Design, approvals and documents

The studio is laid out like a drawing desk. Along the top: the design's name (click it to type one), whether it is saved, what it costs before tax, Share and Make a quotation. Under that you choose One room, Whole floor or Front elevation, and Interiors or Turnkey.

1. Open Design studio. The steps down the left go in the order a room is designed. Press a step to open its panel beside the drawing; press it again to close the panel and give the drawing more room.
2. Room: add a photo of the room (optional) so the studio reads it, or set the size yourself in feet (or feet and inches like 12'6"), the door and the windows.
3. Furniture (or Work for a turnkey job): pick pieces from the pictures, or search among them. The plan is drawn to scale with the furniture placed for you. Drag a piece, the door or a window to move it. Dashed pieces are overhead. Under the drawing, Add a door, Add a window and Arrange again change the layout.
4. Style: the look, shown on the plan in its own wood and fabric, and the finish on each wall.
5. Electrical: switches, lights and fans, with wire joints. Photo and AI: how the room could look, painted from your photo.
6. The tabs over the drawing show the Floor plan, Elevations (each wall from inside, with finishes priced by area), Electrical, the 3D walk and the AI look.
7. On the right, a piece you pick shows its size and where it stands, so you can type exactly where it goes, and the Estimate prices everything from your own rates as you change it.
8. Press Share to give the client's name, save, and send it as a PDF, on WhatsApp or as a link. Make a quotation turns it into a quotation.

On a phone or tablet, press Edit beside the drawing's tabs to work on the drawing full screen with your finger or a pencil. The steps sit in a bar along the bottom; each opens its panel over the drawing (from the bottom on a phone, at the side on a tablet), and picking a piece shows its sizes the same way. Press Done to go back to the page.

Whole floor starts from a usual layout (1BHK, 2BHK, 3BHK, villa, office, shop). Each room can be moved, resized, renamed, joined to its neighbour into an L, T or U shape, and furnished. A third tab designs the front elevation.

Bring in a plan starts from a drawing you already have: a photo or PDF of a floor plan, an AutoCAD drawing (DXF), a BIM model (IFC) or an Inbecto design file. In Turnkey mode, the Level of detail (LOD) panel takes a design from a concept (LOD 100) to shop drawings (LOD 400), a site check (LOD 450) and the as-built record (LOD 500).

The clear wall beside a piece

1. On the Floor plan, click a piece, the door or a window.
2. Dimension lines show the clear wall on each side, up to the next piece, door or window, or the corner. A piece on the next wall standing in the corner counts.
3. Only things at the same height count: a counter runs under a window and a wall unit over it, so the gap of a counter is measured to the next counter, not to the wall unit above.

The panel under the plan also says it in words, for example Clear wall: 2'6" on the left.

Place a piece exactly

In the panel of the picked piece, type From the left (back and front walls) or From the top (left and right walls), in feet or feet and inches like 2'6, and press Enter. The piece cannot go past the end of its wall.

Doors

Click a door to set it up:

• Hinged on the: Left or Right (Top or Bottom on the left and right walls), the side its leaf turns on.
• Opens: Into the room, or Outwards. A door that opens outwards does not need clear floor inside the room.
• Width: drag the slider.

Add a door (under the room size) adds another door where a wall has room; drag it where it goes. Only the extra doors have Remove door; the main door stays.

Windows

Add a window adds one more, even on a wall that already has one. Click a window to change its width or Remove window. The ticks for each wall still add or take away a wall's windows in one go.

The 3D walk, the elevations and the PDF show every door and window, hinged and opening the way you set them.

1. Open Design studio.
2. Press Saved designs at the top right. The number beside it is how many your company has saved.
3. Type part of the design name, the client or the room in the search box, or pick a status: Not sent, Sent, waiting, Approved or Changes asked.
4. Press Open (or the small drawing). The design opens where you left it, with its name and client, ready to change and save again.

The latest 50 designs are listed, newest first. They also show under Share, beside saving and sending.

