The building drawn with the customer on the phone — the shell, the roof, the doors, the lean-tos and porches, the whole barndominium floor plan inside it, and a drawing set for the permit office — in a designer that only knows post-frame.
The operating system built exclusively for post-frame and barndominium builders.
Instead of: Notes on the truck seat, a sketch on the back of a quote, a porch remembered after the price went out, a permit nobody checked, and the permit drawings done again in another program.
3D Builder
OrbitWalkInspect
Snap on
1 check · 2 notes
The real screen, drawn from the product’s own design system. Sample data — no customer information appears here.
Scroll — 9 steps
The short answer
What should barndominium design and estimating software do?
It should draw the post-frame shell and the house inside it with the customer on the call, and catch problems before the number goes out. Good barndominium design and estimating software frames in bays, trusses, girts and purlins, prices lean-tos and porches the moment they're drawn, flags headroom, snow drift and IRC fixes as you draw, prints permit sheets, and answers the site's permit questions first.
Why it works
Additions are cheapest on the first drawing. An engineer has to check the existing columns, footings and trusses for a later lean-to's loads, including drifting snow, and the Pole Barn Guru's rule of thumb (his expert opinion, not data) is that adding one later costs about double in design and materials. Customers say yes to extras they can see while the design is still open.Hansen Pole Buildings, 2018 ↗
A post-frame barndominium's structure falls under IBC requirements and has to be designed for its own site's snow, wind and soil; a wall under 5 ft from the lot line needs a 1-hour rating and the garage must be separated from the dwelling, an engineer writes in NFBA's Frame Builder. Checking early avoids costly delays.NFBA, 2025 ↗
The rules change at the county line. Three Minnesota towns gave three answers on the same barndominium: one banned metal siding, one capped garage size and required residential materials, and one called it agricultural and required 40 acres. That is why the permit check belongs before the price, not after.Hansen Pole Buildings, 2026 ↗
Where it starts
Start from the size they asked for
Width, length and eave height first. Then the framing in the order it goes up — bay spacing, trusses, girts, purlins — then what's below grade: post embedment and frost depth. It's the operating system built exclusively for post-frame and barndominium builders, so these are the numbers it starts with, not an afterthought. The panel names the measuring standard, so a 40×60 means the same building to you, your yard and your inspector. Change a number and the building redraws while the customer watches.
Two builders quote the same 40×60 and mean different buildings, because one measured to the girts and the other to the posts.
Wind and snow aren’t set. Spans and uplift use IRC tables only after you set them.Set them
BuildingHide
Dimension standardS618
Industry standard (ANSI/ASABE S618)
Eave, rake and ridge measured to the TOP OF THE PURLINS; width and length measured OUTSIDE-OF-GIRT to OUTSIDE-OF-GIRT. Switching restates the numbers — the building itself doesn’t move.
Width(ft)
−40′+
Length(ft)
−60′+
Eave height(ft)
−14′+
Lock eave
Bay spacing(ft)
−8′+
Truss spacing(ft)
−4′+
Girt spacing(ft)
−2′+
Purlin spacing(ft)
−2′+
Post embedment(ft)
−4′+
16 trusses at 4′ (60′ ÷ 4′ + 1)
WainscotOn
Height(ft)
−3′+
Colors
Walls · Trim · Wainscot · Framing wood
The Building panel in the 3D builder's left rail — the dimension standard and the primary dimensions of the structure, each a stepper the building redraws from. Real screen · sample data.
Every post-frame roof shape, framed the way it's built
Pick the roof type — gable, gambrel, hipped, mansard, monitor — and it tells you how that shape frames: a gable gets common trusses at your spacing, with gable trusses at each end. Then the roofing system, each with its minimum pitch — ribbed steel at 3/12, standing seam, asphalt shingle at 4/12 — and the panels your yard carries. The customer sees the roof he pictured, and nobody quotes steel on a roof too flat for it.
A roof drawn as a triangle on a quote sheet tells nobody what it takes to frame it.
Also known as: Saddleback roof. Two roof planes whose upper edges meet at a ridge — the most common shape in cold and temperate climates. Framing: Common trusses at the spec’d spacing with gable trusses at each end (2×6 chords, king-post web), 2×4 purlins laid flat, rake and eave overhang framing.
