More than forty standing checks across openings, structure, additions and foundation: an opening running off its wall, two openings claiming the same wall space, a window sitting on a post line, a truss span past what a plant will build, a post longer than yard stock, a footing sitting above frost depth. Each finding carries the live number that tripped it, so you are not hunting for what is wrong.

Each roofing product carries its own floor — ribbed steel 3/12, corrugated 2/12, lap-sealed and mechanical seam half in 12, snap-lock 3/12, shingles 4/12. Go under it and the finding is red, naming the product and the pitch: Main roof pitch 2/12 is below the 3/12 minimum for Ribbed steel (exposed fastener) — manufacturer warranties require it. Under that floor, exposed-fastener metal draws water back through the screw holes and voids essentially every manufacturer warranty. That is not something to pass along to a customer as a note.

A Fix is something that cannot be built or ordered as drawn. A Check is something you might still do with your eyes open — an end wall that is more door than wall, bay spacing outside the usual band, a lean-to past rafter-framing span, a gambrel in special-order territory. Notes carry what a drawing would never say on its own: knee bracing on tall walls, snow drift at a clerestory or a gambrel break, ledger load handed to the main building's footings. The button counts each kind by its own word — 1 fix · 1 check · 1 note — and wears the mark of the worst one.

Some designs need an engineer, and the builder should know before the quote goes out — not at plan review. A bearing 2x4 stud over 10′ is past the IRC stud table (Table R602.3(5)); taller studs need R602.3.1's exceptions with the job's wind, exposure and snow set, or an engineer. A storey taller than R301.3 allows is an engineer's wall. Walls over the tall-wall height — 12′ by default, the account's own number — carry a cross-bracing line and an engineering allowance on the estimate. A building wider than 36′ is outside the IRC truss and header tables (R802.10.2.1, R602.7), and the tag beside the design name reads Engineer required. A post-frame shell on a home needs the engineer's wall and bracing design, and drill-set post brackets need bracing an engineer designs. Fireblocking is noted where it is billed (R302.11). Braced wall lines are read off the walls you drew — the outside walls and every inside wall marked a braced wall panel: lines more than 60′ apart for wind (25′ in Seismic Design Category D, Table R602.10.1.3) raise a Check that says where the interior line goes and which drawn wall can be it. On a 40×80 with a wall across at 40′: between 20′ and 60′ from the front — the wall at 40′ can be it, with Make the wall at 40′ a braced wall panel one press away. Each line also wants a panel within 10′ of each end and no more than 20′ between panels (R602.10.2.2), so two 12′ garage doors 2′ apart read 26′ without a panel, from 8′ to 34′. On a barndominium, porch and lean-to rafters are read against the IRC rafter table at the job's ground snow (R802.4.1): 2x8 at 24″ in Southern pine No. 2 spans 13′-11″ at 20 psf and 11′-7″ at 30 psf. An Oklahoma job's thickened edge with fewer than two #4 bars is a Check with Use 2 #4 bars. Trucks over legal width and footings above frost raise their own lines. It is a builder's flag with a section number; the plan reviewer and the engineer still decide — and when they have, the finding can be overridden with a typed reason — in Issues or on the floor plan's Code check — logged with who and when and printed on the sheets.

Some of what decides whether a building goes together lives in the manufacturers' instructions, not the code book, so those rules are checks too. An I-joist floor reads its bearing off the model — at least 1¾″ at the ends and 3½″ over a beam (Weyerhaeuser TJ-9001) — with flanges never cut and web holes only where the hole chart allows. An interior wall under the trusses gets a slotted partition clip where each truss crosses it (Simpson's catalog, C-C-2026 p. 253), and on the slab its plates take drive pins 6″ from each end, then 4′ apart at most (ICC-ES ESR-2138) — both counted, the same counts the estimate buys once the design counts its interior walls. Windows and doors are flashed in order, sill pan, jambs, then head (ASTM E2112 and the wrap or sheathing maker's guide), and house wrap laps 6″ course over course (DuPont). Each is a Note citing its document, and becomes a Check where the design is outside it: an I-joist bearing short of the maker's, a wall on pins taller than the report's 14′, or house wrap over open studs on an Oklahoma job — DuPont's open-stud guide covers climate zones 2B and 3B only.

A finding that names an opening is a button. Click it and that opening is selected, outlined and swung into view, with its card scrolled into place. One message is raised per offending opening rather than one sentence covering all of them — so when two windows overlap on a 60-foot wall, you get one finding for each, and each takes you to its window.

New findings never stack over the model. The corner chip wiggles and flips its count like a split-flap clock, wearing the worst finding's icon, and one click opens every finding for as long as it is true. A wall of pop-ups stops being read; a chip that moves gets noticed.

Findings flow

2fixes·1checkAdd a lean-to

The panel lists every check the tool can raise, tripped or not, each with a plain sentence on why it matters. “No warnings”, on its own, tells you nothing about what was actually looked at. On a clean building the button reads All checks pass, and the list underneath shows the design was checked for truss span, embedment, frost depth, flashing and drift — and came back clear. The rules for how the material list counts and prices sit apart, under How it counts and prices, each tagged Rule: they say how a number is worked out, so they are never counted among the checks a design passed.

A window within 24″ of a door, or a large pane low to the floor, needs safety glass (IRC R324.4.2, R324.4.3); an opening window with a low sill more than 72″ above the ground outside needs fall protection (R321.2.1). The check sits on the window's card with its rule and its fixes, and an override must name the code exception.

A Safety glass check on a window beside the walk-in door. Real screen · sample data.