Regulations engine

Built on it

• Building regulations — Checks the model against regulation packs.
• Building regulations: BR, DE, SE, PL, IN, ID —
• South Africa SANS 10400 —
• US residential code packs (IRC 2015–2024, 36 states, 5 cities) —

Use it in your add-on

Name it in your manifest's needs. When someone adds your add-on, their account brings this engine too, and every edition loads it the first time your add-on needs it. Version ranges arrive with AL.13.

{
  "id": "com.example.my-addon",
  "apps": ["bimcraft", "cadcraft"],
  "needs": ["engine.regs"]
}

Methods and standards

A pack is a JSON file in the cadcraft-regulation-pack format: a jurisdiction, an authority level (adopted law, government, model code, professional or community), a source, a date and rules. Each rule has an id, a limit with its unit and its clause. A pack can build on another (a state on a model code, a city on its state). The engine compares measured values from the model with the limit in force: stair risers and goings, room area and height, hall width, egress and bedroom escape openings, outlet spacing and counts, footing depth against frost depth, stud spacing and header sizes, joist and rafter spans (horizontal projection), and wall insulation against the climate zone. Span and table values are read from the model-code base packs, quoted by clause. A check that needs a value the model does not hold is a note, never a pass.

Limits

A guide and a design aid, not an engineering approval or a permit check. The registered professional and the local authority decide what is required. A pack can be out of date or incomplete for your place, and a rule it does not have is not a rule that does not apply. Roofs and windows against the energy rules are notes, never passes. Rafters are not judged over 20 psf of snow. Wind loads are not checked. Only installed packs are checked; nothing is looked up online while you draw. The ticks on a CadCraft drawing are kept for the session only, not yet in DWG or DXF.