Command reference
Every command the app offers, where it is, and what it does. Most entries are the command's own tooltip in the app.
Menu bar
FILE
New, open and save this file; rename it, duplicate it, its File History (the saved copies, and those kept at a passed analysis, a report and a shared link); save it as a template; the Project Explorer and Project & Hazards.
↶ UNDO
Undo (Ctrl+Z)
↷ REDO
Redo (Ctrl+Y)
MODE: STRUCTURAL
Which package of commands the tool box and the ribbon offer. The canvas, the model and the Model explorer are the same in every mode.
VIEW
Show / hide panels — brings a closed window back
IMPORT & EXPORT
Underlays in (a PDF, image or DXF traced on a level or a section) and the drawings out: the plan or the section to DXF, the model to IFC.
ANALYSIS & DESIGN
Load wizard → Load Patterns → Combinations → Design, in the order you run them
SETTINGS
Open Settings — model and analysis defaults, drawing sheets and the colors.
HELP
The manuals: the user manual, then the analysis manual of each mode that computes — the open mode's first. Today that is the structural analysis manual; the electrical manual comes next, then plumbing and HVAC. They open in a window beside the model. F1 opens the user manual at the entry of the command that is armed.
💬 ASK AI
Ask the PerCode assistant
ANALYSIS & DESIGN menu
LOAD WIZARD
Read snow and wind from this project's calcs, take the rest from you, and apply it to every deck and pitched roof at once — including the wind zone maps.
LOADS
Show one load pattern on the plan, the sections and the 3-D view (area, line or point loads), and pick the pattern the next load is applied to. Patterns are created in Σ Combinations.
COMBINATIONS
Load patterns, load combinations and the per-material design basis
RUN ANALYSIS
Analyze the whole structure and nothing else. The log reports success or failure and closes by itself, unless the model is a mechanism or unstable.
DESIGN CONCRETE ELEMENTS
Design every concrete element — footings, slab edges, concrete members — analyzing first if the analysis is out of date.
DESIGN STEEL ELEMENTS
Design every steel element, analyzing first if the analysis is out of date.
DESIGN CMU ELEMENTS
Design every CMU element, analyzing first if the analysis is out of date.
DESIGN CFS ELEMENTS
Design every cold-formed steel element — CFS walls, joists, trusses — analyzing first if the analysis is out of date.
DESIGN WOOD ELEMENTS
Design every wood element, analyzing first if the analysis is out of date.
DESIGN SELECTED ELEMENTS
Design what is selected on the canvas — assemblies (walls, footings, trusses) or single elements, any material — analyzing first if the analysis is out of date.
AUTO MWFRS CONNECTORS
Check every truss-to-wall and wall-to-floor connection on the current analysis, place a connector only where the demand is over the threshold the schedule notes cover, and check every joint on its connector — yours are kept as placed. A design checks no joint.
REPORT BUILDER
The design results, and the report: tick the sections and the elements to include.
SCHEDULES
Connectors, wall openings, posts, and windows & doors as schedules. Each table edits the model: move a tag to another row and the member takes that row's sizes.
Connectors are marked by the program, as the openings are: the joints grouped by connector and the fasteners it is installed with, C1, C2… across the project, one table per level. Drag a mark onto another and its joints take that mark's connector.
Legends lists every legend the structural sheets draw, as each sheet draws it: the walls legend of each wall layout (each wall type's hatch, its mark, its description and its top of wall), the floor and roof framing plans' legends and their bearing levels, and the foundation legend.
A wall assembly template's Hatch (in its form: pick a swatch) is the hatch its walls are drawn with on the wall layouts and the floor plans, and in their legends. AUTOMATIC keeps the sheets' own rule: on a wall layout each wall type takes the next hatch, and a floor plan hatches a wall by its material (CMU and masonry diagonal lines, concrete its pattern, wood none). Two walls of the same construction and top of wall with different hatches are two wall types.
COMPUTE BUILDING AREAS
The building area per floor (enclosed, habitable, garage, porches, exterior wall perimeter), the check of the room floors against the area inside the walls, light and ventilation, the bedrooms' escape openings and the egress door, and the attics' ventilation — the same tables the architectural DXF set prints. Needs the rooms drawn with Floor room and named.
ELECTRICAL LOAD CALCULATION
The NEC load calculation: the floor area of each room with its share of the walls, the service load by both methods, and the circuits on the plan.
ONE LINE DIAGRAM
The one-line diagram of the meter panel, panels and feeders on the plan.
PANEL SCHEDULES
A panel's circuits, in a window of their own: select a device and its circuit is marked; its description, breaker and smallest conductor are edited here.
EQUIPMENT LIST
The panels, the appliances and the devices on the plan.
REPORT BUILDER
The electrical report — the load calculations, feeders, panel schedules, one-line and plan notes — opened in a new tab to print or save.
MODE menu
STRUCTURAL
The structural model — the framing plan and the trusses marked from it.
ARCHITECTURAL
The architectural package — same canvas, same model, a different set of commands. Walls are the same objects the structural box draws.
ELECTRICAL
The electrical package — the same plan: walls, doors, windows, fixtures, furniture and the underlay drawn here too; floors, roofs and the framing locked, the structure hidden. Rooms and electrical devices are the input for the load calculation.
Model explorer
◎ Isolate
Show only this group.
⦸ Hide
Hide this group.
▣ Select
Select every object in this group.
🔒 Lock
Lock this group: its objects stay visible, and cannot be selected, snapped to or edited.
🔓 Unlock its objects
Unlock the objects of this group that were locked one by one (right-click → 🔒 Lock). A locked object cannot be selected, so this is where it is opened again.
