Your first project: from an empty file to a PDF

The first time SumiCAD starts, Set up your firm opens. Type Your name, the Firm name, the address lines and, for permit sheets, the office registration and the managing architect, then click Save firm. Nothing is sent anywhere: it stays on this PC.

In a hurry? Skip for now — the status bar keeps a Set up your firm link, and Options › Firm & user opens it any time.

Open File › New project (Ctrl+N). SumiCAD starts with an empty plan, a 910 mm grid and two stories, 1F and 2F. Save it right away with Ctrl+S and give it a name: from then on every change can be undone with Ctrl+Z, step by step.

This tutorial continues with the built-in sample house so every picture matches what you see; your own house works the same way.

Click the gear next to STORIES in the Navigator (right). Each line is a story: its name, the FL from GL (1F at GL+500 is usual for a timber house on a 布基礎) and the height to the story above. Add a story for a 3F or a basement.

With Link levels to the frame on, the 土台 and the foundation follow the 1F level by themselves.

Press W (or click Wall in the Toolbox). The Info Box at the top now shows the wall settings. Open Build-up and pick an exterior wall — EXT-01 Hybrid timber 105 here: posts, insulation, sheathing and siding in one wall, with its thickness and U-value. Geometry stays on Chain: one wall after the other.

The list shows exterior, interior and RC walls; Edit… makes your own.

Click where the wall starts — here the grid crossing X1 · Y1. Move the mouse: the wall follows, drawn at its real thickness, and the tracker next to the cursor shows the grid position (X5 · Y1 · axis), the length and the angle. Click again where it ends. With Chain the next wall starts from there.

The cursor snaps to grid crossings, the grid lines and every 455 mm step of the 910 module (status bar: Grid 455). Hold Shift for 45° steps, Alt to draw free.

No need to hit the exact spot: point in the direction of the wall and type the length in mm — the digits appear in the tracker box next to the cursor (length 6370 mm). Enter makes the wall; the next one starts at its end. Here 3640 + 6370 = 10,010 mm, eleven modules.

Along a grid line the angle locks to 0° or 90° by itself; Shift gives 45° steps. Backspace corrects a digit, Esc ends the chain.

Click X1 · Y8, then move back to the first point: the tracker says endpoint — click it. The outline is closed, the corners are mitred and the chain stops (the tool stays on). A rectangle is even quicker: Geometry › Rectangle, two opposite corners.

Behind the scenes each wall gets its posts, 土台 and studs for the structure check.

Open Build-up again and pick INT-01 Partition 105 (interior, 130 mm). The Layer switches to Walls — interior by itself. Click on the outer wall where the partition starts, then on the opposite wall; Esc ends the chain. The T-junctions are cut cleanly and the partition counts as non-bearing unless you say otherwise.

Press Esc twice or click Arrow, then click the partition: it turns blue and a small palette of edit tools appears (move, stretch, rotate, mirror, copy, delete). Drag the middle of the wall: a ghost and an arrow follow, with the distance in the tracker — it snaps to X6 (910 mm). Release to drop it. Or type the distance and press Enter, exactly like a length.

Doors and windows in the wall move with it; the joins to the outer walls update.

Grab an end point of the selected wall and drag it: only that end moves (here back to Y5, a 3640 mm wall). The other walls stay put.

Everything else is in the Info Box while the wall is selected: Build-up (swap exterior ↔ interior or pick another thickness), Ref. line, Length, Height (2400 here, or Story above to follow the next floor), Layer. Each change is one undo step: Ctrl+Z.

Press N (or Window in the Toolbox). In the Info Box pick the maker (LIXIL, YKK AP, the permit window list, or Custom for any size), the series (here the resin window for Hokkaido, cold-region ok), the type (T casement, sliding, FIX…) and the size code: the grid is the maker's table, width code across, height code down — 07413 is 780 × 1,370.

The U-value, the frame colours and the schedule line come with the product.

Type the Sill FL+ (800 here): the Head FL+ follows from the window height. Move the cursor over a wall: the window drops into it, on the side the cursor is on, and the tracker shows the distance from the wall's start and the width. Click to place it.

