The issue package
- Coordinated IFC building data
- Site and grading plans
- Structural details and schedules
- A reviewed PDF plan set
- Quantities you can trace, and the estimate basis
Building, architecture and construction
A building is not one drawing.
Follow a small commercial building from site constraints and early massing to BIM coordination, structural details, redlines and quantified deliverables.
Eight separate open-source apps in CadCraft Studio. Not SuperCad Studio, the separate all-in-one product.
What this firm needs to deliver.
A client wants a new building on a real piece of ground. The firm has architects, civil engineers, structural detailers and estimators, and their work should connect without forcing everyone into one huge program.
People in the chain
- Architect, concept
- Civil engineer, site
- BIM coordinator, model
- Structural detailer, constructability
- Reviewer, revisions
- Estimator, quantities
A responsible hand-off at every stage.
Each step names the person, the app and the result. The story is how the office delivers work, not every engineer using every tool.
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Receive the site
Use survey points, alignments and terrain to set the footprint, the grade and the practical constraints.
- Hand-off
- Site coordinate basis, terrain surface and grading assumptions.
- Engineering check
- Check the survey datum, the units and the quality of the existing conditions.
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Explore the building
Test massing, floor relationships, openings and proportions before committing to detail.
- Hand-off
- Concept model and agreed dimensions.
- Engineering check
- Client approval is a design decision, not something the model decides.
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Coordinate the model
Develop or review IFC elements, sections, systems, properties and schedules, check clashes and design issues, and check the model against the client's IDS file (IDS checks are built for 0.8).
- Hand-off
- Coordinated model, annotated views and schedules.
- Engineering check
- Check the property mapping, and that every discipline works from the agreed model revision.
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Detail the structure
Produce connection and rebar details, or dimensioned construction sheets, from the structural information.
- Hand-off
- Connection details, shop-style sheets and schedules.
- Engineering check
- Review loads, assumptions, constructability and the requirements that apply.
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Close the review cycle
Compare PDF sets, place redlines, assign corrections and review the revised deliverables.
- Hand-off
- Revision-marked plan set and issue record.
- Engineering check
- Someone must close each issue, not just clear an annotation from view.
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Count what will be built
Measure calibrated sheet quantities or supported model quantities and put together the cost inputs. Embodied carbon from those quantities is built for 0.8.
- Hand-off
- Quantity schedule and estimate basis.
- Engineering check
- Check scope exclusions, unit costs and measurement rules.
See it in the apps.
Two short silent recordings from the real apps, one for each half of the story.
What the client gets.
A good case study ends with files and decisions, not a rotating 3D object.
What this example does not claim
There is no automatic live model shared by all eight apps. The work moves through supported files, and people coordinate each hand-off.
The software is free. Building it is not.
CadCraft is open source, and Community has every app and every feature, for personal work and paid client work alike. An owned license is a permanent commercial license in your name, from $1, and it pays for the people building the Great Eight and what comes after it. It adds no features: nothing is held back from Community.
The Team Cloud Plan is a separate service. It will add team seats, cloud saving and sync.