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AI drafting for higher education

AI Drafting for University and College Projects

University work is mostly renovation: a 1960s science building gutted floor by floor while the floors above stay in class, tied into a campus chilled water loop and medium voltage system that the facilities department owns. Nomic drafts existing conditions, phased renovation plans, and utility tie-ins in CAD to the campus CAD and design standards, then checks them against the code and the campus standards before your engineer or architect reviews and stamps.

Start for freeAll drafting work
Last reviewed: November 2026

You send

  • Record drawings and campus utility maps
  • Site walk photos of the existing building
  • Campus design standards and campus CAD standards
  • The phasing plan and shutdown windows from facilities
  • Your CAD standards and the code editions the campus uses

Nomic hands back

  • Existing conditions and demolition plans per phase as DWG files
  • Renovation power, lighting, and mechanical plans
  • Campus utility tie-in plans and a tie-in list
  • Record drawings in the campus CAD format
  • Field verify items and open questions for the engineer of record
1234567ABCCLASSROOM201CLASSROOM202CLASSROOM203MEDIA CENTER204CLASSROOM205CLASSROOM206CLASSROOM207MEDIA CENTER208CLASSROOM209CLASSROOM210MEDIA CENTER211STAIRS2$a$a$a$a$a$a$a$a$a$a$aEXIT27'-3"27'-0"27'-3"27'-3"27'-0"27'-3"94'-8"1ALIGHTING PLANSCALE: 1/8" = 1'-0"N1234CONSULTING ENGINEERSREVISIONS1ISSUED FOR REVIEWPROJECTMAPLE RIDGE SCHOOLSCALE1/8" = 1'-0"DATE07/08/2026KEY PLANSHEET TITLELIGHTING PLANSHEET NUMBERE-201

On the sheet

Lighting Plan, annotated

A lighting plan with fixtures laid out room by room, switching, and circuit home runs.

  1. 12x4 LED troffer from the fixture schedule
  2. 2Switching zone shared by the fixtures
  3. 3Wall switch at the door
  4. 4Corridor downlights and exit sign

The problem

The campus standard and the 1964 drawings disagree

Most campuses publish design standards and CAD standards of their own, covering the room numbering scheme, the building automation vendor, approved fixtures, the layer names they want on record drawings, and how a building connects to campus steam, chilled water, and fiber. The firm's own standards still apply on the working set, so a drafter switches between two layer schemes and two title blocks depending on which deliverable is going out.

The existing building is the harder part. Record drawings from original construction show a panel that was replaced in the 1990s, a chilled water riser that was rerouted, and rooms that were renumbered twice. Renovations happen in phases around classes and research that cannot stop, so every phase needs its own demolition plan, temporary power, and shutdown request with facilities, and a missed tie-in point turns into an outage in a building that has to stay open.

01 / Existing conditions

Existing conditions first, then the renovation

Nomic reads the record drawings, the campus utility maps, and site walk photos, and drafts existing conditions before drawing the demolition and new work for each phase. Panels, nameplates, and room signs in the photos are compared with the record set, and every mismatch is listed for field verification.

  • Existing conditions DWGs from record drawings and site photos
  • Demolition and new work drawn phase by phase
  • Room numbers matched to the campus numbering scheme
02 / Campus utilities

Tie-ins to campus chilled water, steam, and power

Each connection to a campus system is drawn at its point of connection and listed with what has to happen for it, whether a shutdown request, a valve the facilities team operates, or a meter the campus standard requires. Nomic builds that list from the plans and the campus standards, so the engineer and the owner see every tie-in in one place.

  • Chilled water, steam, and heating hot water points of connection
  • Medium voltage switch and campus fiber tie-ins
  • Metering and building automation points per the campus standard
03 / Self-check

Checked against the code and the campus standards

Nomic checks the renovation against the code edition you name, including the existing building code for the level of alteration, and against the campus design standards. Campus standard findings sit beside code findings, so the facilities reviewer sees those items handled in the set.

  • Alteration level and scope under the International Existing Building Code
  • Approved fixtures and building automation points from the campus standard
  • Record drawing layers and title blocks in the campus format

Checked against

The code and documents behind every sheet

Name the editions the project is designed to and Nomic checks its own drawing against them before handing it back. Your engineer or architect of record makes the final call and stamps the set.

  • International Existing Building Code
  • IBC and NEC as adopted by the jurisdiction
  • 2010 ADA Standards
  • NFPA 45 for teaching and research labs
  • Campus design standards
  • Campus CAD standards for record drawings

How it works

From a sentence to a stamped set

  1. Step 1

    Ask for the drawing

    Say what the sheet needs to show and attach the backgrounds, markups, cutsheets, or photos. A sentence is enough to start.

  2. Step 2

    Nomic drafts it in CAD

    Nomic works in CAD on its own computer, on your layers and blocks, following how your firm drew the same thing before. It saves real DWG files to the project.

  3. Step 3

    Nomic checks its own work

    The drawing is checked against the code editions you name and the source documents. Everything Nomic drew is clouded, and open questions are listed.

  4. Step 4

    Your team reviews and stamps

    Your engineers and architects review the clouded changes, make the final call, and issue the set under their own stamp.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Yes. Nomic works in CAD on its own computer and saves DWG files for existing conditions, demolition, and renovation plans phase by phase. It checks the set against the code and the campus standards before your engineer or architect reviews it.

Yes. Attach the campus CAD standard and title block, and Nomic draws on the campus layers and fills the campus title block for record drawings, while the working set stays in your firm standard. Both are DWG files your team can open and edit.

Nomic reads record drawings, site walk photos, panel labels, and room signs, and compares them. Where the photos and the record set disagree, Nomic draws what the photos show and lists the item for field verification.

No. Your engineer and the campus facilities department decide the points of connection, the shutdowns, and the metering. Nomic draws the tie-ins from that design, lists each one with what it needs, and flags tie-ins the campus standard or the record drawings do not support.

No. Nomic works in CAD on its own computer and saves DWG files you open in AutoCAD or any DWG editor. For campuses that require Revit deliverables, Nomic provides DWGs and change lists your modelers link into the model.

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What is a record drawing?

The drawing set an owner keeps after construction.

What is a demolition plan?

The sheet that shows what comes out before new work goes in.

What does verify in field mean?

The note for conditions the drawings cannot confirm.

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AI Drafting for Higher Education and Campus Projects | Nomic