Previous Release Notes

Anthony Conte

March 29, 2026 23:44

For the latest features and fixes, see FireCAD Update — What's New.

Update — March 2026

Riser Diagram V2

The riser diagram has been completely redesigned with a new options dialog, per-circuit layout controls, and improved algorithms. Highlights include:

Circuit selection TreeView — Circuits are organized under their parent panel in a collapsible tree with three-state checkboxes, block thumbnails, and device counts. Replaces the previous flat grid. Each circuit row has inline Wrap, Quantity, Draw Left, Priority, and Typical toggles. Switch between Grouped by Panel, Grouped by Part Number, and Compact views, and search or filter circuits by name or type. Select multiple circuits with Ctrl/Shift and bulk edit their settings in one operation.
Trunk options — Bundle inter-floor connections into a shared trunk that draws dynamic junction boxes at each floor level, with optional separate return paths. Split trunks by circuit type for clearer multi-discipline risers.
Typical circuit wiring — Mark circuits as "typical" to draw them with dashed lines without duplicating devices, ideal for showing standard wiring patterns.
Voltage at device — Display voltage values next to each device, with red warnings when voltage drops below the circuit minimum.
Dynamic panel boxes — Automatic panel grouping boxes around origin devices with configurable width.
Distributed label mode — Device information is split across four corners of each device block: addresses (lower-right), settings (upper-right), entity properties (upper-left), and markers (lower-left).
Entity properties on riser — Select custom entity properties to display on device labels across all layout styles.
MLeader labels — Use AutoCAD MLeader annotations instead of inline linetypes for better control over label placement in dense risers.
Settings table — Generate an AutoCAD Table alongside the riser showing all settings used, for documentation and QC.
Dynamic color preview — Circuit colors update in real time as you toggle color settings. Colors are assigned by circuit type (SLC = red, NAC = blue, Audio = magenta, etc.) with automatic assignment for uncolored circuits.

For full details, see Riser Diagram V2.

Embedded Drawing Backup & Recovery

FireCAD now automatically embeds a complete project backup inside every drawing file each time you save. If your project file (.atpx) is ever lost, corrupted, or inaccessible, you can recover your entire project from any saved drawing using ATRESTORE_FROM_DRAWING.

Automatic — Enabled by default, no extra steps needed. A full backup is compressed and stored inside the .dwg file on every save. Can be turned off in Options under the Project tab ("Embed Project Backup In Drawings").
Complete recovery — Restores the project database, block definitions, attachments, templates, and project images.
Crash recovery — If AutoCAD closes unexpectedly, FireCAD detects orphaned project data on next startup and offers to save a backup automatically.
Backup info — Use ATBACKUP_INFO to view the backup timestamp, compressed size, and contents of any drawing.

For full details, see Embedded Drawing Backup & Recovery.

Help Menu & Documentation

FireCAD now includes built-in help documentation accessible directly from the application:

ATHELP — Opens the FireCAD Help file (CHM format) with a searchable table of contents, keyword index, and F1 context-sensitive lookup for any AT* command.
ATHELP_PDF — Opens the FireCAD Help PDF, a printable version of the full documentation.
Help submenu — Both commands are available from the FireCAD Tools menu under a new Help submenu, and from the About panel on the ribbon.

Default Tool Palettes & Samples (Standalone)

FireCAD 2026 Standalone now ships with the full set of default AutoCAD Tool Palettes and Sample files out of the box — including drawing templates, sheet sets, database connectivity examples, and VBA/ActiveX samples. Previously, these were only available in the AutoCAD Add-in version.

Request Quote

A new Request Quote feature lets you send a parts quote request directly from your FireCAD project. Select a provider, review a summary of your project devices broken down by brand and category, and submit a quote request with your contact information — all without leaving AutoCAD.

Battery Calculation Improvements

Speaker watt-to-current conversion — A new "Show Speaker Currents (W ÷ V = A)" option converts speaker wattage to alarm current using the circuit voltage, so speakers appear in battery calculations alongside current-based devices.
Accurate child circuit totals — Fixed double-counting of devices in child circuits and improved multi-level hierarchy traversal for more accurate battery totals.
Card totals — Fixed card-level SUM calculations and TypeId filtering for correct subtotals.

