The model
Draw in plan. Get a 3D model.
The interface is the 2D plan view every building-services engineer already knows. There is no 3D modelling to learn and no team to retrain — the third dimension comes from the data you were entering anyway, and it is what makes the calculations and schedules possible.
2D in, 3D out
The model builds itself as you draft.
- Author in 2D — draw services in plan with the drafting tools, snaps and shortcuts you already use.
- Elevations do the rest — levels, offsets and gradients give every run its true height, and risers connect floors.
- A real 3D model — every element you place appears in it, with real equipment geometry: ductwork and pipework, plant and terminals, boards and accessories, luminaires, detectors and cameras, walls and spaces — including the element types you create yourself.
- Walk through it — a 3D view with first-person navigation for checking coordination before it reaches site.
- Edit spaces in 3D — shape a room face by face, floor, ceiling and each wall, picking the surface directly in a 3D view of the space.
- Catch it early — elevation-consistency checks across a network, so a clash of levels shows up at your desk.
What an element knows
Every element knows what it is.
engiCAD is model-based. Each element carries its type and instance parameters, sits on a level, belongs to a system and connects to what is around it.
- Typed objects — element types with shareable libraries, carrying instance and type parameters that schedule and drive calculations.
- Building context — levels and elevations, spaces with occupancy data, walls, shafts, floor outlines and soffits.
- Systems with real topology — connected networks the solver traces end to end.
- Data out — schedules, bills of quantities and reports generated from that model rather than retyped from it.
Parametric
Change it once.
Parameters are not just fields on a dialog — they drive the annotation, the schedules and the quantities. A value entered in one place appears everywhere it is referenced, and stays right when the design moves.
Type and instance parameters
Every element type carries its own parameters and each placed instance carries its own values, so a type change moves the whole family while an instance stays specific.
Parametric groups
Nominate one element as the driver and its values propagate to every member of the group — with per-parameter locking, so a member can pin the one value it needs to keep.
Annotation that reads the model
Parametric labels and leaders resolve their text from the element they point at, so a size on the drawing is the size in the model rather than a copy of it that can drift.
Text variables anywhere
Write a parameter reference into any text and it resolves live from the model, including values held on paths and waypoints.
Batch and network annotation
Apply a parametric leader to every element of a type, or annotate every path in a connected network in one pass — and freeze one where a sheet must record what was issued.
Your parameters, your formats
Edit parameters across every element type, and set per-parameter units, decimals, prefix and suffix once so they render the same on the canvas and in exports.
Building context
Enough building to design against.
The architecture in engiCAD exists to serve the services, not to produce architectural drawings. You build it in minutes from the architect's drawing you already imported, and it earns its keep by feeding the calculations.
Spaces from their polylines
Trace rooms straight from the architect's DXF polylines rather than redrawing them, with arc segments supported and vertices editable afterwards.
Walls on their linework
Chained wall drawing with alignment cycling and a corner solver, and an align-to-DXF-line tool so walls land on the architect's geometry.
Levels, floors and soffits
Floor outlines and soffit grids per level, generated from space boundaries, giving ceiling voids and the heights services actually route at.
Shafts and risers
Shafts cut through floors so vertical services have somewhere to run, and risers connect the levels either side.
Space types that carry data
Occupancy density, air changes, lux targets and occupancy hours held per space type, so a room knows what it needs.
Constructions
Wall, roof, floor and window constructions with thermal properties, feeding design-day load calculation.
Scope: this is building context for MEP, not architectural design. There is no architectural deliverable and no import of an architect's 3D model — you derive what you need from their 2D drawing. What it buys you is a space that knows its occupancy and air changes, a wall that can become a fire partition and create its own dampers, and a ceiling void with a real height to route in.
Interchange
Where the model can and cannot travel.
On interchange: engiCAD reads and writes DWG and DXF today, either as editable geometry or as a coordination underlay. IFC / openBIM exchange is not available yet.
Related
Where to look next.
See it on your own project.
engiCAD is in active development and we are onboarding a small number of practices. Tell us what you work on and we will arrange a walkthrough against a drawing you recognise.