FireCAD Update - What's New

FireCAD 2026 — Built For the Future of Fire Design!

The FireCAD Add-in for AutoCAD is now fully compatible with AutoCAD 2025, 2026, and 2027. Additionally, FireCAD 2026 Standalone is now available, built with the latest AutoCAD OEM 2026 engine.

For common installation issues see this article — FireCAD 2026 - Common Installation Issues

Update — July 2026

Device Labels — More Formatting Control

The Format Device Labels dialog has been redesigned into a clearer two-column layout — options for the selected devices on the left, project-wide options on the right — and gains three new project-wide options:

• Candela Above / Watts Below Circuit Labels — Reorders device labels so candela sits above the circuit/address lines and watts and decibels sit below them, matching common drafting standards. Off by default, so existing projects look the same until you turn it on.
• Circuit Label Ordering — Control the order circuit label lines stack on a device by circuit type, using wildcard patterns (for example, *SLC* above *NAC* above *AUDIO* — the three patterns included by default). Circuit types that match no pattern list alphabetically after the matches.
• Address Range Display — Choose how devices that use multiple addresses display them: Show Range (M040-M045), One Line Per Address, or Base Address Only. This is display-only — the next device always starts after the consumed addresses, no matter which mode you pick.

Wirepath Labels — The [QTY] Variable and More

The Format Wirepath Labels dialog was also reworked, with options grouped into Label Format, Label Display, and Line Types:

• New [QTY] format variable — The circuit quantity is now part of the label format itself, so you control its placement and spacing: [QTY] [LBL] renders "2 C", [QTY][LBL] renders "2C", and omitting [QTY] hides the quantity. This replaces the old "Show Circuit Quantity In Wirepath Labels" checkbox — existing projects are converted automatically the first time you open the dialog, with no change to how labels render.
• Wirepath Label Lines — Choose how multiple circuit labels on one segment are arranged: Stacked (One Per Line), the default, or Single Line (1A,2C). Applies to both floorplan and riser labels.
• Frame Wirepath Label Text — New checkbox controlling the frame drawn around leader label text. On by default (the previous behavior); Apply updates the label styles and every existing wirepath label.
• Cleaner leader lines — Wirepath and riser leader labels now default to straight leader lines with the standard Closed Filled arrowhead instead of curved leaders with dot markers. Applying the dialog syncs the style settings to every existing label in the drawing.
• Consistent wire colors — Auto-assigned wire colors are no longer split into different colors for the same wire type when circuit quantities differ.

Riser Diagram — Cleaner Layouts, Automatically

Two new Riser Options, both on by default (manual vertical constraints always take priority):

• Auto-Align Vertical Runs — Circuits that run through multiple floors now draw as a single clean vertical column instead of stair-stepping sideways at each floor. Devices in the column's way are nudged aside automatically.
• Auto-Align Branch Taps — On branched circuits, the main-line devices that branches tap from now stack into one vertical column so branches read as clean horizontal rows — the layout you previously had to build by hand with vertical constraints.

Wrapped circuits have been overhauled. Long circuits that wrap into multiple rows now lay out the way you'd draw them by hand:

• Every row snaps to one shared, evenly spaced column grid, in correct wire order, with rows alternating direction cleanly. Right-to-Left circuits mirror properly.
• When several circuits on the same floor wrap, each gets its own contiguous band of rows instead of interleaving.
• Folding now follows the circuit topology: rows end at tap devices, each branch folds directly below the row that taps it, and short branches tuck inline into their tap's row instead of spawning a nearly empty row of their own.

Riser fixes and reliability:

• EOL labels — The riser now draws End-of-Line labels from the same live source as the floorplan, so the last device on every circuit is labeled correctly and stays correct after circuit edits.
• No more layout freezes from stray devices — If devices are accidentally placed at extreme coordinates, wirepath layout used to hang AutoCAD. FireCAD now detects this up front, cancels cleanly, and lists the specific device handles and coordinates that are far from the main drawing so you can move them back and retry.
• Riser routing crash fixed — A grid-snap rounding edge case that aborted riser generation with an error dialog now retries automatically and completes the riser.

Panel Summary Report — Rebuilt

The Panel Summary report keeps its familiar layout but is now generated by the same modern calculation engines used by the Battery Calculation, Voltage Drop, and Decibel Loss reports. Two known crashes are eliminated — the "missing block definition" failure and the "zero starting voltage" failure.

• New Voltage Drop Calculation Method option — Choose Point-to-Point or Lump Sum directly in the Panel Summary report options. The choice is saved with your project.
• The Point-to-Point / Lump Sum selection in the Options editor now correctly shows the saved setting when the dialog opens.

Circuit Sequence Numbering

ATRESEQUENCE_CIRCUIT and the Project Circuits palette Order column have been cleaned up:

• Devices connected to a circuit in more than one position now get one combined label using range notation (for example, 3-4 or 1,5) instead of overlapping numbers stamped on top of each other.
• The circuit origin keeps its Origin marker only, instead of also receiving a sequence number.
• The Order column in the Project Circuits palette now shows a clean, gap-free 1-based sequence matching the on-canvas numbering.
• When you pick a device with non-consecutive connections during an insert-after operation, FireCAD now asks which connection position you mean instead of guessing.

Opening Projects — More Resilient

• The Open Project browser always appears. If your saved project folder is on a disconnected network drive, FireCAD now falls back to the default location instead of appearing to do nothing. Path checks are bounded by a short timeout, so a dead mapped drive can no longer hang FireCAD at startup.
• Settings self-heal. A corrupt settings file rebuilds to defaults, and saved paths that no longer exist revert to sensible locations automatically.
• Fixed the most common error in recent versions — Opening drawings saved by earlier FireCAD versions could throw repeated "Unable to load type" errors when reading project data embedded in the drawing. This was the single largest source of errors in production and is now fixed.

Bug Fixes

• Wire lengths update after a units change — Changing drawing units in Options now refreshes wire lengths immediately on Apply, without a separate label refresh.

Previous Releases

See Previous Release Notes for updates from May 2026 and earlier.

FireCAD is the industry-leading AutoCAD add-in for fire alarm system design — from circuit layout to wire routing to code-compliant reports.
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Inspect Point Integration — Fire alarm system device lists and bill of materials can be pushed directly from FireCAD into Inspect Point, eliminating manual data entry and ensuring every device is ready for inspection scheduling and ongoing asset management.
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