Performance Improvements

Project Creation Wizard — Significantly faster when importing devices and templates.
Riser diagram generation — Large projects with hundreds of circuits no longer hang during elevation calculations and edge routing. Riser generation that previously stalled or timed out now completes in seconds.
Label updates — Formatting device labels and setting entity properties is much faster on large projects. Commands like ATFORMAT_DEVICE_LABELS and ATSET_ENTITY_PROPERTIES no longer cause long delays or timeouts.
Block loading — Device blocks are now cached after first use, eliminating repeated decompression. Dialogs and palettes that load block previews (device palette, riser options, assembly editor) open faster.
Report generation — Circuit hierarchy lookups no longer hang on projects with complex passthrough chains. Battery calculations, point-to-point, and speaker schedule reports generate faster.
Address lookups — Projects with large circuit quantities no longer experience slow address resolution.

Bug Fixes

OneDrive compatibility — Fixed .atpx project file save failures on OneDrive-synced paths. Project data is now embedded into the drawing backup before each QSAVE for additional safety.
License activation — The activation dialog now appears reliably even when the initial license check encounters an error.
Entity Properties Editor — Fixed a crash when the editor failed to load, and improved save behavior.
Duplicate palette — Fixed an issue where the FireCAD palette could appear twice after initialization.
Dialog improvements — All modal dialogs now properly prevent minimizing, and message boxes are centered on the AutoCAD window.

Update — February 11th, 2026

Report Fixes

Point-to-Point voltage drop calculations — Fixed voltage drop calculations for branched circuits where branch devices were incorrectly inheriting cumulative drops from the trunk. Also fixed trunk devices not including downstream branch current in wattage calculations. Affects both Point-to-Point and Speaker Schedule reports.
Legend and Bill of Material sorting — Reports now always group devices by category first, even when the category column is not included or custom sorting is applied.
Battery Calculation totals — Totals now display correctly when the "Show Formula" option is disabled.
Speaker Schedule layout — Moved Max dB Loss below resistance values and removed empty row gap.
Point-to-Point layout — Fixed Wire Resistance disappearing when "Include Card Totals" is enabled.
Custom properties in report device blocks — Fixed custom properties on device blocks appearing blank in reports.

Circuit & Device Fixes

Device type template sync — Fixed an issue where resetting circuit templates could silently drop device type changes. Templates now correctly persist all modifications. Also adds support for syncing battery current values from the device database.
Panel label fallback — When a circuit origin device has no panel entity property, the panel name is now derived from the origin device's label on its parent circuit.
Device type validation — Fixed unintended extra device types being created during validation when a selection group is null.

Drawing & Stability

Wirepath trimming on locked layers — Fixed crashes when trimming wirepath segments on locked layers (particularly layer 0). Added a new atdelete_all_segments command for removing all wirepath segments at once.
Wipeout draw order — Fixed wipeout entities in device blocks covering block geometry instead of masking content behind it. Affects device insertion, riser diagrams, and report tables.
Riser diagrams — Fixed crash when encountering empty block definitions.
Read-only columns — Attribute Viewer, Conduit Selection, Device Selection, and Project Circuits Palette now correctly prevent editing of read-only columns.
AutoCAD OEM 2026 — Resolved startup failures preventing FireCAD from loading in AutoCAD OEM 2026.

Update — January 9th, 2026

Design Assistant — Automated Validation

The all-new Design Assistant brings automated validation and prechecks to your fire alarm designs. It runs a comprehensive set of rules against your project data and flags issues before they become problems in the field.

Validation Rules

The Design Assistant checks for:

Battery Capacity Exceeded — Verifies that required battery capacity does not exceed panel charging capacity per NFPA 72
Current Limits Exceeded — Validates standby and alarm current against manufacturer specs and NFPA 72 limits, with threshold warnings
Circuit Device Quantity Exceeded — Checks that circuits do not exceed their configured device limits, including devices on child circuits through passthrough devices
Max Circuit Length Exceeded — Flags wire runs that exceed maximum allowed length
Voltage Drop Exceeded — Calculates voltage drop across circuits and flags circuits below minimum voltage
Total Watt Limit Exceeded — Validates circuit wattage against configured limits
Decibel Loss Exceeded — Checks speaker circuit decibel loss calculations
Unconnected Devices — Finds devices that have possible circuit connections but are not fully connected
Device Location Validation — Verifies devices have required location properties set
Scale Validation — Checks drawing scale consistency
Report Validation — Detects out-of-date reports by comparing embedded fingerprints against current project data. Validates Battery Calculations, Voltage Drop, Decibel Loss, Device Legend, Device Schedule, and Title Block reports

Snap-To Feature

Devices flagged by the Design Assistant include a Snap-To button that zooms directly to the flagged device in the drawing for quick review and correction.