👁 Show all levels
Show every hidden level again.
Right-click menu
▣ Select assembly
Select the assembly this member belongs to — every element of it — and show the assembly's properties. The view stays in Framing.
▢ Select element
Select the element of this assembly under the cursor and show its properties. The view stays in Assembly.
⚙ Properties
Open ⚙ Properties for the selection.
⇹ Stretch
Drag an end. Every wall on the plan carries a handle at each end while it is armed.
⇢ Move
Move the selection: click a base point, then the destination.
⧉ Copy
Copy the selection: click a base point, then where the copy goes.
⧉ Copy to level…
Copy the selection to another level, straight up or down: X and Y stay; each object rises by the difference between the two levels. A wall brings its framing, windows and doors.
⟳ Rotate
Rotate the selection about a vertical axis: click the center, then a point that sets the angle.
⇋ Mirror
Mirror the selection about a line given by two points; the originals are kept.
□ Convert to fixed window
Make the selected doors fixed (picture) windows. The rough width, the sill and the header height stay.
□ Convert to door
Make the selected windows hinged doors. The rough width and the header height stay; the sill goes — the door reaches the floor.
⇄ Reverse
Swap the start and end of the selected walls, beams or beam/columns. A wall’s framing is discarded.
⬚ Group
Make the selection one container — two or more objects.
🖌 Match props
Copy every shared property from the first object selected (the source) to the others.
⊞ Add ply
Build this stud or plate up by one more ply. You click the side it stands on; the analytical element is unchanged and 🧮 Analysis & Design ▸ Design starts its ladder from the count you set.
◫ Show 2D
Show the selection in 2-D: a wall or truss line in the section along its center line (an existing one is opened), a floor or roof in its level's plan, a level or plumb member in its level's plan, a slanted member in the section along it, a reference plane in the section on it.
✂ Section on roof plane
Cut a section on the plane of the roof face under the cursor, looking square at it.
⦸ Hide
Hide the selection. ◉ Show all brings it back.
⦸ Hide Assembly
Hide the assembly — the wall, floor or roof itself. Its framing, panels and openings stay. ◉ Show all brings it back.
⦸ Hide Assembly & Components
Hide the assembly and everything it holds — its framing, truss lines and their members, panels, reference planes and openings. ◉ Show all brings them back.
◎ Isolate
Hide everything except the selection. ◉ Show all brings it back.
🔒 Lock
Lock: the selection stays visible and can no longer be selected, snapped to, moved, changed or deleted. Its group's row in the Model explorer → 🔓 Unlock its objects opens it again.
▣ Select assembly type
Select every visible object of the same kind and assembly as the selection: walls, decks and roofs of the same assembly template, and the members, trusses and sheathing of those assemblies.
⦸ Hide assembly type
Hide every visible object of the same kind and assembly as the selection. ◉ Show all brings them back.
⊣ Disconnect walls
Break the connection between this wall and the walls it touches (or among the selected walls): ⇢ Move and ⇶ Align then move them apart freely.
⊢ Connect walls
Restore the connection: walls that touch stay joined when one is moved or aligned.
⇄ Swap through wall
At the corner of the two selected walls, the other one passes through: it runs to the first one's outer face, governs and takes the corner studs.
🗑 Delete auto framed trusses
(to write)
🗑 Delete truss framing
(to write)
↺ Re-frame from properties
Frame it afresh from its properties alone: the edits you made to its framing (moves, deletes, plies, sections, members you drew) are dropped. Press twice.
DRAW strip
⊞ Merge to grid
Move every visible object's nodes and vertices, in this plan or section, to the nearest grid point.
▦ Grid lines…
Type the X and Y grid lines and the Z levels in a table; ✔ Apply makes them reference planes (on every level) and levels. The table keeps no link to what it made.
REF-PLANE
Reference plane — Plan: draw a two-point reference plane. Elevation: one reference plane — a station along the truss — where you click.
REF-X
Refs across — Click two points — in the plan or in an elevation — then say how many bays or what spacing. A run of reference planes is drawn across the direction you dragged, from the first point you clicked. They are PLANES: every one shows in every view that crosses it.
REF-LINE
Reference line — Two points, in the plan or in a section. A drafting aid: it exists ONLY in the drawing you drew it in — unlike a reference PLANE, which reflects into every view that crosses it. Snap, Offset, Trim, Copy and Move all work on it. Nothing is designed from it.
SECTION
Vertical Section — Plan: draw a line (two points), then click the side you are looking FROM — the section looks that way. It is added to Sections in the model explorer, so the same elevation comes back without being defined again.
DIM
Dimension — click each end; it snaps like every other tool. Drawn from ANY layer, stored on the drawing's own Dimensions layer. TAB while drawing cycles the style; dragging one moves the dimension line away from the points it measures; type a Length and the far end follows.
AREA-DIM
Area dimension — click the corners of a polygon; click the first corner again (or press ESC) to close it. It marks the AREA and the PERIMETER, and is stored on the plan's Dimensions layer.
POLY
Poly — Click each corner (TAB = rectangle). Click the first corner again to CLOSE it, or press ESC to end it OPEN. Open, or closed where there is nothing to cut, it is reference lines — in the plan or in the section you draw it in. Closed inside a deck or roof (the one selected first, else the one under it) it cuts an opening there; inside a slab on grade or basement, the slab's opening. In ✎ EDIT BOUNDARY it is a ring of the boundary that ✔ APPLY EDITS makes an opening.
