In development · early access
One model, and nothing drifts.
engiCAD is CAD software for mechanical, electrical and plumbing building services. You draw in plan, the way you already work — and get a coordinated 3D model, sizing and load calculations, schedules and bills of quantities out of it.
Built with practising engineers, on live projects.
The idea
The drawing and the spreadsheet always disagree.
In most MEP workflows the drawing and the engineering live apart. Duct sizes are worked out in a spreadsheet, typed onto a drawing, and then drift as the design changes. engiCAD keeps the geometry, the system topology and the calculation in one place, so a change to the layout re-sizes the run, updates the schedule and moves the cost.
2D in, 3D out
Draw in plan. Get a 3D model.
The interface is the 2D plan view every building-services engineer already knows. There is no 3D modelling to learn and no team to retrain — the third dimension comes from the data you were entering anyway, and it is what makes the calculations and schedules possible.
- Author in 2D — draw services in plan with the drafting tools and shortcuts you already use.
- Elevations do the rest — levels, offsets and gradients give every run its true height; risers connect floors.
- A real 3D model — every element you place appears in it: ductwork and pipework, plant, terminals, boards and accessories, luminaires, detectors and cameras, walls and spaces — including the element types you create yourself.
- Walk through it — a 3D view with first-person navigation for checking coordination before it reaches site.
Disciplines
Every service, side by side.
Not just drawn in one file: every service works from the same levels, spaces and model data, so what one discipline enters, the next can use.
Ventilation & HVAC
Ductwork with automatic sizing, terminals, plant, fire dampers and index-run pressure analysis.
Ventilation design →Air conditioning & VRF
VRF and split pipework, unit pairing, copper line sizing, piping limits and F-Gas charge.
VRF design →Plumbing & hot water
Loading units under four demand codes, pipe sizing, hot-water return loops with pump head.
Plumbing design →Drainage
Discharge units accumulated per branch to BS EN 12056-2, stack assignment and gradients.
Drainage design →Electrical, data & ELV
Circuits, distribution boards, derated cable sizing, structured cabling, lighting and CCTV.
Electrical design →Controls & containment
BMS control panels and device links, with user-defined containment types routed and counted like any other service.
What it does
Design, measure and issue.
Calculations & sizing
Darcy–Weisbach duct sizing, four water demand codes, BS EN 12056-2 drainage, HWR pump head, EnergyPlus loads, psychrometrics and illuminance.
See the solvers →Quantities & BOQ
Take-off measured from the model with waste margins and stock lengths, a numbered bill with builder's work, Excel export and traceability back to the drawing.
See the take-off →Working with DWG
Open DWG and DXF directly as editable geometry or a coordination underlay, with the full modify toolset and reload when the architect reissues.
See interchange →The model & 3D
Typed objects with instance and type parameters, parametric groups that carry a change through, and building context — levels, spaces and occupancy — that feeds the calculations.
See the model →Your projects
Open today's job on any machine.
Projects live encrypted in your own engiCAD cloud space. Sign in from the office desktop, a laptop on site or a machine you've never used before, and the work is there — along with the drawing references it depends on.
Any machine
Sign in and your projects are there, in folders you can organise, move and copy to start the next job.
Version history
Browse earlier versions of a project and restore one. A bad afternoon costs you an afternoon rather than the job.
Underlays travel too
The DWG and DXF references a project depends on sync alongside it, so a project opened elsewhere isn't missing its background.
Works offline
Lose the connection and a cloud project still opens from the copy on your machine, underlays included.
Encrypted
Project files are encrypted and integrity-checked, and move over HTTPS.
Crashes cost nothing
Background recovery snapshots run while you work, so an unsaved hour survives a crash or a stray reboot.
On teams: cloud projects belong to your account. engiCAD does not yet support two people editing one project at the same time, or sharing a project between accounts — so treat it as your own work following you between machines, not a shared workspace.
Why join now
Ask for a change. See it in the next build.
engiCAD is being written now, and a request from a practice using it goes straight to the people building it.
No support tier
Your request goes to whoever is writing that part of the code.
Small changes land in days
A schedule column, a sizing default, a label format, a shortcut — the things that decide whether a tool fits your office or fights it.
Bigger things go on the roadmap
Larger features go on the roadmap, so you can see where they stand.
Your priorities set the order
While the number of practices is deliberately small, the ones using engiCAD have disproportionate influence over what gets built next.
It ships to the build you run
Changes arrive as updates to the version you already have.
Written on live projects
Every feature so far came out of real MEP work under a real deadline, which is why the defaults tend to match how a practice already works.
Your work stays yours: everything you draw exports to DWG and DXF with native dimensions, text and leaders, and your project data comes out as schedules and Excel. Adopting engiCAD early does not trap your drawings inside it — if it ever stopped being the right tool, they open anywhere.
Early access programme
Apply for early access.
Places are limited. Tell us what you work on and we will arrange a walkthrough against a drawing you recognise — the first step into the programme, with no obligation to go further.