Roofing system
Search systems + products…
Standard systems
Manufacturer products (scanned)
PBR / R-Panel — Ash Grayribs
Western Lock (snap-lock seam) — Charcoal Grayseam
⅞″ Corrugated — Almondcorrugated
Wave Panel — Colonial Redwave
Trusses
Common · flat ceilings
Roof pitch(/12)
6
Eave overhang(ft)
1
The real screen, drawn from the product’s own design system. Sample data — no customer information appears here.
Beat two
Doors and windows where they actually go
Every opening is placed by wall, bay and distance from the post: Garage Door 1, a 14-by-12 overhead on the front endwall, bay 2, three feet off the post; a walk door on the left sidewall. Overhead, walk, sliding and window each add from one button. When the customer can see the door where it'll be, he stops second-guessing it — and the crew frames it in the right bay.
“Two overheads on the end” written on a quote is how a door ends up framed in the wrong bay.
Add a lean-to, a porch, an enclosed wing or a wrap, then set it the way you'd describe it to a crew — Lean-to 1 on the right sidewall, 36 feet along the wall, 12 out, a 3/12 pitch, posts every 10 feet. A gable porch can carry timber trusses and a concrete slab. It's on the building and on the material list the moment it's drawn. Customers say yes to extras they can see.
The porch remembered after the price went out is the porch you build for free.
On a call, nobody wants to hunt through panels. Right-click the wall the customer just mentioned and everything that wall can take is right there, each with its price beside it: insulate it for $1,745.80, change the floor, add a frost footer, put a door or a window in it. The call keeps moving, and the customer feels he's working with someone who knows the building cold.
Every minute spent hunting for a setting is a minute the customer spends wondering if this will take all afternoon.
The checks run while you draw. A lean-to on the right wall that drops to 6.2 feet at its outer edge is flagged under the 6′6″ headroom line, with what to change. A lower roof against a taller one is flagged for snow drift. A ledger hung on the main building is flagged as load on its columns. You find out on the call, not on the site — and your rep never has to walk back a promise.
A building that can't be framed as quoted is found out by the crew, and the cost lands on you.
Walls are 14′ — over 12′, engineered plans are required (IRC R301.3; wall-bracing factors stop at 12′, Table R602.10.3(2)). The estimate carries no cross bracing and no engineering allowance.
Why?···
Notes (2)
NoteSnow drift and slide-off
Lean-to on the right wall is a lower roof against a taller one — ASCE 7 drift surcharge and sliding snow off the main roof must be checked; rafter sizes here are not final without it.
Why?···
NoteOpening wider than a bay
A 14′ opening is wider than the 8′ bay, so it needs a multi-bay header and doubled jamb posts. (Engine geometry check)
Why?···
All checks
Every check this builder runs, and whether this building trips it. Press one to read the rule.
Openings
Opening fits its wallA door or window that starts before the wall does, or runs past its far end, has nowhere to be framed.Clear
Opening fits under the eaveThe header has to land below the top of the wall it sits in.Clear
Openings clear each otherTwo openings sharing wall space cannot both have jambs and a header.Clear
Corner posts stay putAn opening close enough to a corner to want the corner post omitted — the one post that carries two walls and cannot go.Clear
Structure
Endwall shearPost-frame resists lateral load through the roof diaphragm and endwall shear; past a point the endwall is more opening than wall and needs engineering.Clear
Bay spacing in bandSpacing wider than the usual band pushes purlins and headers into heavier sizes.Clear
Roofing system minimum slopeEvery roofing product has a slope floor below which it leaks by capillary action at the laps and voids its warranty — the main roof must meet the spec'd system's minimum.Clear
6x6 post stock lengthTreated 6x6 columns are a yard product with a hard length ceiling — eave plus embedment cannot exceed it.Clear
Additions
Addition fits its wallA lean-to or porch that runs past the end of the wall it attaches to has nothing to attach to.Clear
Minimum roof slopeBelow the minimum pitch, exposed-fastener steel leaks by capillary action at the screws — and virtually every manufacturer warranty is void.Clear
Headroom at the outer edgeA sloping addition is lowest where people walk in; below standing headroom it is a trip into a beam.Clear
Snow drift and slide-offAny lower roof against a taller one collects drift and takes snow sliding off the main roof — an ASCE 7 check that rafter sizes are not final without.Note
Foundation
Post embedment minimumEmbedded posts carry the building's lateral and uplift loads through the soil — shallower than the prescriptive floor needs knee bracing, full concrete backfill and an engineer's stamp.Clear
