Every wall on the floor plan becomes an element: its thickness, material, height and area are recorded. Rooms know their volume, doors their type, sockets their circuit. The take-off builds itself, clashes are marked on the plan, and the model goes to BIM software as IFC.
The walls you draw in the Plan editor already have dimensions. The BIM layer gives them meaning: which material, how many centimetres, load-bearing or not, which floor they belong to. A room is more than its area; it gets a volume and a floor finish. A socket is more than a symbol; it gets a circuit and a height. This information feeds the quantity take-off, the cost estimate and the voltage simulation; change it in one place and it updates everywhere.
The class is assigned automatically as you draw. Most properties are measured from the plan; ones like material and height you enter once, and they are copied to similar elements.
| Plan element | IFC class | Properties | Take-off output |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wall | IfcWall | Length, thickness, height, material, load-bearing, interior/exterior, U-value | m · m² (net, openings deducted) · m³ |
| Door | IfcDoor | Width, height, type (single, double, sliding, pocket, folding), swing direction, material | Count · m² · type list |
| Window | IfcWindow | Width, height, sill height, glazing, frame | Count · m² · glass area |
| Room | IfcSpace | Name, use, net area, perimeter, height, floor finish, wet area | m² · m³ · skirting m · finish m² |
| Slab and plot | IfcSlab · IfcSite | Gross area, thickness; stair openings are cut out of the slab | m² · m³ · plot m² |
| Column · Beam | IfcColumn · IfcBeam | Section (rectangular, circular), height, material, structural system; volume in 3D, hatching on the plan | Count · m³ · formwork m² |
| MEP symbols | IfcFlowTerminal · IfcElectricDistributionPoint · IfcFlowSegment | Type, height, circuit, power, residual current protection | Count · cable m · breaker list (from the voltage simulation) |
Every element comes with a standard Pset: Pset_WallCommon, Pset_DoorCommon, Pset_SpaceCommon. You add your own fields too: supplier, unit price, revision note.
Wall length and area, slab m², volume m³, door and window count, cable metres. When the plan changes, the table changes; it downloads as CSV and PDF.
Furniture inside a door swing, a socket on a door opening, an object inside a wall, overlapping rooms, a cabinet blocking a window and a circuit running through a column. A violation is a circle on the plan and a row in the list.
Save a state of the plan as a version; afterwards, added, deleted and changed elements are colour-coded on the plan, and the take-off difference comes out as a table. No more "what did you change?"
Ready-made materials for walls, slabs, frames, glass and concrete; walls come with thermal conductivity (λ) and a calculated U-value. Add your own wall material and it's listed in all your projects.
IFC in one click. Geometry, classes, materials, property sets and floor–space relationships are preserved; MEP outlets carry their circuit and breaker info. The BIM team opens the model in their own software and carries on.
Reinforced concrete columns and beams can't be drilled later; the most common surprise on site is the electrician's line that lands on a column. The module recognises the columns and beams on the plan as structural elements; when a circuit route or a socket or switch position clashes with them, it warns you and suggests an alternative route.
Floor height, exterior and interior wall material, floor finish, frame type. You enter them once; every new element you draw starts with these values. If you change them later, you can apply them to everything or only to the selected elements.
The right panel shows the IFC class and property set. Mark a wall as load-bearing, make the bathroom a wet area, set the kitchen door to sliding. With "apply to all", it carries over to elements of the same type in one go.
The "Clash check" button lists the violations; click one, the plan focuses on it, fix it. The take-off table is live in the BIM panel; IFC, the CSV element table and the PDF sheet download via separate buttons, or all together with the Handover set.
Plan and furniture layers; room areas and plan summary. No property sets, take-off or IFC.
MEP layer, all door types, 3D isometric and scaled PDF. No element properties, no take-off.
Take-off from dimensions and material schedule, DXF. No element properties, no clash detection.
Property sets, material library, live take-off, clash detection, revision comparison, IFC export.
No; Nodaform works at concept scale. The goal is to give every element in the plan properties, get the take-off automatically and take the model to BIM software as IFC. Detailed design continues in those programs.
IFC2x3 (Coordination View 2.0): Revit, ArchiCAD, BIMcollab and free IFC viewers all open it. Wall, door, window, slab, space, column, beam, furniture and MEP elements are written with their classes, materials and the property sets you entered.
Furniture inside the door swing clearance, sockets and switches on a door or window opening, objects inside a wall, overlapping rooms, tall furniture blocking a window, and a circuit passing through a reinforced concrete column or beam, or a socket landing on a column.
The breaker, cable size and circuit info found by the simulation is written to the property sets of MEP elements; it shows up in the IFC and the take-off. Both are in the same Ultimate plan.
Ultimate. On Pro, the take-off and material schedule come from dimensions; Ultimate adds property sets, clash detection and IFC.
Open a free account and draw your plan. When Ultimate is switched on, the same plan becomes a BIM model with property sets; no redrawing.