2D CAD built for engineers, driven by AI.

ILX CAD AI is a professional 2D CAD application for Windows that runs entirely offline. It is purpose-built for structural and civil engineering drawings, combining a full feature-equivalent CAD engine with an integrated AI assistant that can review, explain, clean, mark up, and generate code for any open drawing.

What Makes ILX CAD AI Different

• Offline-first — all drawing tools and AI inference run on your machine. No cloud upload required.
• Engineering-aware AI — the AI is fine-tuned on structural and civil drawings, code references, and drafting standards.
• DXF / DWG / SVG / PDF round-trip — open files from AutoCAD, SOLIDWORKS, Revit, or any DXF-compatible application.
• NCS-compliant layer defaults — starts with a National CAD Standard layer set for structural drawings.

Recommended First Workflow

1. Open or create a drawing.
2. Set up layers and snap settings.
3. Draft geometry and annotations.
4. Run AI → Review to check for standard compliance and common errors.
5. Use AI → Explain on any element you want a plain-language description of.
6. Plot or export the finished drawing.

Requirement	Minimum	Recommended
OS	Windows 10 (64-bit)	Windows 11
CPU	4-core	8-core
RAM	8 GB	16 GB
GPU / NPU	—	DirectML-capable GPU or NPU for AI acceleration
Storage	2 GB free	4 GB (includes AI model files)
Display	1920 × 1080	2560 × 1440

1. Download ILX-CAD-AI-Setup.exe from the ILX Studio website.
2. Run the installer. AI model weights (ONNX format) are included in the installer and stored in %ProgramFiles%\ILX Studio\CAD AI\models\.
3. On first launch, sign in with your ILX Studio account to activate your seat.

Your seat is managed through license.ilxstudio.com. Sign out via File → Account → Sign Out to release your seat. Updates are Ed25519-signed; model updates install separately when available.

File → New Drawing (Ctrl+N) — select drawing template (Blank, ANSI B, ANSI D, A0, A1, Structural Detail, Structural Plan) and unit system (Imperial / Metric).

File → Open (Ctrl+O) — accepts .ilxd (native), .dxf, .dwg (AutoCAD 2018 and earlier). Recent files appear on the Start page.

Ribbon Tabs

Tab	Contents
Home	Clipboard, select, basic draw, edit, properties
Draw	All 2D draw tools — LINE, PLINE, CIRCLE, ARC, ELLIPSE, SPLINE, TEXT, HATCH, DIM
Modify	MOVE, COPY, ROTATE, MIRROR, TRIM, EXTEND, OFFSET, ARRAY, SCALE, FILLET, CHAMFER, EXPLODE
Layers	Layer Manager, layer states, import layer standards
Blocks	Insert, create, explode, library browser, bind xrefs
AI	AI Review, Explain, Clean, Markup, Sandbox (see Ch. 7)
Output	Plot, export to DXF, DWG, SVG, PDF, PNG
Options	Snap, grid, units, theme, keyboard shortcuts, account

Command Line

The command line at the bottom of the screen accepts typed commands (e.g. LINE, OFFSET, ZOOM E). All commands work with keyboard entry, matching AutoCAD aliases.

Precision Input

All coordinate input supports: absolute (3,4), relative (@2,1), polar (@5<30), and direct distance entry (type a distance and move the mouse). Object snaps (OSNAPs): F3 toggles snaps — endpoints, midpoints, centers, intersections, tangents, quadrants, nearest.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Command	Shortcut	Notes
LINE	L	Continuous line; Esc or Enter to finish
POLYLINE	PL	Continuous polyline with Arc option
CIRCLE	C	Center+radius or 3-point
ARC	A	3-point, start-center-end, or start-center-angle
OFFSET	O	Offset line, arc, polyline, or circle by distance
TRIM	TR	Trim to cutting edge; Enter selects all as cutting edges
EXTEND	EX	Extend to boundary edge
MIRROR	MI	Mirror entities; optional delete original
ARRAY	AR	Rectangular or polar array
MOVE	M	Move selection by base point
COPY	CO	Copy; multiple copies from one base point
ROTATE	RO	Rotate by angle or by reference
ZOOM ALL	Z A	Fit drawing extents in viewport

All AI features run entirely on-device. No drawing content is uploaded to external servers.