FILE menu
NEW
A new file: pick its folder and name. The folder becomes its project — a folder with no project yet gets one, and Project & Hazards opens next.
NEW FROM TEMPLATE
A new file started from a template — the Default, or one you saved with SAVE AS TEMPLATE: its Short List and assembly templates, nothing drawn.
OPEN
Open a calculation file. Another tool's calculation opens in its own window.
SAVE Ctrl+S
Save this file (Ctrl+S)
RENAME
Rename this calculation file to the name typed in File. Every reference in the project follows it.
DUPLICATE
Copy this calculation, its underlay and its inserted PDFs — named as typed in File, or with _copy added when File still shows this file's name. This file stays open.
FILE HISTORY
The copies of this file you can go back to: the last three saves, and up to three each kept when an analysis passed, a report was exported and a link was shared.
SAVE AS TEMPLATE
Keep this file's Short List and assembly templates as a template for new files — nothing drawn is kept.
PROJECT EXPLORER
The Project Manager, showing this file's project: its calculations, the other tools (retaining walls, beams, wind…), the report and the cover sheet.
PROJECT & HAZARDS
This project's data, site and hazards — opened here, over the model.
Start screen
NEW
A new file: pick its folder and name. The folder becomes its project.
NEW FROM TEMPLATE
A new file started from a template.
OPEN
Open a calculation file.
PROJECT EXPLORER
The Project Manager: projects, every other tool, reports.
TAKE THE TOUR
The guided tour: you build a small house step by step, and the assistant says each step and answers questions on the way. With no file open it starts with the basics; with a file open it lists its parts (the basics, then one for each mode) to pick from. Also in HELP. See The guided tour.
START THE TOUR
Shown the first time PerCode AEC starts for you: starts the tour at the basics.
NOT NOW
Shown the first time PerCode AEC starts for you: the tour is not asked again. TAKE THE TOUR starts it at any time.
Save as template
SAVE
(to write)
REPLACE
(to write)
IMPORT & EXPORT menu
IMPORT UNDERLAY
Bring in a PDF, image or DXF as the traced sheet of a level (or of the open section) — pick the level, then the file. Pick the page, tick the layers and crop — then it BAKES a lighter file and places THAT. Set the origin and the scale afterwards on the placed drawing.
EXPORT PLAN TO DXF
Export the plan to DXF — what you see (current view), or every plan layer, each model explorer layer as a DXF layer (hidden ones switched off). Full size, in feet, at this level's depth and range, in the view shown (Framing or Assembly).
EXPORT SECTION TO DXF
Export the open section to DXF — what you see (current view), or every layer, each model explorer layer as a DXF layer (hidden ones switched off). Full size, in feet: station along the section, height up, at this section's depth and range.
EXPORT IFC
Export the 3-D model as IFC4 — the solids the 3-D view shows, as IfcBeam, IfcColumn, IfcWall, IfcSlab, IfcFooting and IfcPlate, for Revit, ArchiCAD, Solibri or any other BIM tool. The file is saved beside the model in its results folder and downloaded. The analytical model is not included.
EXPORT SCHEDULES TO DXF
Export every schedule (📅 Analysis & Design ▸ Schedules) to DXF — a layer per schedule, its tables as text and grid, full size in inches. Filed in the model's exports folder and downloaded.
EXPORT SCHEDULES TO XLSX
Export every schedule to an Excel workbook — a sheet per schedule, each table under its level or kind. Filed in the model's exports folder and downloaded.
PLAN NOTES
Plan Notes: the permit-plan general notes for this project, chosen by the Plan Notes module from your answers to its questions (the project's hazards and this model's filed report answer what they can). The answers are kept in this model; the notes print on the cover sheet that starts each DXF set (A-0, S-0).
SHEETS
The drawing set, every discipline: the cover sheets, then the structural (S-), architectural (A-) and electrical (E-) sheets on 24 x 36, each drawn as it will be exported. Pick a sheet to see it; choose what each discipline's sheets draw; then ⤓ DXF (every sheet, filed beside the model, and the set as one PDF) or 🖨 PDF.
EDIT strip
OFFSET
Offset — Click a line, type the distance in the box at the cursor (always positive), then click the side the parallel line goes.
TRIM
Trim — Every drawn line is a cutting edge. Click the piece of a line to remove, or drag across several. Stays armed; Esc ends.
EXTEND
Extend — Click the line to extend TO, then each line to run all the way to it (or drag across several). Stays armed; Esc ends.
ALIGN
Align — Click the line to align TO, then the wall face (or centre line) to bring onto it; a section also aligns a wall's top, base or end, and the 3-D view face to face. Walls connected to the one moved stay connected. With ✎ EDIT BOUNDARY open on a roof, deck or slab, it aligns the boundary's lines instead. Stays armed; Esc ends.
FILLET
Fillet — Click the wall that runs through, then the wall that meets it: the first is trimmed or extended to the second's outer face, the second to the first's face, and they are connected. Two walls selected first are cornered at once. Stays armed; Esc ends.
TRIM-ROOF
Trim roof — Click a roof, then the walls that stand in it (plan or 3-D; click a wall again to drop it), then press ENTER. The roof is cut at the walls' exterior face; walls that do not close a loop are closed along the roof's edge. Esc cancels.
COPY
Copy — Select the objects, press ENTER, then click a BASE point and a DESTINATION. Works on any object — elements, lines, bearings, decks, supports. The two points may be in DIFFERENT canvases: a section click carries a real Z, a plan click is taken at the plan datum.
MATCH
Match props — Select the SOURCE first, then the objects to seed, and press this. Every property the source and a target BOTH have is copied across — once. No link is made and nothing re-syncs later: a seeded value is an ordinary value from the moment it lands, and you can change it.
