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Use case 09 · Engineering / Design

Fire system engineering drawing automation

A workflow that imports geometry, generates draft fire-system placement against approved criteria, runs route and clash analysis, and issues controlled drawings with revision clouds. The designer adjusts and accepts. The criteria stay the reference.

Runs standaloneUploads and manual entryCAD / BIM designer signs
Workflow 09 · demo runAwaiting sign-off

CAD or BIM designerDrafting repetitive fire-system geometry consumes designer hours, and each revision is an opportunity for the model to drift away from the criteria that were actually reviewed and approved.

  1. Import the geometryDesigner
    QueuedWorkingDoneSign-off
  2. Generate placementAutomated
    QueuedWorkingDoneSign-off
  3. Run route and clash analysisAutomated
    QueuedWorkingDoneSign-off
  4. Designer adjustmentDesigner
    QueuedWorkingDoneSign-off
  5. Issue controlled drawingsDesigner
    QueuedWorkingDoneSign-off
Stopped for the cad / bim designer to sign
  • Who uses itCAD or BIM designer, design engineer
  • Lifecycle stageEngineering / Design · also Post-Sales / Project Delivery
  • Buyer groupTrack A · Engineering & Design
  • RequirementsBRD v0.1, sent as written
At a glance

What goes in, what comes out

Goes in
Building geometry
Approved criteria
Drawing standards
Engineering Drawing AutomationFive steps · one approval gate CAD / BIM designer signs
Comes out
Draft layout
Schedule
Revision clouds
Review notes
What it does

Engineering Drawing Automation, step by step

Five steps, one decision point. The last step is a person, every time.

  1. 01
    Designer

    Import the geometry

    Building model or drawing set brought in as the working reference.

  2. 02
    Automated

    Generate placement

    Draft fire-system geometry produced against the approved criteria, not against a default.

  3. 03
    Automated

    Run route and clash analysis

    Conflicts raised as a list the designer can work through.

  4. 04
    Designer

    Designer adjustment

    Every generated element can be moved, replaced or rejected.

    Designer accepts the placement?

    Yes Issued as a controlled drawingNo Adjusted, replaced or rejected
  5. 05
    Designer

    Issue controlled drawings

    With revision clouds and the engineering review notes attached.

  6. Output

    What lands at the end

    A draft 2D or 3D fire-system drawing or model, a schedule, revision clouds and the engineering review notes behind them.

Who’s involved

CAD / BIM designerDesign engineer

What you get

  • Draft layout
  • Schedule
  • Revision clouds
  • Review notes

In the wireframe

A layout is regenerated against approved criteria, with a clash list and a revision cloud the designer can accept or adjust.

Use case diagram

Who does what, and who signs

Automated steps prepare the evidence. People make the calls.

Swipe to see the whole diagram

Use case diagram: Engineering Drawing Automation People: CAD / BIM designer, Design engineer. Steps: 1 Import the geometry; 2 Generate placement; 3 Run route and clash analysis; 4 Designer adjustment; 5 Issue controlled drawings. CAD / BIM designer approves the final step. Engineering Drawing Automation«workflow, built with DeX»«inputs»01 Import the geometry02 Generate placement03 Run route and clash analysis04 Designer adjustment05 Issue controlled drawingsCAD / BIM designerDesign engineerCAD / BIM designer«approves»«documents»Building geometry, …
Automated step Done by a person Approval gate Takes part Leads to
What changes

Why this costs you time today

Drafting repetitive fire-system geometry consumes designer hours, and each revision is an opportunity for the model to drift away from the criteria that were actually reviewed and approved.

Task
Today
With this workflow
Repetitive geometry
Drafted by hand every time
Generated against approved criteria
Drift from criteria
Unnoticed across revisions
Shows up as a difference
Revision control
Manual clouds and notes
Clouds and review notes attached
The line we do not cross

What this software will not do

Life-safety work. These limits are written into the requirements, not added as a disclaimer.

Specific to this workflow

It does not author BIM geometry as a deliverable, produce a definitive sprinkler layout or perform hydraulic calculation. The output is a draft for a designer and an engineer to work on.

It does not decide compliance

The software assembles evidence, retrieves source clauses and shows conflicts. It does not determine whether anything complies. A named engineer does.

It does not stand in for an authority

An approval recorded in the software never implies consent from an AHJ, Civil Defence, building control or a building surveyor.

Nothing leaves without a named reviewer

Every output carries who approved it. Anything unverified keeps a draft marker until someone signs it.

It does not do sealed engineering

Hydraulic network calculation, definitive sprinkler layout, sealed design, BIM geometry authoring and final cost estimates are all out of scope by design.

Your standards, not ours

NFPA, EN, BS, ISO, FM, UL, LPCB and Civil Defence appear in the requirements as examples. None is assumed to apply to your projects until you say so.

~1/10of traditional build time
~30%of traditional cost

That is a claim about how fast Colakin builds software with DeX, and it is supported by delivered projects. It is not a claim about what any of these fifteen workflows will save your business. The requirements deliberately leave that to a pilot, measured against your own baseline.

How an engagement runs

From a question to a pilot, in five steps

Nothing hidden behind a discovery call. Stop at step one and keep the document.

  1. 01

    You ask for the requirements document

    The full BRD for the workflow you care about, sent as written.

    Same day
  2. 02

    A ten-minute wireframe walkthrough

    A clickable prototype of that one workflow.

    10 minutes
  3. 03

    The Fire Fit Check

    Five questions: fit, hours lost, who approves spend, whether your documents can be shared, and timing.

    One call
  4. 04

    A scope built on your rules

    Your standards, your document formats, your approval gates.

    Within a week
  5. 05

    A pilot against your own baseline

    One workflow, your data, your engineers.

    Q1
Questions

Engineering Drawing Automation: questions

Is the generated layout a final design?
No. It is a draft placement against approved criteria. Definitive layout, hydraulic calculation and sealed design are outside scope and stay with the engineer.
What stops the model drifting from approved criteria?
Generation is driven by the criteria register rather than by convention, and regeneration compares against it — so drift shows up as a difference rather than passing unnoticed.
Can the designer override it?
Every element. Adjustment is a normal step in the workflow, not an exception to it.
Which CAD and BIM formats?
Configured against the formats your team actually issues in, during scoping.
Next step

Ask for the Engineering Drawing Automation requirements document

The business requirements document as written, including what it refuses to do. No brochure, no drip sequence.

  • The requirements document, usually the same working day
  • A ten-minute wireframe walkthrough with the people who specified it
  • No claimed percentage saving — your pilot measures it

Request the document

One working day. A person replies, not a sequence.

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