Later: select it and drag it along the wall, or type the distance. Openings always stay in their wall.

Press D. Choose Exterior (entrance doors) or Interior, then the maker — LIXIL, DAIKEN, Panasonic, Noda, Japanese fittings (fusuma, shoji) or Custom. With LIXIL the series is Lasissa (ラシッサ), the style Hinged door and the size code 07720: 778 × 2,023; the leaf and the casing colour follow.

Move over the wall: the door shows its leaf and swing on the side the cursor is on. Cross to the other side of the wall and the swing flips; slide along the wall to choose the hinge side. Click to place it.

To flip a placed door, select it: the Info Box has Hinge L / R and Swing In / Out.

Press Z and click inside each space. The room follows the walls: move a wall later and the area updates. Type the Name (the list suggests LDK, Bedroom, 和室… with the Japanese name), pick the finishes for floor, walls and ceiling — they feed the finish schedule and the quantities.

Go to the top story (2F) and press R. In the Info Box choose the Type — Mono, Gable, Hip, Butterfly, Flat — and the Pitch in % or sun (寸; 40 % = 4 sun). Overhang… sets the eaves overhang from the wall centre, the same on all sides or per side (north, east, south, west); Eaves… the fascia, soffit and gutter.

Hold Space and click anywhere inside the walls: SumiCAD finds the outline of the building and puts the roof on it with the overhang you set (dashed line), the ridge along the long side for a gable. To draw it by hand, click the corners of the roof outline instead.

Select the roof later to change its pitch, the finish (galvalume, kawara…) or the eaves.

Click the 3D tab (or F3): the same model, with the roof you just made. Drag with the right mouse button to orbit, the wheel zooms, Shift pans; Walk goes inside at eye height. Change the pitch in the plan and the 3D follows.

The STORIES list in the Navigator (right) is the story switch: click 2F to draw upstairs, 1F to come back — or Ctrl+↑ / Ctrl+↓. The plan tab shows which story you are on (2F plan), and so does the status bar.

Open Views at the top of the Navigator. Each story has its plans: Floor plan, foundation, ceiling, electrical… and Floor framing — the Structure view: posts, beams, sill plates and bracing in colour, the rest grey, with member codes. Floor plan switches back.

The structure tools (Column, Beam, Bracing wall) switch to the structure view by themselves and back when you leave them; the Structure view button in the Bracing & structure panel does the same.

Click the 3D tab or press F3. Drag with the right mouse button to orbit, the wheel to zoom, Shift to pan; Walk goes inside at eye height. The model is the plan: a wall moved in plan moves here, and in the elevations, sections and sheets too.

The check runs on demand so drawing stays fast: after a change (here a storage room split off the garage) the Structure: chip in the status bar goes grey with ⟳ — Model changed — click to update. Click it: the seven checks run again in the background and the chip shows the new result, green All OK or red 3 NG. Click a red chip, or press Ctrl+B, to open the panel at the first NG.

Want it live? Options › Live structure check.

Press Ctrl+B or click the Structure: chip in the status bar. SumiCAD checks the timber frame as you draw (在来軸組, 4号): wall quantity 壁量 for earthquake and wind, the balance 4分割法, joint hardware from the N値, post size 柱の小径, beams 横架材, the foundation and floor stiffness 水平構面.

A red row says why it fails and offers the fix — Add cross braces, Use the advised size — one click, one undo step. Every check passes fixes all of them at once. A licensed 建築士 still checks and signs.

Open Layouts in the Navigator. The layout book holds the sheets — A.00 cover, A.01 site plan, A.04 plans, A.05 elevations and sections, schedules — each at true scale with the title block of your firm. They follow the model: no sheet needs redrawing after a change.

The permit set 確認申請 (P.) and the structure sheets (S-) are made the same way from Document.

Press Ctrl+Shift+P. Pick the set (Drawings A.*, Permit P.*, Client set…), One combined PDF, and click Publish. Every sheet comes out on the book's paper at true scale, ready to print. DXF and JWW work the same way for builders on other CAD.

Done: save with Ctrl+S. Next, let an AI do the repetitive work.