MOVE
Move — The same gesture as ⧉ Copy, without the duplicate: select, ENTER, base point, destination. The two points may be in different canvases.
STRETCH
Stretch — Select ONE element, then drag either end. Ends can only be dragged with this — ⇢ Move moves whole objects.
GROUP
Group — Select two or more objects, then press this: they become one container. Clicking any member afterwards selects the whole group, so ⧉ Copy, ⇢ Move, ⟳ Rotate and ⇋ Mirror act on all of it. The group's own Properties give its Level, its count, and a Delete that removes the container and KEEPS the objects.
ROTATE
Rotate — Select the objects, press ENTER, then click the CENTER and a point that sets the angle — dragging to 90° turns the selection 90°, as AutoCAD's ROTATE does. Rotation is about a VERTICAL axis, so a level turns within itself.
MIRROR
Mirror — Select the objects, press ENTER, then click the two points of the MIRROR LINE. The originals are KEPT, as in AutoCAD — 🗑 Delete removes them if you did not want them.
REVERSE
Reverse — Select walls, beams or beam/columns and press this: their start and end points swap. The long local axis points the other way, a wall's exterior face (and so its sheathing) moves to the other side, its Reference swaps left for right, and its openings re-measure from the new start. A framed wall's framing is discarded — press ⚙ Auto frame to lay it out again.
SPLIT
Split — Click a wall (or select one first), then the point along it: it becomes two walls meeting there. Openings, its footing, its top profile and its wind records go with the half they are on. A framed wall's framing is discarded — press ⚙ Auto frame to lay both out again. With ✎ Edit boundary open — in the plan or a section — it splits a boundary line instead: click the line, then the point; ⇹ Stretch that point to reshape the boundary.
ERASE
Erase the selection — on either drawing. With nothing selected, in an elevation it arms click-to-delete on reference planes.
MERGE
Merge Roof/Floor — Click two overlapping or touching outlines of the same kind — two room floors, slabs on grade, floor decks, roof decks or roofs — to join them into one (two selected first are merged at once; room floors, any number). The first one picked or selected is the merged one, with its properties. Two slabs at different tops merge at the higher one, and the lower one becomes a depression. A pitched roof keeps its hip/gable marks edge by edge and is generated again.
JOIN
Join — Click the wall to keep, then the wall that continues it (same direction, on one line, end to end, the same in every property): they become one wall with the first's mark. Openings, footings and stud overrides are re-measured onto it. Walls that differ are refused, with what differs.
PAINT — in the EDIT strip
PAINT is one of the EDIT strip's commands. On, its colours, BRUSH, REPLACE, the COLOR BY options and GROUND stand in for the strip's other commands; Esc, or putting the strip away, ends it. The strip's commands stand in the order you last used them.
PAINT
Paint — pick a colour, then BRUSH paints the face you click, REPLACE gives the colour to every visible face showing the colour of the face you click. Kept with the model; 3-D only. Esc ends it.
BRUSH
Paint the one face you click
REPLACE
Give the colour to every visible face showing the colour of the face you click
MATERIAL
Color by — each element in its own material's colour, with the faces you painted
ASSEMBLY
Color by — walls, floors, roofs and foundations, each in one colour. Press again for other colours.
FRAMING
Color by — the framing in the colour of what it frames: wall framing, floor framing, roof framing, beams and columns. Press again for other colours.
GROUP
Color by — the framing by its + GROUP group (a member takes its wall's or roof's group). Press again for other colours.
SECTION
Color by — the framing by its section, plies counted. Press again for other colours.
GROUND
The ground around the building, at the grade you type. Kept with the model; it changes only how the model looks.
CHECK MODEL bar
◀ PREV
The previous clash CHECK MODEL found
NEXT ▶
The next clash CHECK MODEL found
DISREGARD
Disregard this problem
STOP
Stop: the command the load path stopped is not run
CONTINUE
Continue: run the command once anyway, past every problem not fixed or disregarded. The next run stops on them again.
✕
Close the clash list
Section bar
BOX HANDLES
Show or hide the section box's two edges and their grips, in every section. Shown, drag an edge to make the view wider or narrower; hidden, the box keeps its width and the edges cannot be dragged.
3-D view bar
The view decides the projection. A plan, an X, Y or Z view and a section are orthographic: parallel lines stay parallel and nothing shrinks with depth, so an X or Y view is the true exterior elevation and can be measured. The free 3-D view (orbited, the 3-D tab, RESET VIEW, WALK) is in perspective.
X
Elevation from +X; press again for −X.
Y
Elevation from +Y; press again for −Y.
Z
From above (+Z); press again for below (−Z).
SAVE VIEW
Keep this view for the sheets (SHEETS ▸ + Viewport of …): a BOX looked at along an axis is a section, anything else a picture.
DIM XY
DIM XY — click two points: the horizontal distance between them, drawn level at the first point's height. Kept with the model; a click picks one, Delete removes it. Esc ends.
DIM Z
DIM Z — click two points: the vertical distance between them, drawn plumb from the first. Kept with the model; a click picks one, Delete removes it. Esc ends.
ORTHO Z
ORTHO Z — the second point of a Move is taken straight above or below the first: the move is only up or down.
