What Draw Multi Wall does
Draw Multi Wall is built on top of Draw Wall and is designed for layered assemblies such as cavity walls, insulated facades, and multi-wythe partitions. It uses the same click-to-draw workflow, but splits each wall into leaves separated by gaps and supports per-leaf materials, top caps, and specialized opening behavior.
Default assembly
When you open the tool for the first time it creates a three-leaf wall with a 2" gap between leaves. Each leaf uses the current wall thickness as its base value, and the whole assembly is tracked as one object during drawing and snapping.
Opening the settings dialog
Press G to open the Multi Wall Settings dialog. The dialog shows the current leaf count, gap, leaf thicknesses, top cap state, opening behavior, and per-leaf data.
Use the dialog to type exact leaf thicknesses, pick colors or texture images for each leaf, enable or disable individual leaves, and choose whether jump openings should cut all leaves, cut only solid leaves, or be metadata only.
Click Apply to update the active wall, or Save to store the configuration for the current SketchUp session.
Keyboard commands
+ / - on the main keyboard or numpad increases or decreases the leaf count by one. The tool rebuilds the active chain immediately.
G opens the Multi Wall Settings dialog.
Type n=4 to set the number of leaves directly, for example n=5.
Type gap=2" or g=2" to set the cavity gap.
Type lt=4",6",4" or leaf_thickness=4",6",4" to set custom leaf thicknesses. The number of values determines the leaf count.
All Draw Wall shortcuts still work: TAB/CTRL for side modes, Shift for straighten, Alt for freehand, F6 for angle snap, F8 for height, F9 for increment, F10 for jump settings, J/W/V/I for openings, Backspace to undo, and ESC to exit.
How the assembly is built
The tool calculates the full assembly width from the enabled leaf thicknesses plus gaps, then uses that total width for cursor tracking, snaps, and mitering. This means multi-wall assemblies connect cleanly with single Draw Wall segments and with other multi-wall assemblies.
When you commit a segment, the tool creates a parent group on the Multi Walls layer and adds one face per leaf, extruded to the leaf height. Each face stores leaf index, role, and type attributes for downstream selection and editing.
Top cap
Enable the top cap in the settings dialog to add a finished slab across the full assembly width at the top of the wall. Set the cap thickness to match your structural or architectural detail.
Opening behavior
Multi Wall supports four opening behaviors controlled from the settings dialog:
- Cut All - jump openings cut through every leaf and gap.
- Cut Solids - openings cut only solid leaves, leaving air-gap or insulation leaves continuous.
- Cut Selected - openings cut only the leaves you have selected.
- Metadata Only - openings are recorded as attributes without cutting geometry, useful for downstream BOQ or schedule exports.
Per-leaf materials and textures
In the settings dialog, each leaf row can be assigned a solid color by hex code or a texture image from disk. The tool creates or reuses SketchUp materials automatically and applies them to the faces generated for that leaf. This makes it easy to distinguish structure, insulation, air gap, and finish layers in the model.
Workflow tips
Start with Draw Wall to sketch the plan quickly, then switch to Draw Multi Wall for the final exterior or partition walls that need layered detail.
Save your most common leaf stack as a saved setting so you can recall it on future models without re-entering thicknesses.
Use the metadata-only opening mode when you want to keep the model light but still schedule doors and windows in the BOQ Engine.
