Advanced: one real house, from structure to the estimate

Open Structure › Bracing & structure checks… (or press Ctrl+B, or click the Structure chip in the status bar). The panel docks beside the Navigator and checks the whole house in a few seconds, in the background — you can keep drawing.

The status-bar chip keeps the last result (Structure: 16 NG); after an edit it turns grey until you check again.

Wall quantity 壁量 compares the bracing length you have with what the law needs (令46条, 2025 rules: the need depends on the real roof and wall weights), per story and direction. Balance 4分割 checks each end quarter of the plan; Joints N値 gives each post end its hardware; then post size, alignment (直下率), beams, foundation and floor stiffness.

On this house wall quantity is OK on both floors, but one balance item fails (1F, Y direction) — and the beams have NG items too. Click the red row.

The message names the story, the direction and the quarter, gives the ratios (壁量充足率, 壁率比) and how much bracing is missing — and the other way the law allows: keep the plan and show an eccentricity ratio (偏心率) of 0.3 or less (告示1100).

Under it: one-click fixes (structural plywood or cross braces on the walls of that quarter) and Edit bays… to choose the bays yourself. On this house the west quarter is mostly windows and its bays already carry OSB, so the plywood button finds nothing to add — the hand route below is the one that works.

The popover sets the bracing of the picked bays: Brace (none, 30×90, 45×90, 90×90), single or cross, the Panel (OSB 9, 構造用合板…) on one face or both. The line under it shows the result (Brace 45 cross + OSB 9 × 6.5). Check runs the structure check again at once: here Balance turns green and the house goes from 16 to 15 NG.

Shift+click adds or removes bays; the plan labels each bay with its 倍率. It is an ordinary edit — Ctrl+Z takes it back.

Under each table: the inputs and formulas behind it. For 壁量: the floor areas the law counts, the need per m² for this roof and snow, every bracing wall.

Why these numbers? lists, for wall quantity: the floor areas per story (the stair opening counts on the upper floor, 令2条1項3号), the need per m² from the 2025 table for this roof weight and snow area (Sapporo, 190 cm), the wind need from the elevation areas, and each bracing wall with its length and 倍率. The other checks (4分割, N値, posts, beams) have their own basis.

Navigator › Views: every story has its plan types. Floor framing and Roof framing draw the members the structure check uses.

Click Floor framing (or Roof framing) under a story. Members come from the model: walls give sills and plates, the beam tool and the automatic framing give the beams, the roof gives rafters and purlins. Beam sizes are the ones the beam check uses — a red member is an NG in the Beams row.

In the 3D window, Structure shows the frame only: sills, posts, studs, braces, beams, rafters and the foundation, each kind in its own colour with a count.

Click Structure in the 3D view's panel. The legend on the left lists every member kind with its count — the same members as the framing plans and the quantities. Hardware shows the N値 hardware, Ply the structural panels, Foundation the stems and slab; Cutaway opens a section box.

Views › 1F › Foundation plan. The stems and the slab come from the walls (Design › Foundations under walls), with their profile and insulation.

Every stem is a Foundation element with a profile (Options › Foundation profiles: width, height, footing, insulation inside / outside). Design › Foundations under walls makes them from the 1F walls; the Foundation tool draws more by hand, the Passage tool cuts 人通口. The Foundation row of the structure check (告示1347) reads the same elements.

The Hardware panel (Document › Hardware…) lists the products for every joint. Foundation hardware shows the anchor bolts and hold-downs on the foundation plan.

The layout follows the rules of the sill (bolts within 200 mm of post ends and joints, at most 2.7 m apart) and the hold-downs follow the N値 of the posts above. It updates when you move a wall or a post.

The automatic layout stays the main way; bolts you place are kept on top of it. Reset anchors to automatic in the Hardware panel removes them all.

土間 is a property of the room, not a separate slab: Floor type Floor / Doma / Void. A doma room gets a concrete floor at the doma level with a tile finish (thickness and finish in the Info Box), the floor framing and 火打ち stop over it (令46条3項), and the foundation slab, sections, 3D and concrete quantities follow. A slope (水勾配) toward one side can be set too. Here the living room becomes a 土間リビング — Ctrl+Z puts it back.

