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Open the video in a new tab (FireCAD Design Assistant: Start to Finish).
Overview
The Design Assistant can take a project from a blank drawing to a reviewed submittal: project properties and codes, device layout on every floor, circuits and wirepaths, the riser and reports placed on their sheets, a design review, plan review comments, and the Basis of Design. You type each request in plain language and stay in charge of every decision.
This guide is a playbook: the order of requests that works, what to put in each one, and why. Copy the example requests and change the details to your project. The examples come from a three-story skilled nursing facility with a voice evacuation system, but the same order works for any job.
You do not have to follow it word for word. If you are not sure what to ask next, ask the Design Assistant: "What should I do next on this project?" or "Give me a playbook for this project." Questions like that are answered from the FireCAD knowledge base and do not use design credits.
Before You Start
- Create the project from a FireCAD project template, or your own template (see Using Your Own Template).
- Add the system templates for the manufacturers you will use (for example Fire-Lite, System Sensor and Generic).
- Open the floor plan drawing and work in model space. Everything the Design Assistant places, including the riser and the reports, goes in model space and shows on the sheets through their viewports.
The Order That Works
| Step | Request | Why it goes here |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Drawing standards | Label size, delimiter and scale apply to everything placed after |
| 2 | Project properties and codes | The occupancy, construction type and adopted code editions drive every later check |
| 3 | First floor layout | Panels, devices, circuits and wirepaths for one floor, checked before you repeat it |
| 4 | Other floors and modules | "The same way as Level 1" reuses the decisions you already approved |
| 5 | Sheets | Riser, calculations, schedules, legend and BOM on their sheets |
| 6 | Design review | The Design Precheck plus a written review |
| 7 | Fix what the review found | One request, then review again |
| 8 | Plan review comments | Attach the AHJ letter |
| 9 | Basis of Design | Describe the system as designed |
| 10 | Submittal | Build the submittal book |
Step 1: Drawing Standards
Set your company standards once, before any device is placed:
Set this project's drawing standards: device label text height 6 with masking, the "•" delimiter, candela and speaker tap on notification appliances, wirepath and connection status icons off, drawing scale 1/8" = 1'-0". Save.
Tips
- What each device label shows (circuit, address, panel name, room) is set on each device, so it cannot be set before devices exist. Ask for it in the layout request instead (Step 3).
- Check the wire length units the Design Assistant reports. They should match the drawing's units.
Step 2: Project Properties and Codes
Give the facts once. The Design Assistant fills in the project properties, picks the code editions adopted where the project is, and drafts the Basis of Design:
This is Lasalle Care Center: a new three-story skilled nursing facility, Group I-2 Condition 1, 180 occupants, Type II-B construction, fully sprinklered, at 1200 N LaSalle Dr, Chicago IL 60610, under CMS. Project number 2026-118. Fill in the project properties and the codes with the editions adopted there, add the NFPA Annex and NFPA 72 Handbook as references, turn on enhanced language, and draft the Basis of Design.
Tips
- Occupancy (with its condition), construction type and sprinkler status matter: they decide which requirements apply.
- Read the code editions it chose. If your authority having jurisdiction uses a different edition, say so now. Everything after this is checked against these editions.
Step 3: The First Floor
Lay out one floor completely, then check it before you repeat it. Name the parts, the panel location, the circuits, and anything special:
Lay out Level 1 on the FA-101 plan. Fire-Lite MS-9600UDLS with an SLC-2LS loop card and an ECC-50/100 (50 W, 25 V) voice console in the ELEC room. System Sensor smoke detectors covering the open floor, lobbies, foyer, ELEC, TELE and JAN, heat detectors in the janitor closets, BG-12LX pull stations within 5 ft of each exit, SPSCWLED ceiling speaker strobes sized from the NFPA 72 candela table with 1 W taps (0.5 W in restrooms), no strobes in ELEC rooms. Level 1 is SLC loop 1, its strobes are FACP-1 N1 and its speakers ECC-1 S1. Add a remote ANN-80 annunciator at the main entrance. Connect everything, label each device with only its circuit and address (plus candela and tap on notification appliances), draw the wirepaths and check voltage drop.
Tips
- Watch model space while it works. Devices, circuits and wirepaths appear as they are placed.
- Say which circuit each floor uses. Deciding loops and notification circuits up front keeps every floor consistent.
- Ask for the label content here. "Only its circuit and address" keeps the plan readable.
- Exact part numbers give exact results. If you name only a device type ("addressable smoke detector"), check the parts it picked from your system templates before you go on.
Step 4: The Other Floors and the Modules
Point back to the first floor, then give only what is different:
Levels 2 and 3 are the same floor plan without the foyer, on FA-102 and FA-103, at elevations 14 and 28 ft. Lay them out the same way as Level 1, with each floor on its own notification and speaker circuits: Level 2 on SLC loop 2 with strobes on FACP-1 N2, Level 3 on SLC loop 1 with Level 1, with a vertical run of about 35 ft between them. On every floor: a waterflow and a tamper monitor module at the sprinkler riser, and a relay module for the door holders. Put each module on its floor's loop. Connect everything, optimize the wiring order, draw the wirepaths, set the floor-to-floor run lengths, check voltage drop, loop length and battery capacity. Define the room areas on all three floors and give every device its location, then save.
