Shop Drawings Agent — shop drawing automation AI from your Revit model
The Shop Drawings Agent generates dimensioned, coordinated, fabrication-ready shop drawings from Revit or IFC models, covering steel, curtain wall, precast, and MEP assemblies. It produces plans, elevations, sections, connection details, and per-assembly schedules tied back to model elements. It is available now as a Labs engagement under MSA + Appendix as part of the Roadmap programme.
- Per-assembly shop drawing sets with plans, elevations, sections, connection details, and schedules, issued in your shop-drawing template and ready for fabricator review or markup.
- Dimensioned coordination where each key dimension ties back to a specific Revit element ID, so when the model updates the affected sheets are identified and queued for reissue.
- One agent configured per Labs deployment to support steel, curtain wall, precast, and MEP, with discipline scope, templates, and handoff formats agreed during scoping.
What the Shop Drawings Agent does.
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Per-assembly drawing generation
Reads the Revit model and generates one shop drawing set per fabrication assembly — steel beam, curtain panel, precast unit, MEP equipment skid, or similar grouped element. Each set includes plans, elevations, sections, and assembly-specific details against the studio’s shop-drawing template. The agent runs inside the VitruAI + Revit integration, so it understands worksharing, view templates, and category filters used in your existing shop drawing automation workflows.
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Connection-detail drafting
Generates standard connection details from the model’s connection elements — steel bolt patterns, welded plates, curtain-wall mullion connections, precast embed plates, and MEP supports. Detail drawings are dimensioned, annotated, and cross-referenced to the parent assembly drawing with view references and sheet numbers. The Draftsman personality shows up here: consistent lineweights, tags, and detail numbering follow your current detail library and title-block standards without improvisation.
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Coordinated schedules and bills of material
Reads schedules and material assignments from the Revit model and produces fabrication-ready bills of material per assembly, grouped by profile, thickness, finish, or equipment type. These per-assembly schedules align with project-wide quantities from the BOQ / Take-off Agent, so one rule pack drives both shop drawings and quantity reports. When the downstream fabricator prefers an IFC handoff, the agent uses the IFC OpenBIM integration to confirm that exported element properties still support the same schedule fields.
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Change-set tracking and revision drawings
When the architectural model changes between issues, the agent compares the previous and current Revit or IFC snapshots and identifies which shop drawings are affected. It re-issues only those sets, applies revision clouds around changed elements, and updates revision tags and title-block metadata. A change manifest lists assemblies, sheets, and element IDs touched in the revision, so coordinators and fabricators can review impact in single-digit minutes per typical update instead of rescanning the entire package.
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Discipline scope and template calibration
During Labs scoping, the agent is configured for the disciplines in play — steel, curtain wall, precast concrete, and MEP equipment by default, with millwork, signage, or other façade systems added on request. VitruAI captures your existing shop-drawing templates, title blocks, dimensioning conventions, callout styles, and schedule layouts and encodes them into the rule pack. This same configuration can also support pre-tender drawing sets alongside the Pre-Sales Drawings Agent, so marketing and fabrication outputs stay visually consistent.
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Available now as a Labs engagement
The Shop Drawings Agent is available now as a co-built Labs engagement under MSA + Appendix, with productised release targeted after the Roadmap cohort. VitruAI calibrates the rule pack against your shop-drawing template, assembly typologies, and the fabricator’s preferred input format — Revit, IFC, or DWG export. Where the contractor uses a specific shop-floor system, the Labs team tests IFC round-trips into tools like Tekla or Advance Steel and aligns the workflow with your BIM-to-BOQ automation so drawings and quantities stay in sync.
Shop Drawings Agent — questions from BIM and fabrication teams
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When will this ship as a productised release?
The Shop Drawings Agent is available now as a Labs engagement under MSA + Appendix, where we co-build against your template, discipline scope, and fabricator handoff. The productised Beta release sits downstream of this Roadmap programme and draws directly on the Labs configurations. If you need shop drawing automation on an active project, the Labs route is the way to start while also influencing the eventual standard release.
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Which fabrication disciplines does it cover?
The initial rule pack covers steel, curtain wall, precast concrete, and MEP equipment, including skids and packaged plant. During Labs scoping we can extend coverage to millwork, signage, and façade systems beyond curtain wall, provided the Revit families or IFC entities carry consistent parameters. Mixed-discipline projects can run multiple scopes in parallel, with one configuration file per trade to keep responsibilities clear between architect and fabricator.
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Does it produce drawings to our specific shop-drawing template?
Yes, matching your shop-drawing template is a primary part of the Labs engagement. VitruAI ingests your existing title blocks, dimensioning conventions, callout styles, and schedule formats and encodes them into the agent’s rule pack. That same configuration can also support pre-contract sets produced by the Pre-Sales Drawings Agent, so early-stage and fabrication-stage drawings share a consistent look and field structure.
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What’s the input — does the architect’s Revit model carry enough fabrication detail?
Input requirements depend on the model’s level of detail and the trade’s expectations. LOD 350+ Revit models or well-structured IFC exports usually support direct shop drawing generation, with connection details and schedules derived from existing parameters. For LOD 300 or lower, we plan a fabrication-modelling sprint as part of the Labs deployment, so assemblies and connections reach the detail needed for reliable shop drawings and downstream fabrication drawing AI workflows.
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How does this work with the BOQ / Take-off Agent?
The Shop Drawings Agent and the BOQ / Take-off Agent are designed to be complementary. Shop Drawings produces the per-assembly fabrication set, while BOQ aggregates quantities project-wide for cost estimation and procurement. Studios running both agents see one shared rule pack for parameters, classifications, and filters, which reduces double entry and keeps the quantities in the BOQ aligned with the assemblies called up on the shop sheets.
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How does it integrate with the fabricator’s preferred format?
Labs scoping selects a canonical handoff per fabricator: direct Revit model, IFC export via the IFC OpenBIM integration, or DWG export for 2D-only workflows. Where the fabricator runs a specific platform such as Tekla, Advance Steel, or RAM, VitruAI configures an IFC or Revit-based handoff that their system ingests without extra remodelling. This keeps the architect–fabricator interface clear while still allowing your internal team to work primarily in Revit and VitruAI’s Revit integration.