Preparing DXF and PDF floor plans for an automated compliance check

NiyamX checks store drawings uploaded as DXF or PDF. Both end up in the same place: a floor plan in millimetres with the equipment and rooms marked, which your team confirms before any rule is run. How much your team has to fix at that step depends mostly on how the file was exported.

DXF or PDF?

If you have the CAD file, send a DXF. It carries real coordinates and named equipment blocks, so there is nothing to guess. A PDF works well too, as long as it was exported straight from CAD rather than scanned. DWG files need to be saved as DXF first.

What NiyamX reads from a DXF

• Units. Distances come from coordinates, and the stated drawing units are checked against the geometry, so a plan drawn in metres but labelled millimetres is caught.
• Named equipment. A block called FRYER_2BASKET is a fryer wherever it is placed and however it is rotated.
• Rooms. Walls are traced into rooms even where door openings leave gaps, and the room names written inside them say what each room is.
• The floor plan. When one file holds the plan, elevations and a title block side by side, the plan is picked out on its own.

DXF export checklist

• Set drawing units to millimetres with the UNITS command, and check that a known dimension measures correctly with DIST.
• Keep equipment as blocks. Do not explode them before export, because the block name is what identifies the equipment.
• Use consistent block names from your equipment library rather than copies like "Block1" or "fryer-copy(3)".
• Keep walls on wall layers and doors on door layers, and write room names as text inside each room.
• Put the floor plan in model space at 1:1. Viewports and paper space scaling are ignored.
• Bind or remove external references, run PURGE and AUDIT, then SAVEAS a recent AutoCAD DXF format.

What NiyamX reads from a PDF

• Layers. CAD exporters usually keep layers in the PDF. Their names pick the floor plan sheet out of a multi-sheet set and separate equipment, walls and doors from lighting and services.
• Equipment. Shapes on equipment layers become boxes, and the sheet is read as an image to name each one from its label, symbol or the equipment schedule. This works even when the text was converted to outlines.
• Rooms. Wall linework is traced into rooms, and the room names on the plan say what each one is.
• Scale. The scale is read from the title block, such as 1:50. If there isn't one, it is worked out from a dimension written on the plan.

PDF export checklist

• Export from CAD to PDF directly. Do not print to an image or scan a paper copy.
• Keep layers on when exporting, and use clear layer names such as EQUIPMENT, WALL and DOOR.
• Plot at a stated scale and keep the title block, rather than "fit to paper".
• Leave the overall dimensions on the plan, as a fallback for working out the scale.
• Remove any password protection before uploading.

If the scale is missing or the PDF is a scan

If no scale can be found, the review screen asks you to calibrate before confirming: click the two ends of a wall or dimension and type its real length. A scanned page still works, but equipment and room positions are rough and marked as lower confidence, so expect to adjust more of them.

One plan per sheet

If one DXF or PDF sheet holds the ground floor, mezzanine and a few alternative layouts side by side, a check cannot tell which rooms belong together. Export each floor, and each option you want reviewed, on its own. When a PDF set has several sheets, NiyamX picks the floor plan, and you can switch to another sheet if it picked the wrong one.

After upload, NiyamX shows the equipment and rooms it found on the plan so your team can confirm them before the rules are run. That review step is also a quick way to spot blocks that were exploded, layers that were flattened or labels that were left off during export.