Articles
Framing plan guides
Practical, plain-language guides to floor framing plans — what they are, how to read them, and how to draft one. Written for designers, builders, and drafters working on early-stage structural layouts.
Complete guides
Floor Framing Plan: The Complete Guide
Everything about floor framing plans — what they show, joist direction and spacing, bearing walls, openings, symbols, and how to draft and export one in the browser.
3 min read →Framing Plan: What It Is, Types, and How to Make One
A framing plan is a structural drawing of how a building's floors and roof are framed. Learn the types, what they show, the symbols, and how to draft one in the browser.
3 min read →Fundamentals
Floor Framing Plan vs. Floor Plan: What's the Difference?
A floor plan shows rooms and walls; a floor framing plan shows the joists, beams, and supports beneath them. Here's how the two drawings differ and how they work together.
2 min read →Load-Bearing Walls in a Floor Framing Plan: How to Identify and Mark Them
How load-bearing walls are shown on a floor framing plan, why joist direction decides which walls bear, and how to mark them — drawn in red in Framing Plan.
3 min read →What Is a Floor Framing Plan?
A floor framing plan shows joists, beams, openings, and bearing walls — distinct from an architectural floor plan. Learn what it is, what it contains, and when you need one.
4 min read →Reference
Framing Plan Symbols and Legend: What Every Mark Means
Joists, beams, columns, opening markers, bearing wall notation — every symbol on a floor framing plan explained with plain-language definitions for designers and builders.
3 min read →How to Read a Floor Framing Plan (Without an Engineering Degree)
A walkthrough of a floor framing plan from outline to annotations — joist runs, beams, bearing walls, openings, columns, and callouts — for designers and builders.
3 min read →Structural Grid and Columns in a Framing Plan: A Layout Primer
What a structural grid communicates on a framing plan — setting-out lines, bays, and columns at intersections — and how to set grid spacing in a preliminary layout.
3 min read →How-to
Exporting a Framing Plan to DXF: Layers, Format, and Workflow
What CAD layers a framing-plan DXF contains — Walls, Bearing, Joists, Beams, Grid, Columns, Openings, Elements — and how to use them downstream in AutoCAD or other CAD.
3 min read →Floor Joist Spacing Explained: 300, 400, 450, 600 mm (and 16" / 24")
What on-centre joist spacing means for a framing plan, how spacing interacts with span and stiffness, and how to represent it cleanly on the drawing.
3 min read →How to Draft a Preliminary Floor Framing Plan — Step by Step
From blank footprint to exported drawing: set the footprint, span direction, joist spacing, openings, grid, and symbols — then export to PDF or DXF. A practical walkthrough.
3 min read →Roof
Flat Roof Framing Plan: How to Lay One Out
A flat roof is framed much like a floor. How to lay out a flat roof framing plan — joist direction and spacing, falls for drainage, bearing, openings — and export it.
2 min read →Gable vs. Hip Roof Framing Plans Compared
How gable and hip roofs differ on a framing plan — ridges, hips, valleys, and bearing — and what each means for the layout you draw.
2 min read →Rafters vs. Trusses: Which Roof Framing System?
Rafters vs. trusses for roof framing — how each works, how they appear on a roof framing plan, and the trade-offs in span, speed, and attic space.
2 min read →Roof Framing Plan: The Complete Guide
What a roof framing plan shows — rafters, trusses, ridge, hips and valleys, beams and bearing — the common roof types, and how to lay one out for review.
3 min read →Roof Pitch and Slope on a Framing Plan
What roof pitch and slope mean, how they're expressed and annotated on a roof framing plan, and why low-slope roofs are framed differently from steep ones.
2 min read →Tools
Framing Plan Templates for Residential Projects: How to Start Faster
What a good framing plan template includes, when to use one, and how to adapt a residential template to your project so you start a layout in seconds, not from scratch.
2 min read →Framing Plan File Formats: PDF, PNG, and DXF Compared
When to export a framing plan as PDF, PNG, or DXF — what each format preserves, who it's for, and how to choose the right one for review, sharing, or CAD.
2 min read →Free Framing Plan Software: What to Look For (and What to Skip)
A buyer's guide to free framing plan tools — the features a framing-specific app needs that a generic floor-plan drawer lacks, and how to choose one.
2 min read →Use cases
Floor Framing Plans for a Two-Storey Home: What Changes
How floor framing differs in a two-storey home — stacked load paths, where upper-floor bearing walls land, stair openings, and drafting each level as its own plan.
2 min read →Framing Plan for a Home Addition or Room Over a Garage
How to approach a floor framing plan for an addition or a room over a garage — tying into existing structure, matching levels, and where new bearing and beams go.
2 min read →Framing Plans for Residential New Builds: A Practical Guide
How floor framing plans fit into a residential new build — from preliminary layout through engineering review — and how to draft one early to avoid costly rework.
2 min read →Second Floor Framing Plan: How to Lay Out an Upper Floor
How to lay out a second floor framing plan — joist direction and spacing, where upper-floor bearing lands on structure below, stair openings, and stacking load paths.
2 min read →