still prints on the sketch, in parentheses, but the total stays at 2,137.

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. The Label tool names the rooms: click, type, and press Enter. We'll add the rest of the rooms the report lists: three bedrooms, two baths, the kitchen, the dining room, and the laundry.

Check it and finish

That's the house. 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 2,137 finished above grade, which agrees with the living area we'll report in Unit Interior. 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's the Floor Plan on the report page, just as we drew it.

Dwelling Exterior

That completes the Sketch section. Next, Dwelling Exterior.