TraceBIM/For contractors
Contractors, remodelers, and flippersThe bid is signed. The crew is booked. What stands between you and a start date is a set of drawings somebody else has to find time for. TraceBIM is drafting software you run yourself, so the drawings move on your schedule instead of on a drafter's queue.
You mark up a plan, or photograph the sketch you drew on site. TraceBIM proposes the drawing changes. You approve them, sheet by sheet, and issue the set.
Free for everyone. No subscription, no credit card.
The building department decides, not the software. Many US jurisdictions accept plans prepared by the property owner or contractor for certain residential work. The rules are local, and it is your responsibility to confirm them with the building department before you submit.
TraceBIM is a drafting tool. It is not a licensed architect or engineer, it does not check your plans against the code, and it cannot approve, stamp, or seal anything. Where your jurisdiction requires a licensed design professional, you need one.
What comes out
The output bar does not drop because you drew it yourself. Line weights are real, dimensions are measured off the geometry rather than typed in, the scale printed on the sheet is the scale the sheet is drawn at, and the title block carries your company, the address, and the issue date.
The permit set checklist inside TraceBIM tracks these same rows and tells you which ones are still missing before you export.
An illustration of the sheet types TraceBIM produces. Your sheet numbering, titles, and scales are yours to set. What a specific jurisdiction requires in a submittal is a local question.
How a job moves through it
There is no CAD vocabulary to learn to run this loop. The manual drawing tools are there, behind a Manual mode switch, for when you want them.
You drew the layout on a legal pad in the truck. Open the phone capture in TraceBIM, scan the code with your phone, and shoot the page with the rear camera. The photo lands in the project as a trace underlay, and TraceBIM reads it and proposes walls, doors, and windows on top of it. A PDF page works the same way.
phone or desktopNothing lands in the drawing because the software decided it should. Every proposed change arrives as a list you accept or reject, each item labelled high, medium, or low confidence, sorted so the shaky ones are at the top. When a markup is ambiguous or points at something that is not there, TraceBIM asks you a question instead of guessing.
you approveWork-in-progress exports carry a "DRAFT — NOT FOR CONSTRUCTION" stamp over a second line, "Requires licensed design-professional review and stamp" stamp. When the set is ready to go to the counter, Issue for Permit records your attestation and replaces that stamp with an issuance number printed on every sheet.
included for everyoneIssue for permit
Submitting a sheet stamped "DRAFT — NOT FOR CONSTRUCTION" is not a submittal. Removing that stamp is a decision with your name on it, so TraceBIM makes you state the decision and keeps the record.
The three roles in the shipped dialog, quoted from
legal/PERMIT_ATTESTATION.md.
Then three boxes, all of which you have to tick:
You name the jurisdiction and the property address. TraceBIM then keeps a permanent record of the attestation: your account, the date and time, your answers, the sheet list, a fingerprint of the exported file, and your IP address. The issuance number goes on every sheet. Issue the set again after a revision and a new record is written.
What this is not. The attestation records what you asserted. It is not an approval, a stamp, a seal, a certification, or any promise that a plan checker will accept the set. No software can give you that. What it gives you is a truthful issuance record instead of a DRAFT stamp, and a permanent account of what you stated and when.
Issue for Permit is included for everyone. Until a set is issued, exports keep the DRAFT stamp and there is no attestation path around it.
Renovation work
Almost nothing you build is a clean sheet of paper. A remodel is a building that already exists, a set of things coming out, and a set of things going in. Every element in TraceBIM carries which of those it is, and the plan draws each one differently — existing light, demolition dashed, new heavy.
Tell TraceBIM a wall is coming out and it proposes the change across the elements you picked, as a list for you to approve like any other change.
Because the plan, the elevations, and the sections all come from one model, moving a wall on the proposed plan moves it everywhere it appears. That is the part that saves a revision round: the plan checker's red pen lands on one thing, you change that one thing, and the set stays consistent with itself.
On site
A bottom tab bar switches between the drawing, your markup, the chat, and the camera. The camera tab shoots a sketch or a wall condition and sends it straight into the project.
The studio runs in the browser with touch input, pinch and pan, and a sidebar that floats out of the way. Marking up a plan with a finger or a stylus on the tailgate is the intended way to use it.
It is a website. Sign in on the desk machine, the tablet, and the phone, and you are looking at the same project. There is no iOS app in the App Store to download.
Before you sign up
Read this list before the feature list. If one of these is a dealbreaker for the work you do, better to know now.
Every element carries its state and the plan draws each one differently — existing light, demolition dashed, new heavy. What TraceBIM cannot do yet is split those into a separate existing and demolition sheet and a separate proposed sheet. If your building department wants them as two drawings, TraceBIM will not produce that today.
