Canadian practice is metric on site and imperial in the listing, so the drawing has to be both. PLOTVA draws in millimetres and metres, prints the area table in square metres and square feet, and works to NBC 2020 with concrete to CSA A23.3 for houses within Part 9 scope — up to three storeys and 600 m². Then it writes a native AutoCAD DWG set and a costed bill of quantities. Offline, from $2.
Canada publishes a model code; each province adopts it and then amends it. The edition your permit office enforces is the provincial one, so the software names the family and leaves the amendment check to you rather than pretending one profile fits thirteen jurisdictions.
| Where | What governs a house permit |
|---|---|
| National model | NBC 2020, Part 9 (Housing and Small Buildings) for houses of not more than 3 storeys and 600 m² |
| Ontario | Ontario Building Code 2024, in force 1 January 2025 — NBC 2020 as amended under O. Reg. 163/24, with Ontario supplementary standards |
| British Columbia | BC Building Code, harmonised on NBC 2020 with provincial amendments |
| Alberta | Alberta Building Code, NBC basis with Alberta amendments and its own climate data |
| Quebec | Construction Code, Chapter I — Building, NBC basis with Quebec amendments in French |
Confirm the edition in force on the day you submit, and the municipal zoning by-law: setbacks, height, lot coverage and secondary-suite rules are municipal, not provincial.
Plan geometry and dimensions; room and corridor widths; guard heights (900 mm where the fall is under 4.2 m, 1,070 mm at or above it, and 1,070 mm on exterior balconies); openings checked against the 100 mm sphere rule; concrete member sizing to CSA A23.3 with a bar-bending schedule; a bill of quantities in CAD, USD, GBP or EUR.
Snow load and drift. In Canada that is the governing load for most roofs, it is site-specific, and it belongs to the structural engineer. The software will not invent a ground snow load for your postal code, because a wrong number there is a collapsed roof, not a bad drawing.
Real estate talks in square feet; the trade builds in millimetres. One toggle switches the sheet, and the area panel reports square metres, square feet, square yards, marla and kanal at once — so the same drawing serves the listing, the permit set and the contractor without anybody converting by hand.
Exactly 10.7639. A 100 m² house is 1,076 sq ft; a 1,200 sq ft house is 111.5 m².
Houses fall under Part 9. Cross the three-storey or 600 m² line and the building becomes Part 3 — a different design world, and out of scope here.
30 AIA layers, real drawing units in millimetres, blocks and dimensions — so a Canadian drafting office can pick it up without re-drawing geometry.
Both. Each province adopts the National Building Code of Canada 2020 and then amends it, so the edition your permit office enforces is the provincial one: Ontario's 2024 Building Code came into force on 1 January 2025, based on NBC 2020 with the Ontario amendments.
Part 9 is Housing and Small Buildings: houses of not more than three storeys and not more than 600 square metres in building area. Almost every Canadian house is designed under Part 9, and that is the scope this software is aimed at.
No, and in Canada that matters: snow load and drift are site-specific and are the structural engineer's check. What the software does is plan geometry, room and stair dimensions, guard heights, and concrete design inputs to CSA A23.3 — it does not replace the snow case.
Yes. Canadian practice is metric for construction and imperial for real estate, so the toggle lets one drawing be dimensioned in millimetres and metres, and the area table read in square feet.
Send the plot size, the country and the rooms you want. You get a straight answer with the plan that fits, usually the same day. The button opens a ready-written e-mail — just add your details and send.
No phone number and no e-mail address is printed on this page — the contact button opens Gmail with the address already filled in, so it cannot be scraped.