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AI drafting for retail

AI Drafting for Retail Store Projects

A retail rollout is the same store drawn 40 times into 40 lease spaces that are each a little different. Nomic site-adapts your prototype in CAD, fitting the fixture plan, storefront, and MEP sheets to each landlord lease outline drawing and tenant criteria manual, then checks every store before your team reviews and stamps it.

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Last reviewed: November 2026

You send

  • The current prototype store set as DWG
  • Landlord lease outline drawing and tenant criteria manual
  • Site survey or photos of the existing space
  • Fixture and equipment standards from the retailer
  • Your CAD standards file and title block

Nomic hands back

  • Site-adapted fixture, floor, and reflected ceiling plans
  • Storefront plans, elevations, and sign band details
  • Power, lighting, and mechanical sheets adjusted to the layout
  • A deviation list per store and open questions for the landlord
1234567ABCTENANT101TENANT102TENANT103TENANT104TENANT105TENANT106TENANT107TENANT108TENANT109SALES FLOOR110SALES FLOOR111STAIRS2$a$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 REVIEWPROJECTUNION MARKETSCALE1/8" = 1'-0"DATE03/01/2026KEY 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 prototype never fits the space as drawn

The prototype assumes a 40 foot by 110 foot box with the stockroom at the back. The actual lease space is 37 feet wide, has a column in the sales floor, a landlord sprinkler main at 13 feet, and an existing electrical room the tenant has to share. Someone has to move gondola runs, shorten the wall fixtures, and rework the cash wrap so the accessible route still works, then do it again for the next site.

Every landlord has its own criteria manual too: sign band height, neutral pier, storefront closure, roof penetrations, and which drawings the landlord reviews before permit. When a program is opening a dozen stores a quarter, the drafting hours go to retyping the same notes and redrawing the same fixtures, and the site-specific problems surface at landlord review.

01 / Site adaptation

Your prototype, fit to this lease space

Attach the prototype set and the landlord lease outline drawing. Nomic places the prototype fixture plan, stockroom, fitting rooms, and restrooms into the actual space, works around the columns and existing utilities, and carries the change through the reflected ceiling plan, power plan, and storefront.

  • Fixture plan, gondola runs, and wall fixtures fit to the lease outline
  • Storefront set at the lease line with the landlord neutral pier and closure
  • Ceiling, lighting, power, and sign outlets adjusted to match the new layout
02 / Rollout

One prototype, a program of stores

Rollout programs live and die on consistency, so Nomic drafts each store from the same prototype, the same CAD standards, and the same note blocks. Each store gets its own status, the landlord documents it was drawn from, and a short list of what differs from the prototype.

  • Each store drafted from the current prototype version
  • Site-specific deviations listed for the program manager
  • Missing landlord documents flagged before drafting starts
03 / Check

Checked against the criteria manual and the code

Landlord review and plan review look for different things, so Nomic checks both. It compares the storefront and sign band to the criteria manual, checks the sales counter, fitting rooms, and aisles against the accessibility standard you name, and lists anything the prototype assumed that this site does not support.

  • Sign band, storefront, and roof penetrations against the landlord criteria
  • Sales counter, fitting rooms, and accessible route checked
  • Mercantile occupant load and egress recalculated for the actual space

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 Building Code, Group M occupancy
  • ADA 2010 Standards and ICC A117.1
  • NEC Article 600 and show window loads
  • ASHRAE 90.1 or the IECC, including retail display lighting
  • Landlord tenant criteria manual

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 reads the prototype set and the landlord lease outline drawing, fits the fixture plan and back of house into the actual space, and carries the change through the ceiling, power, and storefront sheets. It saves DWG files in your standards and lists every deviation from the prototype.

Yes. Attach the criteria manual and Nomic draws the storefront, sign band, and roof work to it, then checks the drawings against the criteria before landlord review. Items the criteria leave to landlord approval are listed as open questions.

Each store is drafted from the same prototype version, CAD standards, and note blocks, so the sets read the same way. When the prototype changes, Nomic can update stores that have not issued yet and cloud what changed on each one.

No. Your architect and engineer of record review each store, make the final call on anything Nomic flagged, and stamp the set. Nomic is a new source of drafting capacity for the program.

No. Nomic works in CAD on its own computer and saves DWG files that open in AutoCAD or any DWG editor. It is not a plugin, and programs that keep the prototype in Revit get DWGs and change lists to link into the model.

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AI Drafting for Retail Stores and Rollout Programs | Nomic