Malak Mansour
Forma Site Design, available in the AEC Collection or as a standalone subscription, offers powerful AI-powered tools for architects and designers in pre-design and schematic design phases.
This is the second article in our Quick Start learning series.
Read the first article – How to: create your first site in Forma Site Design.
You can create a schematic model in Forma Site Design using as little as two tools: Basic building and Move. This guide summarizes the essential tools and features used in the demo video below.
Before you start
- Set a site limit to define the area where you’ll design and run analyses.
Optional: Click the settings gear cog in the lower-left corner to select metric or imperial measurement units.
Base editing
- Your base represents your site environment and includes all the contextual data in your map area.
- Double-click any element in your base to enter base editing mode and adjust, add, or remove contextual elements. This mode is defined by a purple frame around your canvas.
Design toolbar
This is the starting point to draw and edit volumes on your site, such as buildings, landscaping, limits, transportation, and generic objects.
Basic building
- Find this tool under the buildings category or use the shortcut: ” B “
- Choose from four options to shape your model: freeform, cube, cylinder, or trace an existing shape.
- Your selection enables you to draw a 2D footprint and pull it into a 3D volume of your desired height.
- The building will automatically divide into floors with a default height of 3m (about 9’10”), which you can easily modify afterwards.
Move
- This tool allows you to move selected 2D and 3D geometry in any direction on your canvas.
Pro tip: Move objects freely or press Tab to toggle between move parameters and type your desired distance.
Right panel
- Area metrics: View key numerical insights into your proposal, such as site area, building coverage area, gross floor area, and rentable area. The numbers update dynamically as you develop your proposal.
- Building: Adjust the values for the number of stories, story height, width, and length for selected volumes.
- Functions: Tag your building or selected floors with different purposes, which reflect in the breakdown of your gross floor area and rentable area.
Visibility and orientation
- Toggle between 2D and 3D view in the bottom-right corner for fast navigation and comfortable modeling.
Pro tips
- Hover over an edge with your cursor to activate snapping guidelines, which help with precise parallel or perpendicular alignment.
- Press the spacebar to instantly repeat the last tool you used.
Now your model is ready for analysis!