Plan Levels Coming

ComingThis feature is designed but not in DimSum yet. This page describes how it will work.

The storeys of the building — Basement, Main, Second — each with a floor elevation, each holding the pages that belong to it, always listed lowest first.

Overview

A set of plans isn't a flat pile of sheets; it's a building. The foundation plan, the main floor plan and the second floor plan describe three different heights of the same structure, and a takeoff that knows which is which can do things a flat list can't: total by storey, carry the right wall height, put a beam under the floor above, and later stack the whole job in 3D.

A Plan Level is one storey. It has a name and an elevation — the height of its floor above the project's zero — and pages are assigned to it. Levels always display lowest first, ordered by elevation, so the list reads the way the building stacks rather than the order you happened to import sheets.

Levels came up in The storage and the tree were there; what was missing was any way to make one.

Where the elevation gets used

• Grouping — the Estimating tab and reports group by level, which is how you get "second floor framing" as a number.
• Overlays — aligning the level above over the one you're drawing is how beams get placed under the floor they carry (Overlay & Align).

Where to find it

• The Project Tree (left panel): levels are the top nodes, with pages under them.
• Project Settings → Plan Levels for the full list with elevations (Project Settings).
• A Building Template fills them in when you start a job from one.

How to use it

Add a level

1. In the tree toolbar, click Add Level (or right-click the tree background → Add Level).
2. Type a name — "Basement", "Main Level", "Second Level".
3. Give it an elevation: the height of its floor above project zero. Type it the way you'd say it — -9', 0, 9' 1 1/8".
4. It drops into the list in elevation order.

Elevation zero is the top of the foundation by default, which is how Everything below is negative.

Put pages on a level

• Drag a page (or several) onto a level in the tree, or
• right-click a page → Move to level → pick one, or
• do it in bulk from Project Settings → Plan Levels.

A page belongs to exactly one level. Pages you haven't assigned sit under the level import created.

Rename, reorder, re-elevate

• Double-click a level's name to rename it.
• Change its elevation and it moves to its right place in the list — the order comes from the elevation, so you can't drag a level above one that's taller.
• Right-click → Level Properties for the full set: name, elevation, colour tag, notes.

Delete a level

1. Right-click → Delete Level.
2. DimSum asks where its pages should go and moves them there.

A level never takes pages with it, and you can't delete the last one — pages have to live somewhere.

Options & settings

Option	What it does	Default
Name	What it's called everywhere	"Level 1"
Elevation	Floor height above project zero; sets the list order and the 3D base	0"
Colour tag	A colour for the level node and 3D	None
Default wall height	What new wall tools on this level start with	From System Settings
Notes	Free text	Empty

Examples

Two storeys over a basement

Add Basement at -9', Main Level at 0, Second Level at 9' 1 1/8". Drag the foundation and basement plans onto Basement, the first-floor plan onto Main, the second-floor plan onto Second. The tree now reads bottom-up. Group the Estimating tab by level and you have three framing packages instead of one.

A single-storey shop building

One level at 0 called "Main". You never think about levels again — which is the point. Levels shouldn't be work on a job that doesn't need them.

Beams under the floor above

Draw on Main, turn on the overlay of Second aligned over it, and the walls above show through faintly while you place the beams that carry them. The overlay needs both sheets on levels to know which is above which. See Overlay & Align.

Tips & shortcuts

• Build your levels before importing a big set — assigning pages as they land is much faster than sorting 120 sheets afterwards.
• Name levels the way the drawings do. If the set says "LEVEL 2", don't call it "Upstairs".
• Details, schedules and site plans that aren't really part of a storey belong in a group with no elevation (below); nothing forces a sheet to pretend it's a floor.

Levels are becoming groups Coming

A level and the Details section stop being two different kinds of thing. There is one container — a group — and its elevation is optional.

"We should change the "+ LEVEL" button to be a group button, we can then assign an elevation or not assign an elevation to each group. That way if we have mechanical details, they would be in that seciton, or electrical, or structural, whatever we name the section, just has no elevation, so the pages do not "render" on the 3d page when we do that."

	Elevation set	No elevation
What it is	A storey	A section: Mechanical, Electrical, Structural, Details
Where it sorts	With the storeys, lowest first	After every storey, in your own order
In 3D	Its pages stack at that height	Does not render — which is the whole point
Wall base height	From the elevation	None; tools on those pages ask
Rename / delete	Yes	Yes — including the one called "Details"

Details. Details holds the pages that belong to no group. Right-click it → Rename, or double-click it; the name is saved in the job and shows in Project Settings too.

Details never disappears. The plan first said a project with every page assigned would have no Details at all.

The button says what it makes. + Level becomes + Group, with one optional field: Elevation — leave blank for a section that is not a storey. Everything else carries over unchanged: lowest-first ordering, dragging pages in, per-level totals, Estimating grouping. A storey is just a group that answered the elevation question.

How it was built. Rather than a nullable elevation, a group carries an is_storey flag (migration 0002): a section keeps the height it had, so giving it an elevation again restores it. level.delete moves the pages in the same journaled command as the delete. "Section" is the word

Rules, limits & edge cases

• A page belongs to exactly one level.
• You can't delete the last level.
• Deleting a level asks first when it has pages, and says where they are going — "Delete Basement? Its 4 pages move to Details" is a question that can be answered; "Delete Basement?" is not.
• Two levels may share an elevation (a split-level); the sort index decides which reads first.
• Changing a level's elevation moves everything that inherits from it — that's the point, but on a big job it's a big change, so it's one undo step.
• add, rename, reorder, Set elevation… and Delete level, all from the tree's right-click menu and from Project Settings.
• Deleting a level moves its pages; it never deletes them. A level is a container, not an owner. The pages go to Details (or to a level you name), and the move happens in the same journaled command as the delete — so one Ctrl+Z puts the level back and puts its pages back on it.

Related features

• Project Tree — where levels live day to day
• Project Settings — the full level list
• Building Templates — level sets you reuse
• Overlay & Align — seeing the level above while you draw
• 3D viewport — what elevations are ultimately for