Try Connect fixtures to plumbing on the house as drawn and SumiCAD tells you why it cannot: 16 skipped: no cold water main, no drain main, no hot water main on this story — add a pipe shaft to carry the mains. The Pipe shaft (PS) tool places a 450 × 450 shaft with its risers (drain, vent, cold, hot), from this floor to the floor above or to the top; R turns it 90°. Here it goes next to the bathroom.

Site & MEP › Connect fixtures to plumbing draws supply, hot water and drain runs from each fixture to the mains.

Each fixture (unit bath, shower, toilet, vanity, kitchen sink, washing machine pan) carries its MEP points: cold, hot, drain, with the catalogue position where the maker gives it. Connect fixtures to plumbing links them on this story; Connect all plumbing does every story. The runs are ordinary elements: move them, change the size, and they go into the MEP legend & counts and the quantities. The message also lists what is still open: the shaft's three risers wait for a water meter, a sewage pit and a water heater (draw them with the Service line tool and the Plumbing tool).

The electrical plan is a view of the story with the MEP layer combination: symbols (JIS) for outlets, waterproof outlets, switches, ceiling lights, and the runs between them. MEP legend & counts… lists every symbol with its count for the electrician.

Design › Bathroom (or the Toolbox, Interior group) opens the tool with its panel: tabs Bath & shower (unit baths LIXIL SPAGE / Lidea, TOTO sazana / SYNLA, Panasonic Oflora / BEVAS / L-CLASS in every size, LIXIL NS shower units, bathtubs, shower areas), Vanity (vanities, washing machine pans, LIXIL Piara / Crevi) and Toilet. Maker chips and search filter the cards; Custom takes your own W × D × H.

The placement point (Archicad's anchor) is one of nine points of the object: corners, side middles, centre. Wall-backed fixtures default to the back centre, so the tank sits on the wall face; press A while placing to cycle it. The Info Box angle rotates about it and Position X · Y moves the object by it. The fixture brings its MEP points, so Connect fixtures to plumbing finds it, and it goes into the schedules, quantities and the estimate.

Sections and elevations are live views of the model, listed in the Navigator. Section S1 cuts north–south through the loft and the living room.

The section is drawn from the model every time: change the plan and it follows. It is also an editing view — click a wall, slab, beam, window or roof to select it (the Info Box shows it), drag it or its grips (a window's sill or head, a slab's level, a roof's eave or pitch), or type a distance and press Enter. Dragging a floor level asks first, then moves the stories above with it.

Click South elevation in the Navigator (Project). Elevations are cut from the model like sections: siding and roof materials, windows with their frames, the terrain line and the main levels. They update with every edit and are already placed on the sheets A.05.

Each interior elevation shows one wall of the room from inside: openings, casework, finishes and the ceiling line, with the room's heights. They are listed under the room in the Navigator and go on sheets like any view.

The wall section is a detailed section at 1:20 / 1:30 through the wall you click: footing and stem, sill and floor build-up, wall layers (posts, insulation, sheathing, siding), ceiling, plate, eave and roof build-up, each with its note and the main heights (GL, FL, eave, max height) — the drawing the permit office and the builder ask for.

Document › Create permit set adds the sheets a 確認申請 needs, drawn from the model, in Japanese.

The permit set is a sheet book of its own (59 sheets here): 付近見取図, 配置図, 求積図 (areas with their triangles), floor plans, elevations, sections, 矩計図, the structural sheets and the application forms — all from the model, in Japanese, with the firm and the project in the title block. Open each sheet to check it: here 求積図 shows the building and floor areas with the calculation table. The 付近見取図 stays empty until the site has an access map (Site panel).

The Quantities tab lists everything the model contains, by trade: concrete, timber with sizes, sheathing, insulation, finishes, windows, fixtures.

Quantities are grouped by trade and build-up (walls, wall layers, framing, cladding…), with the waste factor and a note on how each row is counted; Export CSV… sends them to a spreadsheet. Estimate prices them: catalogue products (LIXIL windows and doors, IKEA kitchen frames…) come with a price, generic items show unlinked until you give them one in the Price list… — the estimate never invents a price.