HeatAlgo draws underfloor heating sections from a building floor plan. You upload the storey plan - PDF, PNG, JPG, DWG or DXF - click the two ends of a wall whose length you know, and Algo AI reads the rooms off the drawing and proposes sections together with the pipe layout inside them, to EN 1264. You review the proposal on your own plan, untick the rooms you do not want touched, and apply it with one button. Everything that lands on the drawing stays editable, and the first applied generation is free once per account.
Step 1: Upload the storey plan
In the underfloor heating module click the violet "Upload a plan" button. We take PDF, PNG, JPG, DWG and DXF. A multi-page PDF asks which page, and a CAD file gives one page per layout. Beside it sits "Draw it myself" - the same file picker, you just draw the sections afterwards.
Step 2: Calibrate the scale
Click the two ends of a wall whose length you know and type it in. This is the one mandatory step: without a scale there are no metres on the drawing, so we do not guess one to make the read succeed.
Step 3: Start the section drawing
Click "Draw the sections", or ask Algo AI in the chat: "Draw UFH sections from my plan". Algo replies with a card that opens the same section screen. The read runs - we tell you when the sections are ready, and Cancel stays available the whole time.
Step 4: Review the proposal on the drawing
The heading gives the section count and the metres of pipe; under it, how many rooms were matched and how many outlines are worth checking on the drawing. The room list has a tick per room - untick the ones you do not want touched. A room nothing was proposed for is labelled "no sections", so it does not get lost.
Step 5: Apply the sections
The "Apply sections" button puts them in the project. If they would replace existing sections it says so outright - "Apply and replace 3 sections" - and without that confirmation nothing is overwritten. Afterwards you have "Undo the apply", which works for 30 days.
Step 6: Place the manifold and run the supply pipes
The screen leads straight into it: you mark where the cabinet goes, then draw the runs from it with the route tool. Only then are the loop lengths complete, because the pipe limit counts the run to the manifold.
What AI does not do
This is the edge of the feature, and it is worth knowing before you send the drawing on:
- It does not place the manifold. You mark the cabinet yourself.
- It does not draw the supply runs. The routes from the manifold to each section are yours to draw with the existing tool, and they are what completes every loop length.
- It does not fill in the engineering inputs. Missing heat loss, flow and return temperature, floor build-up and pipe data stay empty. A plan does not carry them, so we do not invent them.
- It cannot read a plan without a scale. Calibration is your step.
- It is not a sign-off. Sections with pipes are a starting point, not confirmation that the design is ready to install. You check them before the build like any other drawing - including the minimum bend radius for your pipe product and the required clearances.
A partial result is still useful. When the shape of an area does not pass the pipe check, the rest of the sections go into the project and those areas are named - you draw them with the Section tool, and the pipes lay themselves out inside.
What it costs
The first applied generation is free once per account. Previewing, cancelling and a failed attempt do not use it - only pressing "Apply sections" does. Further generations need an active subscription or access to an unlocked project. Undo does not restore the free generation. Editing sections that are already on the drawing costs nothing, and exporting the report keeps its own existing rules, described in the pricing.
Where the rooms come from
If you have calculated the building in the heat load module, the sections are matched to the rooms already known - with their demand and their temperature. The start screen says so before you upload anything: how many rooms, how many kilowatts and how many storeys will carry onto the drawing. A room the project does not have yet, but which is visible on the plan, is added along with the sections when you apply. More on that exchange in the article on how data flows between modules.
Where to go next
- The underfloor heating module - what it calculates, what is in the report, what it costs.
- Guide: how to use the underfloor heating module - eleven steps from a plan to a finished design, with the manifold, the runs and the balance.
- Underfloor heating FAQ - a loop that is too long, the flow warnings, editing nodes.
- Pipe spacing and loop length - why the length is measured from the real geometry together with the run to the manifold.
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