MARKUPS
What this view shows of the drawing's annotation, one tick per kind: object marks (W11, T3, footings, panels), door, window and fixture tags, dimensions, grid lines, reference planes, reference lines, wall reference lines, section marks, levels, room labels, ceiling labels, electrical tags and notes, loads, and connectors and hold-downs; below them, the labels' text size and colour. Each view keeps its own — each level's plan, the 3-D, each section, each saved 3-D view — and a view you have not set shows them all, except that a 3-D view starts without room and ceiling labels. Saved with the model; a sheet shows each viewport as its view is set.
SNAPSHOT
Add a snapshot to the report — drag a window over the view and the picture inside it is saved beside the model, in its results folder. Every snapshot you take is printed in the report, in the order you took them.
SHARE
Share this 3-D view as a link anyone can open in a browser for 7 days. What you see is what they see; hidden elements are not uploaded. Paid plans.
3-D view bar — modes
ORBIT
Orbit — drag to turn the model; a click selects one object (Shift adds).
SELECT
Select — drag a window as in 2-D: left to right takes what is entirely inside, right to left anything it touches; Shift adds. A click selects one. The wheel zooms, the middle button pans.
WALK
Walk — click a floor to stand on it; W / ↑ forward, S / ↓ back, A / ← and D / → step sideways (Shift: faster), Q / E (PgUp / PgDn) tilt the view, B backs up to the wall behind you. Drag to look round (left and right turn, up and down tilt). On a phone a thumb joystick moves, a drag looks, a double tap on a floor walks there. Walking sees 90° across. Outside the building only on the ground floor; never through a wall except at a door. Esc or Walk again ends it.
BOX
Section box — clip the view to a box so you can see inside. It is a way of LOOKING: nothing is hidden, nothing is deleted and nothing is saved with the model. Another mode takes the box off.
3-D view bar — section box
TO SELECTION
Wrap the box round whatever is selected, with a foot of air on every face.
ALL
Back to the whole model.
Canvas bar — snaps
⊾
Ortho (F8) — constrain the segment being drawn to X or Y. Shift does it momentarily.
⊞
Grid snap (F9) — snap to the drawing grid and show it. Object snaps beat it.
⚙
Grid size and ⊞ Merge to grid
Canvas bar
Draw
Draw — reference planes and lines, sections, dimensions and area dimensions.
Edit
Edit — offset, trim, copy, match props, move, stretch, group, rotate, mirror, reverse, split and delete. Each acts on whatever the layer you are on holds.
+ Level
▦ ＋ Level — add a horizontal plan at another elevation. It gets its own group of layers, so you can show or hide it independently and overlap it with the levels below.
Framing
The view the active drawing is in. Press to switch between ▭ Framing (elements as they are built — real depth, real width) and ▢ Assembly (the walls, floors and roofs without their framing, to select and edit). The analytical model is offered in the Run Analysis log when an analysis fails; from it, this button goes back to Framing.
+
Zoom in (the mouse wheel zooms too).
Fit
Zoom to fit the whole model in the view.
+ Group
Groups — your own groups (tag the selection to select it again later), AUTO GROUPS (the property values the model repeats most: select one to edit all of them together in ⚙ Properties) and SELECT BY (type part of any property). With nothing armed, clicking an object still selects it.
Scanner
🔍 Scanner — place the lens on a member to read, in the Properties window, its internal forces (P, Vy, Vz, My, Mz) or its displacements (Δx, Δy, Δz) — the Loads | Displacement switch there — for the load pattern or combination you pick. Reads the last 🧮 Analysis & Design ▸ Run analysis. Press again to turn it off; Scanner, DCR and Deformed show one at a time.
DCR
DCR by station along every designed member, colored in the 3-D view on a scale (blue 0 → green → yellow 0.85 → orange 1.0 → red past 1). Drawn after 🧮 Analysis & Design ▸ Design; press to hide or show it.
Deformed
〰 Deformed — the solved frame as a wire, displaced and exaggerated, colored by how far each node moves (blue none → red the most), in the Framing view on the plan and in the 3-D view. Reads the last 🧮 Analysis & Design ▸ Run analysis; press again to hide it.
Show all
Show all
Electrical Tool Box — symbols
Power + lighting
Which devices the plan shows: power and lighting, the power plan (receptacles, dedicated receptacles, sign outlets, junction boxes) or the lighting plan (lighting outlets, switches, wires). Panels show on both. Click for the next.
−
Smaller symbols (10 %)
−
Smaller text (1 in of text height, at model scale)
−
Smaller gap where a wire crosses another (1 in, at model scale; 0 draws no gap)
Design bar
M
Moment diagram
V
Shear diagram
N
Axial diagram
DCR
Color members by DCR
Values
Show peak values on diagrams
Footer
Plan labels
Structural Tool Box
The Structural box draws the walls, doors and windows, floors, roofs, foundations, stairs, railings and ceilings, and places the underlay — the doors, windows, stairs, railings, ceilings and underlay with the same commands as the Architectural box's (below). The kitchen, bath, furniture, room floors and symbols are the Architectural box's alone.
NODES
Where the frame is HELD — supports.
ASSEMBLIES
Objects that host or reference MORE THAN ONE analytical element — decks, roofs and trusses.
FRAME ELEMENTS
One analytical element each — beams and columns.
CONNECTIONS
What PRODUCT carries the force at a joint — the connectors on the project short list, placed at joints and checked against their demand. You make no marks: the schedules group the joints by connector and fasteners and number them C1, C2…
FOUNDATION
What the building stands on — wall footings, spread footings, a basement, a mono slab and a stem wall foundation. Only on the LOWEST level.
LOADS
What the structure CARRIES — an area pressure, a line load or a point load, each named for the pattern it belongs to.