PDF Export

Export your Design Assistant validation results to a PDF report for documentation, review, or submission.

In-Place Report Refresh

Out-of-date reports identified by the Design Assistant can now be refreshed in place — regenerated without manually deleting and re-placing them. Supports Battery Calculation, Lump Sum, Point-to-Point, and their summary variants.

Dark Theme

FireCAD now defaults to a modern dark theme across all palettes, dialogs, and the Design Assistant. The theme is consistent with AutoCAD's dark UI for a seamless editing experience.

Bug Fixes

Conduit fill calculations — Fixed incorrect fill percentage threshold and formatting in the conduit fill schedule report.
Riser diagram device legend — Fixed device legend incorrectly using riser diagram blocks when a riser was generated before the legend.
Riser combined circuit labels — Risers with "combine multiple circuits" enabled now use the wirepath label format settings.
Riser crash — Fixed crash when circuit devices reference deleted circuits.
Project creation — Fixed an issue where selecting drawings already in the project folder would incorrectly trigger a conflict error.
Project drawings missing — Fixed an issue where project drawings could go missing due to folder validation issues.
Assembly card sync — Validation no longer re-adds default assembly parts that users intentionally removed.
EOL device cache — Adding or removing End-of-Line devices now properly updates circuit displays.
Battery Calculation report — Fixed display of power-limited current values when UsePowerLimitedCurrent is enabled.

Update — December 8th, 2025

Battery Calculation Report Improvements

Battery Calculation report generation has been moved off the UI thread for better responsiveness, with improved accuracy for child circuit totals and panel settings.

Update Notifications

FireCAD now notifies you when a new version is available, with an in-app news system that displays product updates and announcements.

Inspect Point Integration Enhancements

Polished and enhanced the Inspect Point integration with additional data exchange capabilities.

Bug Fixes

Duplicate addresses — Fixed duplicate device addresses when relocating panel circuits.
AutoCAD crash — Fixed a fatal exception that could occur during attribute visibility operations.
Copy to Local — Fixed a data reader error when using the "Copy to Local" function.
Export all device data — Fixed the export all device data command failing to export correctly.
Google Places API — Fixed an issue with the address autocomplete feature and added rate limiting.
Percentage formatting — Fixed percentage values displaying incorrectly in AutoCAD tables.

Initial Release — October 15th, 2025

AutoCAD 2025 & 2026 Compatibility

FireCAD 2026 has been completely rebuilt on .NET 8.0 for modern performance and compatibility. The add-in now natively supports AutoCAD 2025 and AutoCAD 2026, with dedicated AutoCAD OEM 2026 standalone builds.

Enhanced Project Creation Wizard

The project creation wizard has been completely redesigned with an expanded, step-by-step workflow:

Searchable device and project template selection for faster setup
Owner Information — Capture project owner details from the start
Scope of Work — Define the project scope during creation
Codes & Standards — Select applicable codes and standards
Customizable Drawing Templates — Create and save your own templates with preconfigured project properties, or start with the default FireCAD templates

Project Properties Editor

A new Project Information Editor lets you view and edit all project properties at any time after creation — including owner info, scope of work, codes & standards, and project classification. Changes sync automatically to title blocks across your project drawings.

Inspect Point Integration

For Inspect Point customers, you can now export devices and circuits directly into Inspect Point to set up inspections with devices, points, and locations from your FireCAD designs.

Google Autocomplete for Addresses

Project address fields now use Google Autocomplete to quickly fill in street, city, state, and zip code details.

Passthrough Device Support

Riser circuit features now support passthrough devices — devices connected through passthrough panels (control modules, isolators, relays) are properly addressed with flexible type matching. Circuit summaries and reports include devices from child circuits.

New Project File Format

FireCAD now uses the new .atpx project file format. Legacy .atp files are automatically upgraded when opened.

Additional Improvements

Bulk Circuit Editing — Select and edit properties across multiple circuits at once in the Project Circuits Editor
Analytics — Anonymous usage analytics generated on project close to help improve FireCAD

Older Updates

FireCAD is the industry-leading AutoCAD add-in for fire alarm system design — from circuit layout to wire routing to code-compliant reports.
Learn more and get started at getfirecad.com →

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.
Learn more here →