“What emerges at the end is amazing considering the simple to use tools. It makes you feel like you’re cheating at CAD.”

It’s really straightforward. You select your choice of exterior wall from the menu, provide dimensions, then you click, drag and drop your walls onto the ‘drawing paper’. Do the same with floor slab, windows, doors, stairs, roof…

“It’s like having an architect on your shoulder. The amazing technical-cum-construction knowledge is in-built. It’s the business.”

The drawings you produce will be of an architect-level quality. Dimensions, floor plans, elevations, section showing levels, scaffolding plan, joist layout, notes… all the detail. And you’re guided every step of the way.

“I assumed overlaying the detail would be a protracted manual process. But of course, with PlansXpress, it’s automated.”

Using the hatch buttons on the toolbar you select areas of wall, roof, tree and so on. Different block paving, brick and tile styling, clay, concrete effects, and so on. Once selected, the software automatically adds texture and patterns in your chosen colours.

“We design and build properties for customers. PlansXpress makes it easy to offer them two or three design options. I’m retiring early thanks to the successful career enabled by HBXL!”

Pick and mix. Walls – from standard brick and block walls to rendered block & timber frame, from rendered ICF to stone & SIPS (all with or without parapets) – it copes with it all. Floors – from suspended to beam and block. Roofs – from lean-to and hip to Mansard and Gambrel. Doors – from pocket doors to sliding patio doors. Windows – from rooflights to roof lanterns. And so many more specs.

“The steps are logical. The prompts are handy. And the 3D model is just amazing. It brings my projects to life.”

As you draw your design, the powerful 3D engine automatically creates a 3D model (solid, textured or wire-frame) in a window so you can check your design as you go. The onboard model rotates and re-angles to give the full effect. You can email them to the customer!

“Basically, HBXL bring the user-friendly drawing tools and I bring my building knowledge. It’s a partnership that works.”

Hundreds and hundreds of symbols. All the way from bricks, tiles, flashing, gutters, steels, downpipes, baths, lawn, through to sofas, tables, glazed balustrades, Air Source Heat Pumps, electric vehicle charging points, USB sockets and parametric radiators.

“It would cost hundreds of pounds to get an image like this from the architect. I give the customer added value.”

Our 3D PhotoVisualiser Plug-in comes with the Premium version and can be added to the Plus. The colours and textures you applied are re-rendered to be even more realistic. You can choose the direction of the sun and drop the design into a supplied background or your own photo.

“The subbies who work for me comment on the quality of the drawings. They’ve not seen better from experienced architects.”

Easily place sections (such as SIPs, ICF and Timber Frame) from the section library on to your drawing. The same goes for cross-sections – there’s a whole library of them.

“PlansXpress is so straightforward. I’ve used it for years now after moving from AutoCAD Lite. I get all the detail for very little effort.”

To finish off your plans ready for submission to planning applications and building regulations, insert technical notes from the extensive library. Got EstimatorXpress? It’ll draft the notes for you to cover off the spec you’ve drawn and estimated. We update the spec notes as changes to regs are introduced.

“I can’t fault PlansXpress. It’s a million times easier to use than AutoCAD.”

Show and hide different elements of the design with the section-through tool in the 3D onboard model. It allows you to slice through the design at any point to give the customer the full effect. Help them visualise layout and space.

“I show pdfs of jobs I’ve drawn on my building firm’s website. I get so much more work now I offer Design and Build.”

You’ve completed your drawing – now what? If you want your plans professionally printed you can export the document as an Adobe PDF or a .dwg file. You can also scale it to print on your own A4 or A3 printer in monochrome or colour.

“When I’m not drawing from scratch, I’m manipulating existing plans. Customers give me their architect’s plans to alter – and I’m cheaper!”

Import your plan, then trace. The software captures all the information. You can then edit the plan as though you’d produced it originally. Or you can import the captured data into our estimating software, EstimatorXpress for an instant cost.

“A builder friend just has the take-off tool, not the drawing tools. He uses it to produce automatic estimates in EstimatorXpress. Mind-blowing!”

With your new plan drawn, or existing drawing traced, drop your drawing into award-winning EstimatorXpress. The software goes to work and in minutes you’ll have a fully costed and quantified set of plans – plus a set of management reports as well.