Outline Marking Guide
This page matches Step 1 of the nine-grid workflow: mark the outer shape of the home first. At this stage, the grid only needs to answer one question:
Is this cell part of the home layout, or not?
If you imported a floor plan as a tracing background, it is only used locally to help you line things up. The background image is not uploaded to the server.
1) What are you actually marking?
At this step, each cell is only one of two things:
- Has room: this cell belongs to the usable indoor layout of the home, such as the living room, bedroom, kitchen, hallway, or an enclosed balcony.
- Empty: this cell falls outside the home boundary, such as the corridor, the neighbor side, exterior space, an open terrace, or a shaft.
The goal here is to sketch the outer layout first, not to label function points yet. Bed, stove, toilet, front door, orientation, and family details come later.
2) When should a cell count as “Has room” or “Empty”?
The most practical rule is:
Does this part function as indoor living space in daily use?
A reliable shortcut:
- Enclosed balcony / absorbed indoor area: usually mark it as Has room
- Open balcony / terrace / outdoor slab: usually mark it as Empty
- Light well / shaft / void / open well: usually mark it as Empty
- Small bay / bump-out / projecting edge: don’t overdraw it in Step 1; keep the main outline clean and refine it later with fill level
If you are unsure, prioritize the main living envelope over small geometric details.
3) Why does the app auto-detect convex areas, missing corners, or missing palaces?
Because a 3×3 grid is intentionally coarse. It cannot reproduce every cut, curve, or half-cell detail in a real floor plan. So the app first normalizes the shape before judging layout issues.
In plain terms, it does this:
- Find the main bounding box
- It wraps the smallest rectangle around all cells marked as Has room
- Ignore unused space outside that box
- Those cells are often just unused grid space, not true missing sectors
- Detect small outward bumps
- If only a small portion extends beyond the main box, that part is treated as a convex/protruding area
- Judge missing areas after normalization
- A whole missing sector leans toward a missing palace
- A partly covered sector is better expressed in the next step with fill level
That is why the shape markers you see are not random UI labels. They are the visual result of a normalization pass.
4) Convex vs. Missing Palace vs. Missing Corner
Convex
A convex area means a small section sticks outward beyond the main layout.
Common examples:
- a small projecting slab
- a bay window area
- one short segment extending beyond the main wall line
When the app can identify that clearly, it shows it as a small outer block instead of misreading the opposite side as a missing palace.
Missing Palace
A missing palace means an entire directional sector is absent from the main layout.
This is usually the more certain case and often comes directly from the Step 1 outline.
Missing Corner
A missing corner means the sector is not gone entirely, but not fully covered either.
That is why Step 1 is only the first pass. The next step is where Partial becomes important.
A simple way to remember it:
- Step 1 answers: “Is this sector there at all?”
- Fill level later answers: “Is this sector fully there?”
5) How to mark the outline more accurately
A) Get the main footprint right first
Do not start by chasing every tiny bump or recess.
Get these right first:
- living area
- bedrooms
- kitchen
- main circulation path
Once the main footprint is stable, later steps can refine the details.
B) Treat open terraces conservatively
A common mistake is marking an open terrace as indoor layout. That makes the whole footprint look larger than it really is and weakens later missing-corner judgment.
If it is not truly indoor living space, marking it Empty is usually safer.
C) Don’t try to make the grid behave like CAD
The point of the grid is not architectural precision. The point is to express:
- the main home envelope
- where space is clearly missing
- where space clearly extends outward
6) Common mistakes
- Using Step 1 to mark room functions
- Don’t. This step is only for the outline.
- Treating all balconies as indoor space
- Open balconies usually should not be marked as Has room.
- Overdrawing small projections too early
- Keep the main outline clean, then refine later.
- Assuming every empty cell means a missing corner
- Many are just outside the main bounding box and should not be read as missing.
7) What to read next
- Room Marking Guide: how to set fill level, square contents, front door, and orientation
- Day Master Calculation Guide: why family birth dates are optional and what they add
- Sample Report
- Day Master Five Elements Guide
- 2026 Day Master Element Overview
- Flying Stars Cures & Activators