Using ElevationBuilder
Before anything else. ElevationBuilder produces representative elevations for coordination, submittals, estimating and pricing. They are not manufacturing drawings. Dimensions are nominal, and every sheet says so above the title block. Verify in the field before anything is fabricated.
1The screen
The window is in two halves. On the left is the sidebar, where you build the drawing. On the right is the canvas, which shows the printed sheet exactly as it will come out.
Three tabs at the top of the sidebar — Doors, Frames and Jambs — are the three pages of the drawing set. Each holds its own elevations and prints as its own sheet or sheets. Below the tabs, a dropdown and + Add button add an elevation to the page you are on.
Every elevation you add becomes a card. Click a card's header to open or collapse it. Adding a new elevation collapses the others so the one you are working on is the one you can see. The × on a card removes that elevation.
The canvas redraws as you type. There is no preview button and nothing to refresh.
2How dimensions work
You type decimals. The drawing prints fractions. Entering 5.875 is
quicker than hunting for a fraction, so the input fields take decimals — but the sheet reads
5-7/8", the way a schedule reads. Fractions resolve to the nearest 1/32" and reduce
properly, so you get 7/8" rather than 28/32".
This is a display convention. The geometry still uses the exact decimal you entered; only the printed text is rounded.
Marking a dimension VAR.
Every dimension field has a small set button beside it. Click it and that
dimension switches to VARIES: the field greys out, the button turns amber and reads
VAR, and the drawing prints VAR. in place of a number.
Use it when one elevation covers a run of openings at different sizes, or when a dimension has not been confirmed yet. The drawing still has to be drawn at some size, so the app uses a sensible stand-in for the geometry and prints VAR. over it. Click the button again to go back to a fixed number.
Nominal sizes
Dimensions are nominal throughout. A pair of 36" leaves is drawn and dimensioned as 72" overall — the undercut and the meeting-stile clearance that a manufacturer deducts are not shown, because these are not manufacturing drawings.
3Door elevations
Page 1 draws door leaves: eight types, in flush, narrow vision, half glass and full glass, each as a single or a pair. The type you choose sets the starting lite; everything after that is yours to change, and any door can carry any combination of lites and louvers.
Widths
A single door has one Width. A pair has Left leaf width and Right leaf width, entered separately, and the overall is their sum.
The drawing dimensions each leaf on the inner line and the overall below it.
Hinges
Hinges are drawn automatically from the door height, following the usual rule:
| Door height | Hinges |
|---|---|
| Up to 60" | 2 |
| Over 60" to 90" | 3 |
| Over 90" to 120" | 4 |
Two for the first 60", then one more for every additional 30" or part of it. The top and bottom hinges sit with their centrelines 9" from each end of the door, and any intermediate hinges divide the span between them equally. The symbol is drawn as a 4-1/2" hinge.
On a pair, both leaves get hinges on their outer stiles. That is true in all four handings, so pair hinges are drawn without you choosing a hand.
Show hinges on each card turns them off for that elevation. It changes nothing else — the piece keeps its size, dimensions and hardware.
Levers
A lockset is hand-specific in a way hinges are not, so the lever is opt in. A single door has Show lever / lockset; a pair has Lever on left leaf and Lever on right leaf.
Leave both off and one elevation serves right-hand active, left-hand active and both reverse variations without being wrong for any of them. Turn one on when the drawing needs to show which leaf is active.
The lever is drawn at a 2-3/4" backset, 40" above the finished floor, pointing away from the centre of a pair so it clears the astragal. That height is a drawing convention and is not dimensioned.
Astragal
Astragal at meeting stiles on a pair draws a 2" astragal centred on the meeting line. Unchecked, the meeting line is drawn as a plain line. It is a single on-or-off choice — these are representative drawings, so the astragal is not specified by type or handed to a leaf.
Vision lites
+ Add lite adds a lite to the card. Each lite has its own width, height, distance from the top edge, and either a distance from the lock stile or centring in the leaf.
Auto width
Half glass and full glass lites size themselves to the leaf: leaf width less 12", which leaves a 6" stile each side. On a 36" leaf that is a 24" lite; on a 42" leaf, 30". Uncheck Auto width to enter a width by hand.
A width you enter by hand is honoured as entered, but capped at the leaf width — narrower stiles than the 6" allowance are a legitimate choice, glass wider than the door is not.
When a lite is left out
A leaf that cannot hold a 6" lite inside the 12" stile allowance shows no lite at all. That works out to any leaf under 18", and it applies whether the width is automatic or entered by hand.
Vertical position
A lite never comes within 5" of the top or bottom rail. If you set it closer, the distance from the top is held at 5"; if the height would push the bottom edge past the limit, the height is trimmed. Under 6" of remaining glass, nothing is drawn.
The drawing always reports the size it actually drew, so a dimension on the sheet can never disagree with the picture.
Which leaf it appears on
On a pair, each lite has Appears on with a checkbox for the left and right leaf. Both are on by default. Clear one and the lite is drawn only in the other leaf — for an unequal pair with glass in the active leaf only, clear the inactive side.
Louvers
+ Add louver works the same way, measured from the bottom of the door instead of the top. Louvers are always centred in the leaf, size themselves to the leaf less 12" unless you turn Auto width off, follow the same suppression and 5" clearance rules, and carry the same Appears on choice. Metal and wood are drawn with different hatching.
4Frame elevations
Page 2 draws hollow metal frames: single, pair, with sidelite, and borrowed lite. All of them show a 2" face with mitered corners at the head.
