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AI drafting for mechanical piping

AI Mechanical Piping Drafting

A hydronic piping plan has to agree with the flow diagram, the equipment schedule, and the coil hookup details, and on most jobs it has drifted from at least one of them by the 90 percent set. Nomic drafts the chilled water, heating hot water, condenser water, and refrigerant piping in CAD, tags the valves and specialties, draws the flow diagram, and checks that every sheet tells the same story before your engineer reviews it.

Start for freeAll drafting work
Last reviewed: November 2026

You send

  • Mechanical floor plans and architectural backgrounds
  • The equipment schedule with coil, pump, and chiller flows
  • A flow diagram, a markup, or a sketch of the system
  • The engineer's pipe sizing criteria and standard details
  • Refrigerant line sizes from the manufacturer selection, for VRF systems

Nomic hands back

  • Hydronic and refrigerant piping plans as DWG files
  • Flow diagrams drawn from the same equipment and valve list
  • Valve, specialty, pump, and coil schedules in Excel and on the sheet
  • Clouded PDFs and a list of open questions for the engineer of record
1234567ABCOFFICE401OFFICE402OFFICE403OPEN OFFICE404OFFICE405OFFICE406OPEN OFFICE407CONFERENCE408CONFERENCE409CONFERENCE410CONFERENCE411CONFERENCE412STAIRS2CHWSCHWR2-1/2" CHWS/R UP TO AHU-1FCU-1FCU-2FCU-3FCU-4FCU-5FCU-627'-3"27'-0"27'-3"27'-3"27'-0"27'-3"94'-8"1AMECHANICAL PIPING PLANSCALE: 1/8" = 1'-0"N1234CONSULTING ENGINEERSREVISIONS1ISSUED FOR REVIEWPROJECTHARBOR POINT OFFICESSCALE1/8" = 1'-0"DATE02/11/2026KEY PLANSHEET TITLEMECHANICAL PIPINGPLANSHEET NUMBERM-201

On the sheet

Mechanical Piping Plan, annotated

A hydronic piping plan with supply and return mains, branch runoffs, and valves at each terminal unit.

  1. 1Chilled water supply and return mains
  2. 2Flow arrows on each pipe
  3. 3Fan coil unit served by the branch
  4. 4Isolation valve on the branch

The problem

Piping plans and flow diagrams drift apart

Mechanical piping is drawn in at least two places. The plan shows CHWS and CHWR routed through the ceiling to each air handler and fan coil, and the flow diagram on M-601 shows the same loop as a schematic with every pump, valve, strainer, and air separator. When a coil moves or a pump is upsized, the change lands on the plan and gets missed on the diagram, or the reverse, and the contractor prices whichever sheet they read first.

The rest of the hours go to repetition: the same coil hookup with isolation valves, a strainer, a balancing valve, a two-way control valve, and pressure and temperature ports drawn at 30 fan coils, each with a tag that has to match the schedule. Expansion loops, anchors, and guides on long heating hot water risers get added late, and refrigerant line sets for VRF systems wait on a manufacturer selection that keeps changing.

01 / Layout

Piping routed to every coil and unit

Give Nomic the mechanical floor plans, the equipment schedule, the flow diagram or a sketch of the system, and your engineer's pipe sizing criteria. Nomic routes supply and return mains, drops branches to each coil, sizes pipe from the head loss and velocity limits the engineer sets, and draws the connections the way your firm details them.

  • CHWS/CHWR, HHWS/HHWR, CWS/CWR, and refrigerant lines on separate layers
  • Pipe sized from the engineer's criteria, with sizes noted at every change
  • Coil, pump, and chiller hookups drawn from your standard details
02 / Tagging

Valves and specialties tagged once, matched everywhere

Nomic tags every balancing valve, control valve, strainer, and air separator it draws and writes the tags to a single list. That list drives the flow diagram, the schedules, and the plan callouts, so a tag that appears on one sheet and not another shows up before the set goes out.

  • Valve and specialty tags in your format, numbered by floor or system
  • Flow diagram drawn from the same equipment and valve list
  • Pump, coil, and specialty schedules in Excel and on the sheet
03 / Check

Plans, flow diagram, and code checked together

Nomic checks the piping plans against the flow diagram, the equipment schedule, and the IMC edition you name. Every drawn change is clouded, and the findings separate what Nomic fixed from what your engineer still has to decide.

  • Pipe sizes on the plan matched to the flow diagram
  • Cooling coil condensate carried to an approved place of disposal
  • Pipe materials and insulation checked against Division 23 and ASHRAE 90.1

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 Mechanical Code Chapter 12 hydronic piping
  • International Mechanical Code Chapter 11 refrigeration
  • ASME B31.9 Building Services Piping
  • ASHRAE 15 safety standard for refrigeration systems
  • ASHRAE 90.1 pipe insulation
  • Project specifications Division 23

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 with chilled water, heating hot water, and condenser water piping routed to each piece of equipment. It tags valves and specialties, draws the flow diagram, and checks that the plans, diagram, and schedules agree before your engineer reviews them.

Nomic sizes pipe from the criteria your engineer sets, such as 4 feet of head loss per 100 feet with a velocity cap on small pipe, using the flows on the equipment schedule. The engineer sets the criteria, selects the pumps and equipment, reviews the sizes, and makes the final call.

Yes. Nomic draws the flow diagram from the same equipment and valve list it uses for the plans, with chillers, pumps, coils, air separators, expansion tanks, and every tagged valve in place. Because both sheets come from one list, a pump or valve added to one shows up on the other.

Refrigerant line sizes come from the manufacturer's selection report, run by your engineer or the manufacturer's rep. Nomic draws the line sets, branch selectors, and sizes from that report and flags any run whose length on the plan is longer than the length the selection assumed.

No. Nomic works in CAD on its own computer and saves DWG files to your project, which open in AutoCAD or any DWG editor. Teams that model piping in Revit get DWGs and a change list their modeler links into the model.

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What is a mechanical plan?

What the HVAC and piping sheets in a construction set show.

What is an equipment schedule?

The table of pumps, coils, and units that piping plans connect to.

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AI Mechanical Piping Drafting: Hydronic Plans in DWG | Nomic