Design Standards

Setting up your standards for you and your team

In this page, we bring together styles, blocks, layer list etc to offer you a proper way to organize your work and set your standards, thanks to design standards.

What are design standards?

Design standards aren't a feature. They're a methodology: the way we suggest you organize your work so that every drawing you and your team produce looks and behaves the same.

In practice, design standards bring your blocks, styles, layer list and page layout together in a single, organized Rayon model.

A design standards model typically defines:

• Colors & palettes: your primary color and the tints and shades derived from it

• Typography: one font family and a clear hierarchy of text levels

• Styles: shapes, walls, annotations and text

• Blocks: the furniture and components you reuse across projects

• Layers: a consistent layer list for the model space

• Page layout: paper format, title block and branding

How to use design standards

There are two ways to get started:

1. Build your own: use the Design Standards app to generate a standards model from scratch, in 9 steps.

2. Use a ready-made model: duplicate our example model and adapt it to your needs.

1. Build your own design standards

The Design Standards app guides you through creating your own standards in 9 simple steps, each building on the previous one. At the end, you get a Rayon model containing all your design standards, organized into four canvases.

The app can be accessed here: Open app

Let's go through it step by step.

1

Choose how to start

The app opens on three options: Build your design standards from scratch (a guided flow to define everything yourself), Start from existing design standards (pick a curated set and tweak it to match your studio), or Read more about design standards (access to this documentation page). For this walkthrough, click Build your design standards from scratch.

2

Use case

Choose what you design: apartment design, commercial space design, portfolio, millwork/technical drawing, site analysis or other. Click Next when you're ready.

3

Colors & palettes

Pick a primary color; the rest of the palette is generated to match. Then review the tints and shades generated for each color. Click Next when you're ready.

4

Fonts

Choose a typeface from Google Fonts, then add or remove hierarchy levels. Every level uses the same family, with its own weight, size and tracking. Click Next when you're ready.

5

Options

Set the arrow head, its size and the zone tag corner style. These apply to every leader, arrow, dimension and zone tag. Click Next when you're ready.

6

Styles

Review your style library, generated from your colors and fonts: shape, annotation, text and wall styles. Click Next when you're ready.

7

Model space

Define your model space settings: units and layer list. Click Next when you're ready.

8

Paper space

Define your paper space settings: paper format, title block style and branding (logo). Click Next when you're ready.

9

Design standards

The final screen summarizes every choice you made. Click Open in Rayon to get your Rayon model, with all your standards in place.

Once in Rayon, you will be able to browse the various canvases to access your standards.

2. Use a ready-made model

The Design Standards app also offers ready-made templates.

1

Choose how to start

Pick the second option in the start page.

2

Choose a design standards

The app offers a whole array of standards for you to choose from. Once selected, click on Open in Rayon.

3

You are set!

The model is organized in five canvases:

Canvas	Type	What it contains
Cover	Paper	The cover page presenting the standards.
Design Standard [Drawing]	Model	The standards sheet itself: primary color, palettes, fonts, styles (shapes, walls, annotations, text) and model space settings.
Page layout	Paper	The paper template: format, title block and branding, ready to reuse on every print.
Block canvas	Model	The library of blocks used across your projects.
Project	Model	A sample floor plan drawn with the standards applied, including a full layer list.

Wrapping up

Whether you start from our example or build your own with the app, you end up with the same thing: one model that holds your colors, fonts, styles, blocks, layers and page layout.

From there, two ways of working are possible...

• Either work directly in this file, and reuse the styles, blocks, layer structure etc on a new canvas.

• Or publish your standards, either as libraires or a on cohesive template, to reuse them in another model.