COMPUTE DCR
The DCR of what is selected — or, with nothing selected, of each member, roof or floor you then pick in the 3-D view (Esc to stop). A roof's or a floor's framing is checked on that roof or floor alone, standing on its walls: seconds, and editing elsewhere leaves it standing. A wall, a column or a beam is checked on the whole model's analysis. The report always uses the whole model's design.
CHECK MODEL
Check the whole model: identical assemblies (one is deleted), every roof and floor re-labelled (and its duplicate truss lines removed), and assemblies that clash — sharing space beyond the touching tolerance — shown in 3-D in two colours and selected. Only structural elements are checked: a wall, roof or deck with no framing is architectural and is left out. Works on the whole model, not on a selection.
Then it solves the model under its dead load LEVEL BY LEVEL, FROM THE GROUND UP: each level with everything below it. It stops at the first level that does not solve and lists that level's problems, one line per wall, roof or deck; the levels above are not checked until it solves. A level unchanged since it last solved is not solved again. Before any foundation is drawn, the ground floor's walls and posts stand on pinned supports; once one is drawn, the foundations are the supports. Gravity only: whether the building resists wind and earthquakes is the analysis's to find.
APPLY CONNECTOR
Opens the Joint form: pick the connector from the project short list, click the elements that ACT, then the one they bear on LAST — a truss then the wall top plate in plan, or the webs then the chord in a section. ENTER places the joint where they meet (directly or through one link); Esc clears the path. A joint holds one of its connector unless you set its Qty in its form; its demand is divided among them.
BEAM / COLUMN
One analytical element drawn end to end, in ANY direction — a beam, a column, a diagonal. Draw it in a SECTION view: click each end. ─ Beam is the level-in-plan case; this is the general one.
TRUSS
Draw a line in plan that is going to become a TRUSS — a framing of its own. Click each end. It opens as an elevation once you tick Detailed truss.
FRAME_HIP
Frame ONE hip end of a generated roof: set the hip girder setback in Properties, then click anywhere on the hipped end's plane (plan or 3-D) — the plane whose eave the girder runs parallel to. The girder, the hip trusses and the jacks ⚙ Auto frame would lay there are laid at once; ⚙ Auto frame then leaves that end alone and fills the rest. Again on the same end replaces its set.
FRAME_1/2_HIP
Frame ONE hip as a half hip, two ways (chosen in Properties): click the hip, then the truss that is its girder — kept as drawn, not extended; or give the girder offset and click the hipped plane — a short girder is laid, from the side eave to the hip, for you to extend. The hip truss and the jacks on both sides of the hip are laid up to the girder's line.
H/V/R
Frame a generated roof's hips, valleys and ridges: click the roof (plan or 3-D). The blocking that carries the sheathing edges is drawn along every crease a truss does not already run along, in the roof's truss material and chord position — drawing only, no analytical element. Click a roof that has it to take it off.
RELEASE
Analytical view only. Click a framing line to cycle its end releases — both → start → end → none. On a truss designed individually it cycles the member you click.
IN-LINE STUDS
In-line Studs — click the MASTER wall (framed), then each parallel wall that must follow its stud pattern: on another level, or across a span. Click the wall, one of its studs or its assembly, in the plan, a section or the 3-D view. Its studs are projected square onto each one (openings and ends stay the wall's own), and the link is kept: ⚙ Auto frame on either lays them out again. ESC ends.
G_CELL
G_CELL — click a cell of a CMU wall in the plan: an empty cell becomes grouted with the wall's vertical bar (a fully grouted wall: the bar only); a cell added here becomes empty again. The wall re-frames. ESC ends.
SUPPORT
Click a framing line to add a support at that point. It is marked as placed by hand, so re-reading the bearings will not remove it.
WALL FOOTING
Click the WALL it goes under. It is HOSTED — it takes that wall's line and length, moves with it, and goes when the wall goes.
SPREAD FOOTING
One click drops a spread footing there. Its size, eccentricity and cover are Properties, and its load is typed or pulled from the last design run.
BASEMENT
Draw the outline: click each corner, then the first again to close. Every side is a retention (stem) wall on a continuous footing — the depths are measured DOWN from the top of the stem wall.
AREA / ZONE
A pressure in psf over part of a deck, roof or zone — it acts PERPENDICULAR to that surface. Click each corner, then the first again (or ESC) to close. Plan only: an elevation holds no surface.
LINE LOAD
A line load in klf — a partition, a wall over. On the plan, click each end; in an elevation, click the element it acts on.
POINT LOAD
A point load in kips — a hung unit. On the plan, one click; in an elevation, click the element it acts on.
UNDERLAY
The traced drawing under the plan — move it, set the model's origin, calibrate its scale, crop or remove it. IMPORT & EXPORT ▸ IMPORT UNDERLAY brings one in.
Electrical Tool Box
Besides its own devices, wires and room floors, the Electrical box draws and edits the walls, doors, windows, kitchen and bath fixtures and furniture, and places the underlay — the same commands as the Architectural box's (below), so an electrical user can start from an underlay alone. Floors, roofs, ceilings, stairs and the framing are seen and snapped to, not edited.
RECEPTACLE
RECEPTACLE — Click beside a wall, on the face it goes on, at the station it goes. With its Mounting set to floor box, ceiling or column (Properties, before placing), click anywhere. Type, countertop, mounting height and circuit are in Properties.
WIRE
WIRE — Click a switch, electrical outlet or receptacle, then where the wire bows (none: a standard arc; several: a curve through them), then the device it ends at. The next wire starts there; Esc stops. A switch gets a gang for each wire leaving it; two switches wired into the same lights are 3-way. Arc or Chamfered in Properties; drag its bow points to reshape it.