Wall type and jamb depth
Jamb depth is the front-to-back depth of the frame, out of the wall. It is not a width. The defaults follow the wall type:
| Wall type | Jamb depth | Throat |
|---|---|---|
| Masonry | 5-3/4" | 4-3/4" |
| Drywall | 5-7/8" | 4-7/8" |
The throat is the clear dimension between the two return lips, and it is the jamb depth less the two 1/2" lips.
Switching the wall type moves the depth to that wall's default — but only while the depth is still sitting on one of the two defaults. Once you have typed a depth of your own, changing the wall type leaves your number alone.
Openings
A single or sidelite frame has one Clear width. A pair frame has Left opening and Right opening, entered separately, with the running overall shown beneath them on the card.
Centre mullion
Include centre mullion on a pair frame draws a 2" mullion between the two openings.
There is no offset setting. Unequal openings put the mullion where it belongs on their own — enter 42" and 18" and the mullion sits 42" from the left jamb.
Head size
Masonry frames offer 4" head (masonry coursing), for when the opening height plus a standard 2" head does not land on the nearest 8" course. The extra 2" is added above the head; the opening below it does not move.
Sidelites
A sidelite frame adds Sidelite width and two more choices:
- Sidelite — glazed, or a solid panel.
- Sidelite sill height — none, 2", 4" or 6". Choose None and the glazing or panel runs to the floor.
Transoms
Include transom adds a fixed panel above the door opening in the same frame, with its own height and a glazed or solid panel choice. A 2" transom bar separates it from the opening below, and the transom spans the full inner width including a sidelite. A centre mullion stops at the underside of the transom bar rather than running up through it.
Borrowed lites
A borrowed lite is a four-sided frame with mitered corners and glazing throughout — an interior window rather than a door opening. It takes a clear width and height and a wall type, and defaults to 36" × 36".
5Jamb and head profiles
Page 3 draws cross-sections through the frame. Eight profiles, each in a masonry and a drywall version:
| Profile | What it is |
|---|---|
| Double rabbet | The standard frame, rabbeted on both sides of the stop. |
| Single rabbet | Rabbeted on one side, with the soffit growing as the jamb depth grows. |
| Cased opening | No stop and no rabbet — a lined opening with no door. |
| Double egress | Stepped, for a pair swinging in opposite directions. |
Each section is dimensioned out to out across the jamb depth, with the face sizes dimensioned on the legs. The caption under each reads the jamb depth, the derived throat and the face size.
Face size
Masonry profiles offer a 2" or 4" face. The 4" face is measured from where the door sits in the frame, so on a double egress a 1-3/8" face becomes 3-3/8" and a 2-5/8" face becomes 4-5/8". Drywall profiles are fixed at a 2" face.
Welded head
Double egress profiles carry a Welded head (single step) checkbox. Unchecked, the section is the stepped profile used for the jamb and a knock-down head. Checked, it draws the single-step head used when the frame is welded. The caption notes which one is drawn.
When the jamb depth changes, the step the door sits against stays put and the sections either side of it adjust.
6Sheets and the title block
Each page lays itself out on an 11" × 8½" sheet in landscape. Elevations fill left to right and wrap to a new row; when a row will not fit, the page starts another sheet and the sheet count in the title block follows. Content is centred vertically on the sheet.
The three fields at the top of the window — project name, revision and Drawn by — feed the title block. Your name or firm is remembered between visits, so you enter it once.
Each elevation card has an Elevation label field for its mark — EL-1, F-3, and so on. Enter one and it prints in bold beneath the elevation with the type and material under it; leave it empty and the type prints on its own.
Above the title block, every sheet carries the note: All dimensions nominal inches unless noted. Verify in field before fabrication.
7Saving and recovery
Save writes your project as a .json file to a location you choose on
your own computer. Load opens one back up. New clears the board and
starts over.
In Chrome and Edge, Save and Load use the browser's own file picker, and the dialog opens where you last saved so a set of project folders stays easy to work with. Firefox and Safari do not offer the picker yet; there, Save downloads the file to your downloads folder and Load asks you to choose one.
If the tab closes
The app keeps an autosave copy of the current drawing in your browser as you work. Reopen the app after an accidental close or a crash and it offers to restore it. This is a safety net between saves, not a filing system — it holds one drawing, it lives only in that browser, and clearing your browser data clears it. Save properly to a file for anything you need to keep.
8Printing and export
Print opens the sheets in a print view sized for 11" × 8½" landscape. Set your printer to landscape and turn off any "fit to page" scaling. Printing to PDF from the same dialog gives you a PDF of the set.
Export .svg writes the sheets as SVG files, which open in Illustrator, Inkscape and most CAD packages as editable linework rather than a picture.
Dark switches the canvas to a dark background with white linework, for working at night. It changes the screen only — printed and exported sheets are always white paper with dark lines, whichever mode you are in.
9Free and Pro
The free version draws exactly what Pro draws. Same engine, same geometry, same sheets — a drawing made in the free version is not marked, watermarked or degraded in any way. What changes is how much you can put on a page and what you can do with the result afterwards.
What the free version does
- Three door elevations, three frame elevations and four jamb profiles per page
- Sheet notes, which do not count against those limits
- Every door and frame type, every jamb profile, all dimensioning
- Printing, preview, zoom, fullscreen and dark mode
- Autosave recovery if the tab closes
What Pro adds
- No limit on elevations per page
- Save and reopen projects as files on your own disk
- Export sheets as SVG for CAD and layout
- Transoms on frame elevations
- Your own name or firm in the DRAWN BY field
Price
Pro is $180 a year, or $18 a month if you would rather pay that way — the annual works out at two months free, and about 72¢ per working day. One licence covers one shop. For more than five people, get in touch.
Everything you have drawn stays exactly as it is if a subscription lapses; you keep your files and the free limits apply again.