1. Open the Electrical tab. Dashed lines are the wires from the switch board to the lights and fans it works.
2. Tap a wire to put a joint (marked JB) on it there, or press Add a wire joint in the side panel. The wire now runs from the board to the joint, then on to the point.
3. Pick the joint: under Wired through this joint, tick every point whose wire should run through it. Drag the joint to move it on the ceiling.
4. Pick any point to change Wired from: the nearest switch board, or a board or joint you choose. A joint cannot be wired from a point it feeds.
5. Remove this joint hands its points back to where the joint's own wire came from.

The Schedule of points shows the wire joints and about how many metres of wiring the runs need, measured square across the ceiling and down the walls. Joints are priced when your price list has a junction box item; a joint with nothing ticked through it gets no wire and is not priced. A licensed electrician confirms the wiring.

Switch the design to Turnkey (top right of the drawing): the Level of detail (LOD) panel shows in the side panel. Choose the level to work the design out to. The ticks show what it has and what it still needs, and the panel says which level it meets.

• LOD 100 Concept: rooms named, with their sizes and areas.
• LOD 200 Layout: doors, windows and furniture placed.
• LOD 300 Precise: exact sizes, elevations, electrical points.
• LOD 350 Coordinated: wires routed with joints, nothing clashing.
• LOD 400 Ready to make: the specification of every joinery piece, door and window, and shop drawings.
• LOD 450 Site-checked: every room, door and window measured on site, with fixings, tolerances and the order of work.
• LOD 500 As built: what was installed in each place, with dates and warranties, and the handover.

LOD 400: specifications and shop drawings

1. Press Fill the usual specs: each wardrobe, kitchen unit and other made-to-measure piece gets a carcass, shutters, finish, edge band and hardware; each door and window a system, glass and hardware.
2. Press Specifications to change any of them.
3. Press Shop drawings: a sheet for each door, window (D1, W1…) and joinery piece (J1…) with its elevation, specification, hardware and cut list, plus the totals of hardware and board sheets. Print it or save it as a PDF.

LOD 450: site check

Press Site check: who measured and when, the tolerances, fixings and order of work (Use the usual fills them), and each room, door and window as measured. Shop drawings then use the measured sizes and show drawn against measured; a door or window counts as measured once both its width and its height are entered.

LOD 500: as built

Press As built: the make, model, serial, installation date and warranty of each piece, door and window, and who handed over and when.

BIM model

BIM model (IFC) saves the design as an IFC file that opens in Revit, ArchiCAD, BIMcollab and other BIM software, with the level, specifications, site sizes and installed details on each part.

The level shows on the PDF and on the client's link. Glass sizes are worked out with the usual allowance; check them against the profile maker's chart.

1. In Design studio, press Bring in a plan (or Bring in a plan you have when starting a whole floor).
2. Choose the file:

• Photo, scan or PDF of a floor plan: the AI reads the rooms and the sizes written on it.
• DXF from AutoCAD or any CAD program: rooms are found at their exact sizes. Check Drawn in shows the right unit; changing it after you have edited the rooms keeps your changes, scaled to the new unit. A DWG file needs saving as DXF first (File, Save As, DXF).
• IFC from Revit, ArchiCAD or Inbecto: its rooms, doors and windows, from the lowest floor when the model has several.
• Inbecto design file (.inbecto.json): opens exactly as it was saved.

1. The rooms are shown over the drawing. Drag a room to move it and its corner to resize it, type names and sizes in the list (in feet, feet and inches such as 12'6" or 12'-6", or metres such as 3.5 m), Add a room or remove one.
2. For a photo or PDF, press Set the scale, tap both ends of a wall you know and type its real length in feet: everything is resized to match.
3. Press Open in the studio. The plan opens as a whole floor; open any room to furnish it, then save.

To keep a design or send it to another Inbecto studio, press Share, then Design file in Save and send.

The drawing is read on your device; only the reading of a photo or PDF uses the AI allowance.