Not for setbacks, egress, stair geometry, fire separation, or anything else. No software in TraceBIM reads your local amendments. Checking the code is your job, or your design professional's.
There is no certification here and no guarantee of plan-check acceptance. Where your jurisdiction requires a licensed architect or engineer, hire one. TraceBIM draws; it does not take professional responsibility.
One email address is one account, permanently. There is no way to add your project manager or your office to it, and no shared workspace. You can export a PDF and send that to whoever needs it.
There is no structural analysis, no load calculation, and no mechanical, electrical, or plumbing coordination. You cannot open a DWG, a DXF, or an IFC file in it. You can trace a photo or a PDF page, and you can export.
Handing off to a professional. If the job needs an engineer or an architect, TraceBIM exports an IFC4 file they can open in their own software, and a package that imports into Revit. The IFC is an architect's handoff file, not an engineer's analysis model: 15 of 50 element types reach it, with no quantities, no structural profiles, and no mechanical subtree. It was validated with IfcOpenShell 0.8.5, where the file read as 445 entities and all 12 solids built. There is no live link to Revit and no round trip back.
The alternative
Published figures, with the caveat each one came with. Nobody publishes a rate card for "marked-up plan in, permit set out" as one priced deliverable, so read these as the shape of the market rather than a quote.
| Where the work goes | Published figure | What the figure actually covers |
|---|---|---|
| Marketplace gig | $250–$800 ~13 days |
Fiverr's own published category average for "a full set of architectural drawings." At the same marketplace's stated 8–15 hours per sheet, that money buys roughly one to three sheets, not a 15–30 sheet permit set. |
| Freelance drafter, hourly | $25–$30/hr | Upwork's own stated typical cost to hire a drafter. A curated marketplace using drafters in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia quotes $45–$65/hr instead. |
| Fixed-rate bureau, per sheet | $180–$650 | Q-CAD's published Basic tier, priced by turnaround: $180 at ten days, $335 at three days, $650 at one day. That card prices redrawing an existing sheet into CAD, not authoring one, so read it for what rush costs rather than as a set price. |
| Full outsourced set | $3,500–$9,000 | Remote AE's published per-project range for a complete construction-document set. Vendor marketing prose with a stated range, not a rate card, and no methodology given. |
| TraceBIM | Free | Free for everyone, every feature included, no subscription. You do the work and you carry the responsibility for it. |
Sources and confidence ratings: docs/competitive/pricing/.
The $3,500–$9,000 range and the Fiverr average are rated medium
confidence. The per-hour marketplace rates are published rate cards.
The part that is not money. Every one of those rows is also a queue. You send the markups, you wait, you get something back that is not quite what you meant, and you send it again. Rush pricing exists because waiting is the real cost. Running the drafting yourself does not make the drawings appear; it means the next revision happens when you sit down with it.
Questions
That is a local question and the honest answer is that we cannot tell you. Many US jurisdictions accept plans prepared by the property owner or by a contractor for certain residential scopes, and many require a licensed design professional past a certain scope, in certain zones, or for structural work. The rules vary by city and county, and they change.
Call the building department for the jurisdiction the job is in, describe the scope, and ask who is allowed to prepare the plans. Do it before you draw, not after. TraceBIM asks you to confirm you have done exactly that before it will issue a set.
No. The default workflow is marking up a plan and approving what TraceBIM proposes. The manual drawing tools exist and are good, but they are hidden behind a Manual mode switch so they are not the first thing you see.
The quickstart guide walks the manual loop end to end if you want to see what is under there.
It reads your markup or your photo and proposes drawing changes. It does not apply them. Each proposed change comes with a high, medium, or low confidence label, and the list is ordered so the ones it is least sure about are the first ones you look at. When a markup is ambiguous or contradicts itself, it asks you a question rather than inventing an answer.
It does not know building code. There is no code library behind it, and it does not check your plans against one.
The plan, the elevations, and the sections are all drawn from one model, so changing a wall changes it on every sheet that shows it, and the dimensions that were measured off it follow. You review the set, issue it again, and a new attestation record is written with a new issuance number.
No. One email address is one account, permanently. There are no seats, no invitations, and no shared projects. If somebody else needs to see the set, export a PDF and send it to them.
Nothing. TraceBIM is free for everyone: every feature, every project, Issue for Permit included, no subscription and no credit card. Until a set is issued for permit, its exports carry the "DRAFT — NOT FOR CONSTRUCTION" stamp.
Start a project on the free plan, bring in a photo of a sketch, and see what comes back before you pay for anything.
TraceBIM is drafting software, not a licensed architect or engineer. It does not check plans against the building code and it cannot approve, stamp, or seal anything. Permit rules are local, and confirming them with your building department is your responsibility.
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