Footing bears below the frost lineA footing above the frost line heaves as the ground freezes — the pad must bottom out below the site's frost depth, which varies from zero on the Gulf Coast to six-plus feet in the far north.Clear
Engineering
Tall walls: bracing + engineeringAbove the tall-wall height (the account's setting — some counties require it) the estimate carries cross bracing and an engineering allowance, each switchable per job; the IRC's wall-bracing factors stop where its tables do (Table R602.10.3(2)) and walls past them are an engineered design (R301.3).Check
Opening wider than a bayWider than the bay means a multi-bay header and doubled jamb posts.Note
Bearing 2x4 studs stop at 10′IRC Table R602.3(5) limits how tall a bearing stud runs between supports. A 2x4 past it needs Table R602.3(6) (Exposure B on a narrow building) or an engineer.Clear
Fireblocking in concealed wallsIRC R302.11: concealed wall spaces are fireblocked at every floor and ceiling line and at the code's maximum interval between. A post-frame girt wall behind a liner is treated as a double-stud cavity — inspector to confirm.Clear
Site
Building pad by the cubic yardThe pad is the building's footprint plus an apron on every side, so the concrete crew can square its forms, filled to the pad depth and bought loose.Clear
Dirt by the load and machine hourDirt is priced the way the dirt sub quotes it: truck loads delivered and machine time with an operator. It starts as a holding number, the pad's fill in loads plus a machine day, until a site visit measures it.Clear
Electrical
GFCI protectionReceptacles near water or the ground are GFCI protected: bathrooms, garages, outdoors, kitchens, laundry areas, and beside a sink, tub or shower. IRC 2024 adds the circuits feeding the dishwasher, range, ovens, cooktops, dryer and microwave. Oklahoma drops it for a refrigerator or freezer in a garage.Clear
AFCI protectionCircuits feeding 120-volt outlets in kitchens, living and family rooms, dining rooms, bedrooms, dens, closets, halls, laundry areas and similar rooms are arc-fault protected. Where GFCI is also needed the breaker is dual function.Clear
How it counts and prices · 47Click to show
The real screen, drawn from the product’s own design system. Sample data — no customer information appears here.
Then the inside: the whole barndominium floor plan
For a barndominium, the building is half the job. Switch the design to Barndominium and draw the house on the real shell, from a template or from scratch — rooms, walls, doors, the kitchen run and the baths. The Ostrander 40×60 shouse: three bedrooms, two baths, 1,432 square feet of living and a 727-square-foot shop. The code check runs as you draw, against the IRC edition you build to — here four fixes, like a shop-to-house door that has to be fire-rated and a second bedroom with no smoke alarm. Then see it in 3D, run the takeoff or print the plan sheets. It's a design aid that catches the obvious early, not a stamped plan. A family that can walk through their kitchen before it exists starts picturing their life in it — and that's when they sign.
A floor plan drawn in another program is a second drawing that has to be kept in step with the first by hand.
Floor plan mode at desktop size: the builder header, the tool rail, the drafted 40×60 shouse on the drafting sheet, and the plan panel with summary, code check and plan settings. Real screen · sample data.
Beat seven
The floor plan prints as a permit drawing set
Press Print sheets and the design becomes a set of 11×17 sheets, each with a title block: a cover and sheet index, a site plan drawn to the lot and setbacks you type in, the slab with every plumbing drain located off the post grid, the roof plan, and the exterior and interior elevations. A distance that breaks a setback turns red. Add a dimension or a note and it's saved with the design. It's a set drawn for the permit office to check — not an engineered or stamped plan. The plumber knows where the drains go before the concrete, and the family sees their house drawn like a real one.
Permit drawings done again in another program are a third drawing to keep in step with the building you sold.
Which office governs that address, and what it asks for
Type the site address and the permit check answers the questions that change the price: is a permit required, does an ag exemption apply, when are stamped plans needed, what's the fee and who do you call. Here: the Millbrook Building & Zoning Division, a fee estimate of $980 to $1,240. Known before the number goes out, so the rep quotes with confidence and nobody eats a surprise. Once the job is sold, the permit and its inspections are tracked on the job itself.
A permit nobody checked is a cost somebody eats — the customer, the business, or the rep's commission.
The building drawn with the customer on the phone — the shell, the roof, the doors, the lean-tos and porches, the whole barndominium floor plan inside it, and a drawing set for the permit office — in a designer that only knows post-frame. Thirty minutes with Keith, on one of your real structures — and the link we build is yours to keep whether or not you go any further.
