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Jodu — Product Help & User Guide
Jodu is a purpose-built building design and estimation platform for Indian civil engineers, building contractors, and architects.
Draw a residential G+1 or G+2 house on the 2D Plan canvas; Jodu automatically generates professional municipal drawing sets (PDF), automated door/window/room schedules, contractor-ready material statements (cement bags, sand/gravel brass, steel tonnage), a priced Bill of Quantities (BOQ), and an interactive 3D house model.
How Jodu works
What do you want to do?
🧱 Floor Plans & CAD Drafting
- Draw Walls & Partitions: Draw 0.23 m external and 0.115 m internal brick walls with exact dimensions (W) in Plan workspace.
- Trace Existing CAD Drawings: Import DWG/DXF drawings to trace clean native parametric walls in CAD underlay tracing.
- Add Rooms & Openings: Place rooms (R), doors (D), windows (N), passages (P), and stairs (T) in Shell aspect.
- Metric Precision & Snapping: Use typed distances, orthogonal lock (Shift), and snap suppression (Ctrl) in Precision input.
- CAD Export (DWG/DXF): Export exact 2D floor plans directly into CAD formats in CAD Export.
🏛️ Structural Framing & Foundation
- Set Up Structural Specs: Configure concrete mix (M20/M25), rebar steel (Fe500), column/beam sizing, and slab thickness in Structure.
- Place Columns & Frame Beams: Generate column grids, snap columns to wall junctions (R to flip 90°), and connect beams in Structure aspect.
- Foundation & Substructure: Define column footing and ground-floor structural choices in Structure aspect.
- Multi-Storey Storeys: Manage Ground Floor (0.0 m), First Floor (+3.0 m), and Terrace (+6.0 m) levels in Storeys.
🎨 Exterior Facade & 3D Visualization
- Style Exterior Elevation: Design front entrance porches, window chajjas (sunshades), and balcony railings in Facade aspect.
- Explore Exterior Ideas: Write a brief and get up to three AI-generated finished-house design ideas in Exterior Ideas — inspiration only, nothing is applied.
- Assign Surface Finishes: Choose vitrified floor tiles, granite kitchen counters, and wall paint in Finishes aspect.
- Interactive 3D Walkthrough & Photos: Inspect room interiors, run sun/shadow simulations based on North angle, review structural framing, and render photorealistic photos in 3D House.
📊 Quantities, Costing (BOQ) & Drawing Sets
- Contractor Material Take-Off: Calculate exact Cement bags, Sand/Aggregate Brass, and Steel tonnage.
- Customized BOQ: Enter local contractor rates in ₹, configure works contract GST (18%), and calculate profit margins in Quantities & BOQ.
- Automated Schedules: Generate Door & Window fabrication tables and carpet area statements in Schedules.
- Municipal & Site Drawing Sets: Compose multi-sheet PDF drawing sets with title blocks and scale bars on A3/A2/A1 in Sheets.
Workspace Map
| Workspace | What you do here | Quick Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Project Home | Create, open, and manage projects and checkpoints | Project management |
| Sketches | Lay out rooms on a plot, then start a new project from it | Sketches |
| Site | Configure North orientation and review site evidence | Site workspace |
| Program | Optional space brief and room adjacency requirements | House Program |
| Plans | 2D CAD authoring for walls, rooms, openings, stairs, and aspects | Plan workspace |
| Schedules | Automated door, window, room, wall, and finish schedules | Schedules |
| Estimate | Material takeoff, contractor statements, and priced BOQ | Estimate & BOQ |
| Sheet | Assemble and export multi-sheet municipal/working PDF sets | Sheet & drawing sets |
| 3D House | Interactive 3D visualization and review | 3D House |
| Ask Jodu | In-app AI co-pilot answering live project questions | Project assistant |
| Jodu AI steps | Brief, refine and Keep in every AI step; ⌘K and activity | Working with Jodu AI |
| Review | Let your own Claude review a project, with no Jodu AI credits | Use your own AI |
5-Step project walkthrough
- Create a Project: Name your project, choose a building type, and start from blank or CAD.
- Set Plot & Setbacks: Enter plot dimensions (e.g. 30' × 50' / 9.14 m × 15.24 m) and municipal setbacks.
- Draw the Shell: Chain-draw exterior 230 mm walls (W), add 115 mm partitions, place rooms (R), doors (D), windows (N), and stairs (T).
- Frame Structure & Style Facade: Place RCC columns in Structure, customize elevation in Facade, and assign room finishes in Finishes.
- Review & Export Outputs: Verify Schedules and BOQ, compose a drawing set in Sheets, and preview the 3D House.
Key concepts
- Spaces and rooms — what a Space is and when an area becomes measurable
- Setbacks and buildable area — why Jodu asks for setbacks and what the guidance means
- Program vs drawing — when to write the House Program before drawing
- Plan aspects — shell, facade, structure, and finishes
- Revisions and checkpoints — undo, named checkpoints, and restore
Essential Guides & Shortcuts
- Getting Started — complete first-project tutorial with 9.0 m × 7.5 m house
- Precision Input & Snapping — typed metric entry, orthogonal lock (Shift), and snap suppression (Ctrl)
- Keyboard Shortcuts & Overlays — full shortcut cheat-sheet
- Display Units & Conversions — feet/inches, metres, mm, brass, bags, and tonnes
- CAD Underlay Tracing — DWG / DXF drawing underlay calibration and tracing
- Glossary — construction, architectural, and estimation terms
- Use your own AI — connect Claude to review a project
- Troubleshooting — quick fixes for common questions