AI Review

AI → Review analyzes the entire drawing or a selected region. Results appear in the Review Panel: issues are listed by severity (⚠ Warning / ✗ Error) with a description and reference to a drafting standard (NCS, AISC Detailing Manual, or custom). Click an issue to zoom to the affected entity.

AI Explain

AI → Explain — click any entity or region to get a plain-language explanation in the Explain panel: what it is, what standard it conforms to, and how it functions structurally. Useful for checking your own drawings and for reviewing drawings from consultants.

AI Clean

AI → Clean detects and removes duplicate entities, near-zero-length segments, unclosed polylines, stray points, and overlapping text. Preview changes before applying. Runs without modifying layers or blocks outside the selection set.

AI Markup

AI → Markup adds automatic annotation callouts to selected elements — labels, dimension overrides, code references, and revision clouds — based on the drawing type and layer standards. Review and delete any markup you do not need before saving.

AI Sandbox

AI → Sandbox opens a freeform chat panel. Type natural-language questions about the current drawing or drafting standards. The AI can also generate LISP / Python code snippets for automating repetitive drafting tasks.

Grip Editing

Click any entity to show grips. Click a grip again to enter Move mode; right-click a grip for options (Stretch, Move, Rotate, Scale, Mirror). Hold Shift to select multiple grips.

Properties Panel

Select an entity → the right-side Properties panel shows all attributes (layer, color, linetype, lineweight, geometry data). Type new values directly to update. Multiple entities selected: shared properties are shown and editable in bulk.

Selection Modes

• Click-select: single entity.
• Left-to-right window: entities fully inside the window.
• Right-to-left crossing: entities the window touches or contains.
• Shift+click: add / remove from selection set.
• ALL command (or Ctrl+A): select everything on unfrozen, unlocked layers.

Built-in Block Library

ILX CAD AI ships with a structural and civil block library covering AISC bolt and weld symbols, bearing plate details, column base plates, title blocks, north arrows, section cut symbols, and common material hatches.

Inserting Blocks

Blocks → Insert Block (I) — select from the library or from a block defined in the current drawing. Specify insertion point, scale, and rotation. Attributes (e.g. title block fields) are filled in a dialog before insertion.

Creating Blocks

Select entities → Blocks → Create Block (B). Enter a name, set the base point, and optionally check Delete source entities. The block is available in the current drawing and can be exported to a .ilxd block library file.

Drawing Templates

A template (.ilxt file) is a pre-configured drawing with page size, title block, units, layer standards, and text styles. Save any drawing as a template via File → Save as Template. File → New Drawing lists all available templates.

ILX CAD AI’s default layer standard follows the NCS (National CAD Standard) for structural drawings. Layer names follow the S-<DISCIPLINE>-<TYPE> convention.

Layer Manager

Layers → Layer Manager (LA). Each layer has: Name, Color, Linetype, Lineweight, Visibility (on/off), Freeze, Lock, and Plot (whether this layer prints).

Layer States

Save and restore complete layer configurations with Layers → Layer States. Useful for creating plan, elevation, and detail views from a single drawing file with different layer visibility sets.

Format	Extension	Read	Write	Notes
ILX Drawing	.ilxd	✓	✓	Native format, all features preserved
AutoCAD DXF	.dxf	✓	✓	R2010–R2018 interchange
AutoCAD DWG	.dwg	✓	✓	DWG 2018 and earlier; via Open Design Alliance
PDF	.pdf	✓ (underlay)	✓ (export)	PDF underlay or export; AI features work on drawn geometry only
SVG	.svg	✗	✓	Vector export for web or reports

Plotting to PDF

Output → Plot (Ctrl+P) — select paper size, plot area (extents / window / named viewport), scale (fit or specific), and pen style table. Output to a PDF file, ILX PDF Printer, or system printer.

