The easiest and best CAD Software for UK builders

CAD for residential construction doesn’t have to be complicated. With PlansXpress, no CAD experience is needed. If you can build a house or an extension you can draw one with PlansXpress! And we’re not talking crude sketches. You can produce professional, Architect-quality construction drawings, elevations, CAD details, 3D models and 3D visualisations for planning applications and Building Regs compliant drawings. Want your design costed? Just add EstimatorXpress to your kit. Simply drop your completed drawing into the award-winning estimating tool for an instant estimate. What’s not to like?

Take a look at our PlansXpress gallery for loads of examples of what PlansXpress can do for you. From Extensions and New Build visuals to floor plans, multi-site developments and more.

“It’s like having an architect on your shoulder. The amazing technical-cum-construction knowledge is in-built. It’s the business.”

The drawings you produce will be of an architect-level quality. Dimensions, floor plans, elevations, section showing levels, scaffolding plan, joist layout, notes… all the detail. And you’re guided every step of the way.

“We design and build properties for customers. PlansXpress makes it easy to offer them two or three design options. I’m retiring early thanks to the successful career enabled by HBXL!”

Pick and mix. Walls – from standard brick and block walls to rendered block & timber frame, from rendered ICF to stone & SIPS (all with or without parapets) – it copes with it all. Floors – from suspended to beam and block. Roofs – from lean-to and hip to Mansard and Gambrel. Doors – from pocket doors to sliding patio doors. Windows – from rooflights to roof lanterns. And so many more specs.

“Basically, HBXL bring the user-friendly drawing tools and I bring my building knowledge. It’s a partnership that works.”

Hundreds and hundreds of symbols. All the way from bricks, tiles, flashing, gutters, steels, downpipes, baths, lawn, through to sofas, tables, glazed balustrades, Air Source Heat Pumps, electric vehicle charging points, USB sockets and parametric radiators.

“The subbies who work for me comment on the quality of the drawings. They’ve not seen better from experienced architects.”

Easily place sections (such as SIPs, ICF and Timber Frame) from the section library on to your drawing. The same goes for cross-sections – there’s a whole library of them.

“I can’t fault PlansXpress. It’s a million times easier to use than AutoCAD.”

Show and hide different elements of the design with the section-through tool in the 3D onboard model. It allows you to slice through the design at any point to give the customer the full effect. Help them visualise layout and space.

“When I’m not drawing from scratch, I’m manipulating existing plans. Customers give me their architect’s plans to alter – and I’m cheaper!”

Import your plan, then trace. The software captures all the information. You can then edit the plan as though you’d produced it originally. Or you can import the captured data into our estimating software, EstimatorXpress for an instant cost.