Getting started — MEP Tools

Create a void, place your first services, and run your first check.

Open a new document

File ▸ New loads a default ceiling void: 3000 mm wide, 1100 mm deep, with a 200 mm beam depth, 50 mm clearance, and a 50 mm drops-zone reserve. Linked zones starts on, so the five zones stay attached edge to edge and fill the void automatically. You can change every one of these in Project Settings — see Zones & bands.

Add services

Use the ribbon's discipline verbs to add a service:

• Electrical adds a Cable tray — 300 × 100 mm by default, placed in Zone A.
• Mechanical adds a Duct — 600 × 300 mm by default, placed in Zone D.
• Pipes adds a Pipe — 100 mm diameter by default, placed in Zone C.

New services and their branches are named automatically ("Duct 1", "Cable tray 1", a branch "to VAV-3"), and you can rename any of them from its Label field in the inspector. See Ducts, trays & pipes.

Select, pan, and zoom

• Left-drag on empty canvas draws a rubber-band selection — drag left-to-right to select only fully-enclosed items, or right-to-left to also select anything it crosses.
• Middle-drag pans the view.
• Right-click opens the context menu for whatever is under the pointer (or the canvas).
• Mouse wheel zooms in and out.
• Shift-click or Ctrl/Cmd-click adds items to the current selection.

See the full list on Keyboard & mouse shortcuts.

Undo, redo, and checking your work

Every edit — including a whole Auto arrange pass — is one undoable step (Ctrl/Cmd+Z / Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Z). Open the Validation panel at any time to see violations and warnings against the current layout; see Compliance checks.

When you're ready to lay the whole section out automatically, see Auto arrange. To save your work, see Saving & projects.