ROOM FLOOR
ROOM FLOOR — Click inside a room: its floor is the space inside the wall faces, run under each door to the middle of the wall. Its type, area, perimeter, material, colour, pattern and baseboard are in Properties; ✎ Edit boundary reshapes it. Clicking beside an existing floor fills the rest of the room; with no walls round the click, a 10 × 10 ft square.
DEVICES, ARCHITECTURE, UNDERLAY
The Electrical box's tabs. It opens on DEVICES: receptacles, switches, outlets, panels, the meter, wires and room floors. ARCHITECTURE: walls, doors, windows, kitchen and bath fixtures and furniture, drawn and edited here. UNDERLAY: move it, set the origin, calibrate its scale, crop or remove it.
Architectural Tool Box
WALL
Draw a wall — click each end. Centerline by default; TAB while drawing puts the line on the sheathed face, or change Reference in Properties. It is the SAME object the Structural box draws as a bearing.
DOOR
Click the WALL, then the other side of the opening along it. Starts at sill 0 with a 6'-8" head and draws as a French door — hand and swing angle are on the opening. It is the SAME object the Structural box's □ Opening draws.
COLUMN
One click on the PLAN drops a column there: a section base × height, standing on its Bottom level — the plan you are on unless you pick another in Properties first — up to its Top from level. It is the SAME element the Structural box's ▯ Column draws; it is analysed once Structural gives it a section.
BEAM
Draw a BEAM in plan: click each end. A section base × height at its Elevation level — the plan you are on unless you pick another in Properties first. It is the SAME element the Structural box's ─ Beam draws; it is analysed once Structural gives it a section.
MONO SLAB
Draw a MONO SLAB (a slab on grade poured with its thickened edge): click each corner, then close it. Its perimeter gets a thickened edge, and where a wall bears on one of those edges a wall footing is derived. Depress it in Properties for a garage. Ground floor only — it is the same object the Structural box's ▤ Mono slab draws.
STEM WALL FOUNDATION
Draw a STEM WALL FOUNDATION: click each corner of the stem wall's outside face, then close it. A floating slab fills it; every side is a stem wall (concrete or CMU) on a footing. The slab's top and its depressions set the stems' top. Select it and click a side to give that side its own footing width and depth. Ground floor only — the same object the Structural box's ⊓ Stem wall foundation draws.
SLAB DEPRESSION
Lower part of a SLAB ON GRADE — a garage, a shower pan. Draw the area inside the slab: click each corner, then the first again to close. Depth and whether the bottom drops too are Properties.
BRICK LEDGE
BRICK LEDGE — click a side of a mono slab or a stem wall foundation: the whole side is notched from the top for brick, the width and depth in Properties (3 in and 6 in unless you change them). Click a ledged side again to remove its ledge.
FLOOR DECK
Draw a FLOOR DECK: click each corner, then click the first again (or press ESC) to close it. It is the SAME outline the Structural box's ▦ Floor Deck draws.
STAIR
Draw a STAIR as in Revit: set its levels, width, max riser and tread in Properties, click where a run's first riser goes, then click its end — the run takes as many risers as fit. Click where the next run starts and a landing joins them; the stair is made when every riser is placed (or press Enter). The plan symbol and the opening in the floor above come with it; its railings are RAILING objects.
RAILING
Draw a RAILING: click its points, then Enter or double-click to end it (Shift or ortho keeps a segment square). Its height, style and post spacing are in Properties. Drawn along a stair it follows the stair's nosings and landings.
VANITY
VANITY — Click a wall in plan: it stands against the face you clicked, centred where you clicked, and moves with the wall. Its rows are in Properties. Architectural only: no load.
CEILING
CEILING — Click inside a room: its ceiling is the space inside the wall faces, at the height in Properties. ⤒ Find above makes it follow the trusses, members or assembly ceiling over it (a profile you can drag in a section along its direction). Clicking beside an existing ceiling fills the rest of the room; with no walls round the click, a 10 × 10 ft square.
ACCESS PANEL
Place an ATTIC ACCESS panel in a ceiling: click its centre. It is 22 x 30 in (FBC-R R807.1's least) — its size and rotation are in Properties. 🧮 Compute Building Areas checks each attic has one, with 30 in of headroom above it.
OFF-RIDGE VENT
Draw an OFF-RIDGE VENT on a pitched roof: click its two ends. State its net free area per foot in Properties; with the roof's soffit vent NFA it is the attic ventilation provided (R806.2, 🧮 Compute Building Areas and the roof plan sheets).
BUILDING, FOUNDATION, INTERIOR, UNDERLAY
The Architectural box's tabs. It opens on BUILDING: walls, doors, windows, floor and roof decks, the pitched roof, stairs and railings. FOUNDATION: slabs, stem walls, depressions, brick ledges, columns and beams. INTERIOR: room floors, ceilings, kitchen and bath fixtures, furniture, access panels and roof vents. UNDERLAY: move it, set the origin, calibrate its scale, crop or remove it.
PROFILE ROOF
Draw a PROFILE ROOF — a roof with no hips, as a farmhouse's: click the ridge's two ends on the gable walls' line, then click out to a side's wall line. Each side's slopes (one, or several where the slope changes partway down), its eave overhang and the rake overhang at the gables are set in Properties.