Batch Plotting

Output → Batch Plot — select multiple drawing files and generate one PDF per drawing (or one combined multi-sheet PDF) with a single click. Layer states can be applied per sheet.

Options → Options Dialog (OP) holds all application settings organized into tabs:

Tab	Key Settings
Display	Theme (Dark / Light), canvas color, crosshair size, tooltip delay
Drafting	OSNAP defaults, AutoSnap marker size, DYN (dynamic input) on/off
Units	Drawing units (inches, feet, mm, m), angular format, precision
AI	AI model verbosity, inference device (CPU / GPU / NPU auto), review severity threshold
Shortcuts	Edit any keyboard shortcut; export / import shortcut profile

DXF / DWG Opens with Missing Entities

Complex XREFs or 3D entities (solids, surfaces, meshes) are stripped on import; only 2D geometry is read. Explode xrefs to standalone entities in the source application before export, then re-import.

AI Features Are Slow

Check Options → AI → Inference Device. If it shows “CPU”, your GPU may not be detected. Update your GPU driver or set the device to “Auto” and restart. A first-run model warm-up takes ~30 seconds; subsequent calls are fast.

Drawing Opens in “Read-Only” Mode

Another ILX CAD AI process has the file open, or the file is in a network share locked by another user. Close the other instance or save a copy locally.

Hatch Patterns Not Displaying

If imported DXF hatch patterns are not recognized, they are converted to the closest built-in pattern. To restore exact patterns, copy the original .pat files to %AppData%\ILX Studio\CAD AI\patterns\.

AI Review Flags Too Many Items

Reduce sensitivity in Options → AI → Review Severity Threshold. Set to “Errors only” to see only definitive issues, not warnings.

A. Manual Conventions

Convention	Meaning
Bold text	Button, ribbon tab, menu item, or panel name
Monospace	Command alias, file extension, coordinate input, path
✓ / ✗ / ⚠	Pass, fail, and warning status indicators

B. File Management

Native .ilxd files are a JSON-based drawing format. They are human-readable and diff-friendly, making them suitable for version control (git). Auto-save is on by default every 5 minutes; recovery files are in %LOCALAPPDATA%\ILX Studio\CAD AI\Recovery\.

C. AI Model Notes

The AI model included in ILX CAD AI is an ONNX-format model fine-tuned on structural drawing data. Model updates are distributed as separate installer packages and do not require a full application reinstall.

D. Accessibility

Dark and Light themes. Crosshair and grip sizes are adjustable in Options → Display. High-contrast colors can be configured per layer in the Layer Manager.

E. Support & Logs

Logs at %LOCALAPPDATA%\ILX Studio\CAD AI\Logs\. Contact support@ilxstudio.com with product version, Windows version, a sample .ilxd or .dxf file (if permitted), and steps to reproduce.

F. Glossary

Term	Meaning
OSNAP	Object Snap — automatic snapping to geometric points (endpoints, midpoints, centers, etc.).
Block	A reusable, named collection of entities treated as a single object when inserted.
NCS	National CAD Standard — defines layer naming conventions for AEC drawings.
DYN	Dynamic Input — coordinate and length entry displayed at the cursor instead of the command line.
XREF	External Reference — a drawing file inserted into another drawing by reference (not embedded).

G. Revision History

Version	Date	Notes
1.0	2026	Initial manual draft.
1.1	2026	Expanded AI features chapter, drawing tools reference, troubleshooting, and glossary.

H. CAD Drawing Checklist

• Drawing template, title block, and sheet number verified.
• Units and scale confirmed before drawing.
• Layers set per NCS or project standard; no drawing on layer 0.
• All text, dimensions, and annotations on correct layers.
• AI Review run and all errors addressed.
• Block attributes (title block fields) are complete.
• Plot to PDF reviewed for appearance before final issue.