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House Program vs drawing directly
Jodu offers two ways to start a house, and they are not exclusive. The House Program records what the house must contain; the Plan canvas is where the house is actually drawn. Use either, both, or start with one and add the other later.
What is a House Program?
The Program is the professional requirements list stored with the project: the individual spaces needed, their priorities and area ranges, useful groupings, and the relationships between them.
- Needs — one desired space each (Bedroom 1, Kitchen), with type, priority, preferred storey, area range, minimum clear dimension, orientation, and Vastu preference.
- Groups — suites, zones, or open-plan combinations, such as a bedroom with its dressing and toilet.
- Relationships — adjacency, near, separation, direct-access, and visual-connection intent between pairs of needs.
Start blank or from a 1BHK, 2BHK, or 3BHK template — a template only applies while the Program is empty. See House Program.
When should I write a Program first?
Write the Program first when the brief matters more than drawing speed:
- the client gave a room list with areas ("3BHK, puja, parking");
- you want a checklist the plan can be measured against;
- several people will review whether the plan covers the brief.
When is drawing directly better?
Draw directly when the brief is small, already decided, or arrives as an existing drawing:
- a single-storey job where the layout is already known;
- tracing an existing plan with the CAD underlay;
- quick edits to a plan that is already drawn.
Program is never a gate: the Wall and Room tools work the same with or without one, and every authoring path produces the same building model.
What does a House Program affect downstream?
A Program is requirements, not authored geometry. It affects fulfilment and Review:
- Fulfilment — in Plans, link authored Spaces to needs. A need counts as fulfilled when at least one current Space is linked; deleting a linked Space makes the need unresolved again.
- Review — the Program panel in Plans shows which needs are still unlinked, so coverage gaps are visible while you draw.
It does not place walls, generate a layout, or change anything you drew. Sketch rooms in a sketch never fulfil a need — only authored Plan Spaces do. Nothing in the Program silently becomes building geometry.
Related
- House Program — needs, groups, relationships, fulfilment
- Sketches — sketching rooms before the plan
- Spaces and rooms — the Spaces that fulfil needs
- Getting started — first-project walkthrough