PlansXpress Frequently Asked Questions

PlansXpress® is incredibly easy to use. You don’t need lots of experience of CAD as it’s been designed with builders in mind. Using the drag and drop tools you can quickly start producing professional building plans and elevations yourself.

PlansXpress® is suitable for extensions, new build (houses and apartments), renovation work, designing room layouts for kitchens, bathrooms, electrical layouts and plumbing and heating, drainage services layouts and more!

PlansXpress® reflects current building regulations and with your PlansXpress® Support & Updates in place your software will be updated as and when building regulations are updated. This will update both your software drawing tools e.g. how a wall is rendered visually on the plan and also what items are specified in the notes. Note you must review and update the pre-authored specification notes to ensure they reflect your specific project and that they conform to building regs.

AutoCAD is a great product but (a) it is very expensive (and PlansXpress® is very affordable), (b) unless you buy a number of bolt on tools for it, it is not configured for general building works like PlansXpress® is, (c) it can be purchased with our very affordable 3D PhotoVisualiser plug-in to produce stunning photo-realistic visuals for your clients and finally (d) PlansXpress® is very easy to pick up (and other products often require training).

Yes the Total Toolkit edition, Lite edition and Ultimate Pack of PlansXpress are all lifetime licences which means once you purchase it, it’s yours forever to use on one machine. PlansXpress Self Build edition is an annual licence however and therefore needs to be renewed every 12 months.

In year one we request that all Users get a Support & Updates package included within your software purchase which is renewable annually if you choose. Your Support & Updates package gives you access to telephone and Internet support and all software updates and upgrades. If you decide you're happy with your current version, don't use the telephone support and don't want software updates or upgrades then you can choose not to renew and continue to use your software.

Please note that if you opt to purchase the 3D PhotoVisualiser plug-in it is only supported for version 3 of PlansXpress.

The PlansXpress® licence only entitles you to use the package on one computer and in accordance with the Licence terms. However we do massive discounts on the purchase of additional licences for your company.

Support & Updates for all editions of PlansXpress is free in year one of software ownership and covers you for 12 months worth of unlimited telephone and email technical support and all software updates and upgrades.

Support and access to software updates and upgrades can only be provided with a valid Support & Updates subscription. On the expiry of your annual Support & Updates subscription, you can choose whether you want to renew for a further year. Should you renew, you will receive a further 12 months unlimited telephone and email technical support and all software upgrades for that period.

The cost of renewing Support & Updates for PlansXpress Lite edition, Total Toolkit edition and the Ultimate pack is currently £149 + VAT per annum.

PlansXpress Self Build customers need to renew their licence as well as the Support & Updates which costs £349 inc VAT in total (or you can choose to upgrade to a lifetime licence).

PlansXpress® is available as part of our rental plan. You can build your own rental package by selecting any two (or more) HBXL software products from ContractsXpert®, EstimatorXpress®, PlansXpress® and Health & Safety Xpert®.

Please note that the 3D PhotoVisualiser for PlansXpress is not available on rental.

Yes, PlansXpress is compatible with Google Sketchup to produce rendering in 3D. You can get hold of Google Sketchup at sketchup.google.com/

Alternatively why not consider the 3D PhotoVisualiser plug-in for PlansXpress to produce stunning 3D photo-realistic visuals in just one click. Note you do need PlansXpress Total Toolkit (version 3 only) to run this plug-in.

CAD is an acronym for Computer Aided Design and generally involves the use of a computer and software for the design of objects and structures.

In the construction world CAD software is used for drawing plan views and 2D elevations which can then be submitted for planning application and building regulation submissions. These drawings must contain precise detailing of the structure including sections, specification notes and builidng regulation information.

Traditionally plans and designs for building work were done by hand and by skilled architects but due to the advancements in technology you can now get CAD software specific for the construction industry such as PlansXpress.

To get an online demonstration of PlansXpress you just need to get in contact with us and let us know your preferred date and time.

Our demonstration times are between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday and are done using our GoToAssist technology allowing you to connect to our screen online and one of our demonstrators will show you and discuss the software over the Internet.

Click here to book an online demonstration

Yes! PlansXpress Total Toolkit has the ability to view the project as a 3D throughout the design process (automatically building your 3D model as you add more detail to the plan). You can render both the inside and outside of the building and add colour to impress clients no end!

More impressive still is the 3D PhotoVisualiser for PlansXpress which produces a photo-realistic 3D model of your design in just one click! Sure to impress customers and the planners alike when submitting planning applications.

Yes! If you have PlansXpress Total Toolkit with our 3D PhotoVisualiser you can produce stunning photo-realistic 3D visualisation of your design in just one click! Sure to impress customers and the planners alike when submitting planning applications. Please note the 3D PhotoVisualiser is only supported by version 3 of PlansXpress and you must have the Total Toolkit edition.

Yes! With PlansXpress you can import and export as DWG and DXF files as well as image files such as Bitmaps (BMP), JPEGs, PDF, WMF and GIF.

PlansXpress has been designed and built for the complete computer novice and demand fro training is usually very low. We do however offer PlansXpress Group Training Days around the country for any Users wanting to get up to speed with designing and drawing professional plans super fast.

In order to operate the 3D Visualiser plug-in, you need PlansXpress v.3 Total Toolkit. Note it will only work with version 3 of PlansXpress.

*Please ensure that the video card driver supports the unified shader model (i.e. DirectX 10.1 and Shader Model 4.0) and OpenGL 2.0. The video card drivers should be up to date. A NVidia QuadroFX, series card will handle these features comfortably. We would avoid using integrated graphics chipsets, such as the Intel based ones at this time.

You can download a free trial of PlansXpress from our website. You will be able to use all parts of the software during your trial and ensure it's the right software for you.

Download the PlansXpress free trial