Bringing drawings in

Why it matters

Most projects start from something: an architect's PDF, an old CAD file, a scanned plan. Retyping it is slow and error-prone. Warehouse Studio can trace over it, import it, or read it.

Three ways in

Source	Use	Result
A picture or PDF	Import image, then Calibrate.	A scaled background to trace over.
A DXF from CAD	Import DXF.	Real objects: building, zones, columns, doors.
A picture, read by AI	Ask the copilot to digitise it.	Real objects, built from what the AI read.

Underlay: trace over a picture

1. On Facility ▸ Underlay, click Import image (or File ▸ Import underlay…). Images and PDFs both work. For a PDF with several pages, you choose the page.
2. The picture appears behind the drawing, but it does not know its scale yet. Click Calibrate, click two points on the picture whose real distance you know (for example two column centres 12 m apart), and enter the True distance (mm).
3. Now the picture is at true size. Draw over it.

PDFs are turned into pictures inside your browser. The file is never sent to a server for that.

DXF: import a CAD drawing

1. Facility ▸ Underlay ▸ Import DXF, or File ▸ Import DXF (existing conditions)….
2. The platform first surveys the file and tells you what it found: how many zones, columns, doors, and anything it could not map. Nothing is written yet.
3. Confirm, and it builds the objects.

What to know:

• Imported objects are marked imported and phase existing: this is the site as it stands.
• The file's units are read from its header. If the header does not say, millimetres are assumed and the platform says so.
• Layers are matched by name. Warehouse Studio's own layer names always import. Common architectural layer names are recognised. A layer it cannot map is reported, never guessed.
• Existing racking is counted, not created. Without a rack spec there is no honest capacity, so you rebuild racking with a spec.
• The column grid is recovered from where the columns stand.

Digitise: let the copilot read the plan

With a calibrated underlay, ask:

Digitise the reference image: the building, the zones, the columns and the doors.

The copilot reads the picture and builds what it sees, marked imported and existing. It refuses an image that has not been calibrated, because without a scale every number would be a guess. Anything it had to assume, such as a clear height a plan view cannot show, is reported separately from what the drawing actually says.

Try it

Import a photo of any floor plan, calibrate it against a known dimension, and trace the building outline with Building ▸ Polygon.

Words you just learned

Underlay · calibrate · survey (dry run) · digitise.