Type the lot size, the number of floors and the rooms. PLOTVA draws a dimensioned floor plan in feet and inches, checks the rooms, stairs and egress openings against the IRC 2021 limits, checks occupant load and egress width against IBC 2024, takes wind and seismic demand from ASCE 7-22, sizes the concrete to ACI 318-19, and writes a native AutoCAD DWG set. It runs offline on your own computer, from $2 for a day.
These are the residential limits that decide whether a layout is usable, and they are applied as you draw rather than discovered at review.
| Item | IRC 2021 limit | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Habitable room floor area | Not less than 70 sq ft | R304.1 |
| Habitable room minimum dimension | Not less than 7 ft in any horizontal direction | R304.2 |
| Ceiling height | 7 ft minimum in habitable rooms | R305.1 |
| Stair riser | Maximum 7¾ in | R311.7.5 |
| Stair tread | Minimum 10 in | R311.7.5 |
| Guards at stairs, decks | 36 in minimum above the walking surface | R312.1 |
| Emergency escape opening (bedrooms) | 5.7 sq ft net clear, at least 20 in wide and 24 in high, sill no higher than 44 in | R310.2.1 |
| Hallway width | Not less than 36 in | R311.6 |
A plan can satisfy every line in this table and still fail zoning: setbacks, lot coverage, height and parking are municipal, not IRC. The software tells you which rules it applied so the local check is quick — it cannot know your town's ordinance.
Enter the lot and the buildable envelope, choose the floors and rooms, and the plan is generated to scale in feet and inches — then you edit walls, doors and windows parametrically on the canvas.
IRC for the house itself (rooms, stairs, guards, egress windows) and IBC where the building is larger or mixed-use (occupant load, egress width, travel distance). The sheet states which one governed.
Wind and seismic demand from the standard, carried into member demand/capacity, drift and torsion, with the seismic parameters printed on the sheet.
Columns, beams and footings from load and soil capacity, with a bar-bending schedule you can hand to a fabricator.
Concrete, formwork, rebar, framing, insulation area, finishes and openings, priced per item and per square foot — a real BOQ, taken off the geometry.
30 AIA layer names, real dimensions, blocks and drawing units, plus DXF AC1032 / 2018. Your drafter opens it in AutoCAD and keeps the layer structure.
It does not stamp a permit set. In the US that needs a licensed architect and, on the structural sheets, a PE seal — and in most states the architect's stamp is on the drawings the building department sees. It also does not compute the town's zoning ordinance, an energy compliance report (IECC/Title 24), or a HERS rating.
The drafting hours and the arithmetic: the dimensioned set, the schedules, the quantities and the structural numbers are generated from one input. That is the part that used to take a week before the architect's review even started.
IRC R304 asks for at least 70 sq ft of floor area, no less than 7 ft in any horizontal dimension, and R305 asks for a 7 ft ceiling. A bedroom also needs emergency escape: R310 gives a net clear opening of 5.7 sq ft, at least 20 in wide and 24 in high, with the sill no higher than 44 in.
IBC 2024 for occupant load and egress width, IRC 2021 for residential room and stair dimensions, ASCE 7-22 for wind and seismic demand, and ACI 318-19 for reinforced concrete design.
They are an accurate, dimensioned set to start from, but a US permit needs a licensed architect and a PE seal on the structural sheets, plus the local zoning setbacks. The software removes the drafting time, not the stamp.
Yes: native DWG on 30 AIA layers with real dimensions, blocks and drawing units, plus DXF (AC1032 / 2018).
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.