Both sides start at the width of the third click and at the roof's pitch. In Properties, each side's slopes are written from the
ridge down to its wall line as pitch × plan width, separated by ; — 12/12 × 6; 4/12 × 6 is a side that is 12/12 for 6 ft and
then 4/12 for 6 ft, with a break line between them. Side A is the side to the left looking from the ridge's first end to its
second. none on one side makes a shed, its ridge the high edge. The eave overhang of each side continues its last slope; the
rake overhang runs the roof out past both gable walls (0 is a closed gable). Heights shows the ridge and each side's wall line:
side A's wall line is the roof's level, and side B's follows from its own slopes, so a side B that lands lower or higher is a
saltbox whose walls must match. Wall line, side A / B gives a side's wall line a height (ft over the roof's level): typed, that
side's lowest slope's pitch is computed to reach it and the ridge stays where it is; blank, the wall line is where its slopes reach.
Ridge gives the ridge a height; blank, it is side A's wall line plus its rises. A computed value is shown in grey italics.
Selected, the roof shows a small table on each side — its slopes' pitches and widths, its wall line and its overhang — typed in place as in Properties, and a grip at the middle of each edge of its outline: from above, a side's grip widens or narrows its lowest slope (the breaks stay), a gable's moves that end of the ridge. The outline stays a rectangle on the ridge, so it has no EDIT BOUNDARY or H/G marks.
Frame for decides how AUTO FRAME frames it: RAFTERS (the default) on a beam under the ridge and under each break, or TRUSSES across the ridge, each top chord bending at the breaks.
DORMER
Add a DORMER to a roof slope: click its two front corners along the roof's eave. Its depth runs up the slope until its roof meets the roof it stands on, and the valleys between them are found as a merge's.
In the roof's Properties, under Dormers, each dormer has its type (gable or shed; remove takes it off), its pitch, its plate (how far its walls' top stands above the roof's walls' top) and its front: flush stands it on the wall below, a wall dormer; set back moves its front up the slope by the setback, a roof dormer. A shed dormer must be flatter than the roof under it. Its front wall and two cheek walls are made with it and follow it; the cheek walls stand on the roof, their bottoms sloped along it, and butt the front wall.
When the roof is framed with rafters, ⚙ Auto frame frames the dormer's opening in it: a doubled trimmer under each cheek wall, eave to ridge; a doubled header across the opening where the dormer's roof meets the roof, which the rafters above it, the dormer's ridge and its valleys bear on; under a set-back dormer, a second header under its front wall, the rafters below it running up to it. The dormer's own roof is framed with rafters on its ridge beam, as any roof is.
Underlay — in the Architectural, Structural and Electrical tool boxes
MOVE UNDERLAY
Move the underlay of the view in front of you
SET ORIGIN
Click a point on the plan: it becomes 0,0. The whole model and every level's underlay move together, so nothing moves relative to anything else.
CALIBRATE SCALE
Calibrate the underlay's scale from a known dimension
CROP UNDERLAY
Crop the underlay
REMOVE UNDERLAY
Remove the underlay of the view in front of you
Section
＋ Add to project
Add this section to the project list. It is designed by the code its material names — ACI 318-19 for concrete, TMS 402-22 for CMU.
Analysis log
✕ Cancel
(to write)
Export wizard
＋ Add view
(to write)
⧉ Copy
Duplicate the selected view.
🗑 Remove
Remove the selected view. Undoable.
📤 Export
Build and download the ticked views.
👁 Preview sheet
Build the layout sheet and open it in a new tab. The SAME call as the export, asking for SVG — so what you see here is what plots.
Select by
▢
Select by the first chip offered (or the pasted solver message)
Grid lines
X grid lines
(to write)
Y grid lines
(to write)
Z grid lines
(to write)
＋ Row
(to write)
⇅ Reorder
Order this tab's rows by coordinate and delete the repeated ones
Cancel
(to write)
✔ Apply
(to write)
Plan view
✕
(to write)
🗑 Delete level
(to write)
Apply
(to write)
Reference planes
✕
(to write)
Place lines
(to write)
Import
✕
(to write)
✂ Crop
Left-drag a rectangle; the shaded area is discarded. Drag another to re-crop — the new one replaces it.
✥ Pan
Left-drag to pan. Middle-drag and space-drag pan in either mode; the wheel zooms.
⤡ Fit
Fit the drawing to the window
Apply
(to write)
View tabs — above the drawing
One view fills the drawing area at a time; each open view has a tab. A level's plan is the 3-D looked at from above, in orthographic, at that level; the plans share one camera, so moving between levels keeps the zoom and the pan, while the 3-D tab and each saved 3-D view keep their own. A plan tab follows its level when you step with ‹ › at the bottom left. Click a level in the Model explorer or a section's cut mark to open its tab; PLAN VIEW and 3D VIEW in the VIEW menu, and SHEETS, go to theirs. The tabs open are saved with the file.
The tabs are the list of views. A view you keep, a 3-D view saved with SAVE VIEW (or a renamed copy) and each section you draw, always has its tab, and its × deletes the view: it asks first, and Undo brings it back. Any other tab's × only closes it, because that view opens again from the model: a level's plan from the Levels in the Model explorer, a grid line's elevation from its bubble, the 3-D from 3D VIEW, SHEETS from its menu. The last tab stays.
Each drawing a generated sheet places is a drawing view, named after the drawing (Wall layout - Ground Floor), with its sheet's number beside it, in the SHEETS list. Double-click a drawing view's name there, or a tab's name, to rename it: Enter keeps the name, Esc puts the old one back. A drawing view's name is its sheet's drawing title (a title typed in the sheet's title block still wins), its name in the sheet list, and the caption under it when it is placed on another sheet with + Viewport of …. A view keeps what you arranged on its sheet when you rename it.
Elevations and sections drawn on one sheet together are, for now, one drawing view.