Click to select · Shift-click or Shift-drag a box to select several · drag to move · drag empty space to pan · Delete removes · right-click anything for its options (⌘K to search)
−Fit+UndoRedo
Floor plan
1,466 sq ft living
Bedrooms3
Baths2
Living1,466 sq ft
Shop750 sq ft
Footprint2,400 sq ft
Code check
4 fixes3 checks4 notes
Slide the fixture or move the obstruction to open the clear space.
IRC 2021 R307.1 / P2705.1
Slide the fixture or move the obstruction to open the clear space.
IRC 2021 R307.1 / P2705.1
Mark the door fire-rated and self-closing (a 20-minute door with spring hinges).
IRC 2021 R302.5.1
Place a smoke alarm on the bedroom ceiling (or use Place code minimum).
IRC 2021 R314.3 (R310.3 in 2024)
Finish the shop ceiling in drywall, or carry the separation wall up to the roof deck.
IRC 2021 R302.6
Place an Attic access 22″ × 30″ from the library in the laundry.
IRC 2021 R807.1
Plan settings
Exterior walls
2x6 at 16″ o.c. · 13′-3½″ studs
IRC R602.3.1 · taller than the table's studs — see Issues
SLAB & PLUMBING PENETRATION PLAN
9 rough-ins · 0 posts · dimensioned on A3.2
Plumbing rough-in schedule
Mark
Fixture
Room
Rough-in
Located
P1
Water heater
Laundry
T&P / pan drain, supply
1′-5″ + grid 1 · 2′-6″ + grid C
P2
Tub
Bathroom
1½″ trap · 12″×12″ box-out
1′-9″ + grid 1 · 1′-6 1/2″ − grid C
P3
Washer
Laundry
2″ standpipe
1′-7 1/2″ − grid 2 · 4′-6 1/4″ − grid D
P4
Lavatory
Bathroom
1¼″ trap · 1½″ arm
0′-6″ − grid 2 · 4′-1 3/4″ + grid B
P5
Toilet
Bathroom
3″ closet bend
3′-3″ + grid 2 · 4′-3 1/4″ + grid B
P6
Kitchen sink
Kitchen / living / dining
1½″ trap
2′-0″ − grid 5 · 1′-7″ − grid E
P7
Toilet
Primary bath
3″ closet bend
0′-9 3/4″ − grid 5 · 1′-8 1/2″ + grid C
P8
Lavatory
Primary bath
1¼″ trap · 1½″ arm
3′-6″ − grid 6 · 2′-10 1/4″ + grid C
P9
Shower
Primary bath
2″ drain
0′-8 3/4″ + grid 6 · 1′-6″ − grid C
+ = toward the higher-numbered / later-lettered line.
Slab & foundation notes
4″ concrete slab over a vapor retarder (6-mil polyethylene min., IRC R506.2.3) on a 4″ base course (IRC R506.2.2). Concrete strength per IRC Table R402.2 for the local weathering probability.
Slab edge at the post line. Finish floor elevation, slope to doors and any control joints per the builder.
Posts embedded 4′-0″ on concrete footings (dashed); post size, depth and footing per the post-frame / foundation designer.
Gridlines: numbered on the sidewall bay lines, lettered on the endwall post spacing; the outer lines are the post line. Each rough-in is dimensioned from its nearest gridlines.
Rough-ins are typical centres from the fixtures placed on the plan (12″ toilet rough-in; sink and washer drains in the wall behind). Minimum trap sizes: IRC Table P3201.7. Horizontal drain slope: IRC P3005.3. Vents, cleanouts and water supply by the plumber.
Test under-slab piping before it is covered (IRC P2503).
0′2′4′6′8′
¼″ = 1′-0″
Ridgeline Post-Frame
Project
Ridgeline 40×60 Shouse
Address
2215 County Road 340, Columbia, MO 65202
Owner
Hunter Sheaffer
Project no.
26-SHEAFFER-014
Sheet
Slab & plumbing penetration plan
Scale
¼″ = 1′-0″
Date
Oct 1, 2026
Revision
0
What changed
Issued for permit
Drawn by
Cody Brenneman
Checked by
DW
Codes
IRC 2024 · NEC 2023 (as adopted locally)
FOR PERMIT REVIEW — VERIFY LOCALLY
Design-intent drawings generated from the building model. Verify every dimension and condition on site and against local code before ordering or building. Not an engineered or sealed drawing: truss, post, foundation and any structural design are by others.
