NorthsillThe model is the easy part. The drawing set is the job.
Northsill is a BIM application for architects. You model the building once — and the drawing set is derived from it: plans, elevations, sections, schedules, sheets. Change the model and every view follows, because there is nothing to keep in step by hand.
Build it once, properly.
Walls that know their layers. Doors and windows that cut them properly. Floors, roofs, stairs, railings, columns, beams and footings — modelled as what they are, not as shapes that look right in one view.
- Layered wall types with materials and priorities
- Hip, gable and dutch roofs; L, T and U plans
- Levels, grids, rooms and room tags
- Double precision throughout, on an OpenCASCADE kernel
Every view comes out of the model.
The plan, the elevation and the section are computed from the one model — exactly, every time. Annotate them the way you always have, put them on sheets with your titleblock, and export the set.
- Plans, exact hidden-line elevations and sections
- Dimensions, tags, text and room names
- View range, detail levels, pen standards and hatch patterns
- Sheets with an editable titleblock → PDF, DXF, SVG, IFC
The quantities are the same building.
Schedules and cut lists are counted from the model, so they are never a separate exercise and never out of date. Change the design and the numbers change with it.
- Live schedules with grouping, filters and formatting
- Framing cut lists, takeoffs and U-values
- Finishes schedules from the materials you painted
It knows how the building is put together.
The model carries the frame, not a pattern drawn over it. A birdsmouth exists because the roof bears on a plate and the plate is referenced to the rafter — so change the pitch and every member re-cuts itself.
- Wall framing: studs, plates, kings, jacks, headers, sills, cripples
- Roof framing: commons, jacks, hips, valleys, ridges, trusses
- Derived carpentry: plumb cuts, cheek cuts, hip backing, birdsmouths
- Masonry coursing with real units and mortar joints
An honest ledger.
Northsill is in development and this page will not pretend otherwise. If you are going to put a project through it, you should know what it does not do yet.
Working today
- Modelling, derived views, annotation, schedules and sheets
- Export to PDF, DXF, SVG and IFC
- Wall, roof and floor framing with cut lists
- Undo/redo, incremental regeneration, a versioned
.nslfile
Not yet
- No IFC or DWG import — Northsill can be added to a workflow, but cannot yet join one
- Very large models are slow to open cold (tens of thousands of elements)
- Windows only; no macOS build
- The installer is unsigned, so Windows will warn you
Take it for a drive.
The beta is a full build — nothing is held back behind a paywall or a watermark on your drawings. It runs entirely on your own machine: no account, no cloud, no project of yours leaves the computer. Install it, open one of your own buildings, and tell me what breaks.
Windows will warn you when you run it. The installer is not code-signed yet — a certificate costs money that has gone into the software instead. You will see “Windows protected your PC”; click More info → Run anyway. If that is not a trade you are willing to make, that is a fair call — write to me and I will show you the app on a call instead.
Test builds stop running after 60 days. That is not a sales tactic — it is how I make sure nobody is quietly reporting bugs against a build from four months ago. Come back here for the current one; your .nsl files keep working.