Tips
- Floor-to-floor run lengths. When floors sit side by side in model space, the distance across the drawing is not the real riser route. Ask for the floor-to-floor run lengths to be set, so voltage drop and loop length use the real distance.
- Loop length decides which floors share a loop. If a loop is close to the panel's limit, say which floors go on which loop, or ask the Design Assistant to check before it connects.
- Room areas and locations. Ask it to define the room areas and give every device its location. The riser can then show where each device is.
Step 5: The Sheets
The riser, calculations and schedules are placed on the sheets you name, and continue onto (CONT.) sheets when they don't fit:
Now the sheets. Riser A with the levels and elevations and LOCATION under each device: SLC loop 1 on FA-601, loop 2 on a new riser sheet after it, the notification circuits on the next, and the audio circuits on the next, wrapping long loops to fit. The voltage drop summary and every panel's battery calculation on FA-602, the device schedule for every circuit, the legend and the BOM on FA-603, the dB loss summary with the calculations. Continue onto (CONT.) sheets as needed, remove any sheet left empty, then refresh the labels and save.
Other sheet requests that work
- "Which sheets have room left?": lists every sheet, what is on it, and how full it is.
- "Put the cable legend on FA-603.": any report, on the sheet you choose.
- "Add a sheet after FA-602 for the battery calculations.": copies an existing sheet's layout, title block and scale. It tells you what it will do first.
- "Move the BOM to its own sheet."
Step 6: Design Review
Click Run design review under the question box. The Design Assistant runs the Design Precheck, inspects what it flags, and writes a review: compliance issues by severity, design quality (spare capacity, voltage drop, batteries), and what it can fix.
Step 7: Fix What the Review Found
Answer the review in one request:
Go ahead with the fixes. Then run the review again.
Tips
- If the review suggests something you already handled (for example floor-to-floor lengths you set earlier), say so: "The floor-to-floor run lengths were already set, so check those instead of assuming new ones."
- Connections between panels and accessories follow FireCAD's connection rules. Check them against the manufacturer's manuals before you submit.
Step 8: Plan Review Comments
Attach the comment letter with the paperclip button and ask:
Here are the AHJ plan review comments for this project. Fix what they cited, and tell me comment by comment what you changed. If you think a comment is cited incorrectly, explain why with the code section instead of changing the design. Then update the affected reports and save.
The answer goes comment by comment: what was changed, what was already met (with the devices that meet it), and where a citation does not match the project's code edition.
Step 9: Basis of Design
The design is finished. Update the Basis of Design to describe the system as designed: the panels and their locations, the initiating devices and notification appliances per floor, the circuits, the riser, secondary power and the calculation results. Drop the open items that are now settled, then save.
Open items that are not settled stay in the narrative, so you can see what is left. Review the Basis of Design in Edit Project Properties and mark it reviewed.
Step 10: The Submittal
Build the submittal book from Reports > Submittal Book: the Basis of Design, the reports and the product data sheets in one PDF.
Using Your Own Template
The Design Assistant works with your own sheets, not only FireCAD's templates.
- Any layout with a viewport onto model space is a sheet. Content for that sheet is placed inside the area its viewport shows, clear of what is already there.
-
Reserved zones (optional). FireCAD templates mark each sheet's area in model space with a closed rectangle on layer
FC-ZONEand a label on layerFC-ZONE-TEXTending in "shown on layout FA-602". Do the same in your template if you want content placed in exactly that area, including areas that are not on a sheet yet. - Adding sheets. A new sheet copies one of yours: its layout, title block, viewport size and scale.
- Name your sheets in requests. "Riser on E-601" works the same as "Riser on FA-601".
Ask "What sheets does this drawing have?" to see how the Design Assistant reads your template before you place anything.
Credits
Design requests use credits. Questions about FireCAD, like "What should I do next?" or this playbook, do not. Every project is different, and the credits a request uses depend on the size of the floor plan, the number of devices and circuits, and how much the Design Assistant has to read and check. Every answer shows the credits that request used.
Tips for using credits well
- One complete request beats several small ones. Give the parts, panel location, circuits and checks in one request, as in the examples above, rather than adding them one at a time.
- Name exact part numbers. The Design Assistant does not have to search the catalog or ask which part you meant.
- Get one floor right, then repeat it. "The same way as Level 1" reuses the decisions you already approved instead of making them again.
- Start a new conversation for each task. Everything in a conversation is read again with each request, so a long conversation makes every later request cost more. One conversation for the layout, another for the sheets, another for the review.
- Preview big changes. Ask it to "show me what you would place first" before a large layout, so a wrong assumption costs one small request, not a full layout and an undo.
- Ask for what you need. "How many devices are on loop 2?" costs less than "show me everything on loop 2."
- Use the free questions. How-to questions about FireCAD are answered from the knowledge base and use no design credits.
- Run the design review when the design is ready. Run it once at the end, then once more after the fixes, rather than after every change.
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