By now, we‘ve explored most of the things you can achieve with the Figarc library. But the last steps that we‘re going to explore will make a vast difference in turning a boring technical drawing into a visually stunning floor plan visualization.
Add floor textures
If you haven‘t noticed by now, Figarc has a collection of seamless floor textures that you can apply as styles to layers. Each texture is semi-transparent, which makes it flexible enough to be used over any color.
Figma doesn‘t yet support textures as variables, so the workaround to achieve this is the following:
- Select any layer in Figma.
- In the Design panel, under the Fill section select the four dots icon.
- Scroll inside the modal and find the collection called Floor textures.
- Apply any texture of your choosing.
That‘s it. Now, let‘s apply a color behind the texture:
- Create a layer with the exact dimensions behind the layer to which you just applied the texture.
- With the layer selected, in the Design panel, under the Fill section, select the four dots icon.
- This time, apply any pre-defined colors instead of a texture.
Almost done. Now, all you need to do is put the layer with the color behind the layer with the texture, and voila.
If this process is tricky to understand, please watch the video below that explains the steps.
Change visual theme
If adding floor textures is a multistep process, changing a visual theme requires only a single click—well, technically, two clicks.
To change the visual theme, first, ensure nothing is selected on your floor plan. Then, move your cursor to the top-right corner of your Figma interface. Select the drop-down that says Themes and select any of the three themes.
If Whiteprint or Blueprint themes were selected by default, and you changed it to Miyazaki, you just witnessed how your floor plan was imbued with the liveliness of colors and shadows.
If you see only Whiteprint and Blueprint in the Themes drop-down, you own Figarc Lite. If you see all three themes, you own Figarc Pro.
Add measurements
What makes an architect happy when they see a floor plan? Dimensions and proportions. If you want to understand the size of your floor plan and the rooms inside, you should add dimensions markers to your floor plan.
To add measurement markers:
- Go to the Assets panel on the left-hand side.
- Search for Measurement in the search at the top left.
- Drag and drop a measurement marker to your floor plan.
Now, move that measurement marker to any area of your floor plan that you want to measure. Once you resize the marker to fit the area you want to measure:
- Go to the Design panel on the right-hand side.
- Look for the width and height values. They‘ll tell you the dimensions of your marker.
This could be confusing because you need to think contextually to get it right. But let‘s remember lesson 1, where you needed to set up the measurement unit.
If you‘ve set the measurement units to Metric, you calculate in meters and centimeters. In that case, it‘s easy—1 centimeter equals 1 pixel. So, the number of pixels in the dimensions area will tell you the number of centimeters.
But if you‘ve set up the measurement units to Imperial, you can divide the width of your marker by 30. That‘ll roughly give you the dimensions of the placed marker. Why roughly and not exactly? Because Figma is meant for digital design. Therefore, this workaround pushes the limits of Figma when applied to an industry outside the scope of its original purpose. 😊
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And with that, we‘ve pushed all Figma limits and misused all Figma functionalities to create a usable and stunning floor plan in software that was never intended to do such a thing.
If you are still skeptical about whether Figma can do it, check out these actual floor plans designed in Figma. Happy floor planning!