• 3D: walk through the room or floor, or look from above. Jump between rooms with the room buttons.
• Photo: press Photo for A realistic picture of this view. It takes from a few seconds to under a minute. Download it, or add it to the design PDF.
• Video: choose how the camera moves, or Record your own walk. Every frame is drawn one by one, so a realistic video can take many minutes. Keep the tab open until it is done; switching away pauses it. Stop and keep what is done saves what is ready.

The video is filmed like a camera held in the hand: it drifts very gently and keeps whatever is in the middle of the picture sharp, with things nearer and further a little softer.

Floors, walls, wood and fabric show real wood grain, stone and plaster in your chosen style's colours, and the windows look out on a garden. Armchairs, centre tables, bedside tables, floor TV units, consoles, poufs and plants are drawn from real furniture models.

To make the rooms look lived in, the 3D view also adds skirting, curtains at the windows (not in kitchens or bathrooms), a rug under the bed or centre table, a throw on the bed, a painting over the bed and sofa, lamps on bedside tables and beside the sofa, a vase on the centre table and a plant in a free corner. These are only for the picture: they are not in the plan, the drawings or the estimate. A room where you placed your own rug, plant or floor lamp keeps yours and gets no extra one.

All of this loads a moment after the 3D view opens; on a slow connection the view shows plain colours and simple shapes until it arrives.

Older or low-power devices make these slowly; a laptop is quicker than a phone.

1. Save the design in Design studio with the client's name.
2. Press WhatsApp or Copy link.
3. The client opens Your design: the plan, walls, picture and estimate, with Download PDF.
4. They type their name and press Approve, or Ask for changes.

For drawings and samples made outside the studio (CAD drawings, 3D renders, material boards), record each one on Approvals. See How do I track client sign-offs?.

1. Open Approvals and press New item.
2. Choose the project, the type (working drawing, layout plan, 3D view, elevation, material sample, colour scheme, moodboard) and the room or area. Note the revision and when it was sent; set the status to Sent to client.
3. When the client decides, edit it: Approved, Revision asked or Rejected, the decision date, who decided, and their remarks.

The cards count what is waiting on the client and what has waited over 5 days. Designs waiting on the client also show in My work, and on the client's project link.

1. Open Selections and press New selection.
2. Choose the project and room, then the item: category, brand, model or code, finish or colour. Link it to a material from your list if you like.
3. Enter quantity and rate; the amount is worked out.
4. Move it along: Proposed, Client approved, Ordered, or Rejected.

Committed value adds up what the client has approved, which helps when the client's choices push the budget.

1. Open Documents and press New version.
2. Give the document title, type and project, the file link (for example from Google Drive) and file name.
3. Leave Document key blank the first time; one is made for you.
4. For a revised drawing, add it again with the same document key. Leave the version blank for the next number, and note what changed in this version.

The list shows every version, how many were revised, and which are linked to projects.

With a photo of the room, the studio reads the room (size, door, windows) and draws the plan from it. On AI look, Paint the design shows how it could look.

What the picture changes

• With nothing typed, only colours and finishes take the style you picked: wall paint, wall finishes and the colour of surfaces already there. Furniture, fixtures, doors, windows, lights, fans and switches stay where and as they are.
• Type in What to change, for example *white gloss wardrobe, cove lights*, and only that changes.
• Press Mark the area to change and brush over that part of the photo (Rub out takes the brush back off). Only the marked part comes from the AI; everything else stays exactly as photographed.
• Tick Add the furniture from my plan to the picture to show the pieces on your plan in the photo.

The picture keeps the shape of your photo, and is never painted from words alone.

If the size is not read

Take the photo from a corner, wide and well lit, with a door or a floor tile in view: they give the AI something of known size. You can always type the size, or Set the room yourself. A photo of a floor plan drawing is offered as a plan to Bring in.

If it fails

• Daily allowance used: AI pictures have a daily allowance for each company, and a free allowance for all of Inbecto that starts again at 5:30 in the morning. Try again later or the next day. The plan, elevations and estimate work without it.
• The AI is switched off, or you asked too often: Inbecto can pause the AI for a while, and one person can only ask so many times a minute. The message says which; see why the AI is not available.
• The photo service is busy: try again in a minute.
• No connection: AI needs internet.