Step 01
Reads your model for you
Drag a .3dm file in. ArchiTool figures out the rooms, the windows, and which way the building faces — no scripts, no Grasshopper, no setup.
For architects and students — no climate background required
Understand your building.
Like having a in your browser.
Drop your Rhino model in. ArchiTool gives you a private consulting team for every angle that matters — daylight, envelope, solar, PV, drainage, climate context, site geometry — available the moment you start a project, in plain English. Even on day one of design. No jargon, no plugins, no installs.
No credit card. No install. Works in any browser.
Built by architects, for architectsLEED v4.1ASHRAE 90.1ISO 6946Imports Rhino .3dmImports Revit (IFC)
Plain-language feedback
“This room is too dark.” “South façade overheats in summer.” Real sentences, not just numbers.
Personalized to your design
Suggestions reference your actual rooms, walls, and orientation — not generic best practices.
Backed by real standards
LEED v4.1, ASHRAE 90.1, and ISO 6946 are built in. Use the same numbers your consultant would.
How it works
A consultant looking over your shoulder
Most analysis tools assume you already know what sDA, ASE, or U-value mean. ArchiTool doesn't. It's built so a third-year architecture student can drop in their first model and walk away understanding their own design better.
Step 02
Shows you, not tells you
Results land as a heatmap on your floor plan, not a wall of numbers. You can see at a glance which rooms are working and which aren't.
Step 03
Suggests what to try next
“Rotate this room 15° and you'll get 30% more morning light.” “Swap this glazing and the south façade stops overheating.” Specific suggestions, not generic advice.
Step 04
Re-runs in seconds
Change the design, see the new result instantly. Iterate as fast as you sketch — the feedback loop most analysis tools never give you.
Deep analysis
Two flagship tools, backed by the AI Advisor.
These are the deep-dive tools every architect needs early in design — daylight performance and envelope heat loss. Both come with the AI Advisor (below) so you can interrogate your run in plain English. The wider toolkit follows.
Daylight Advisor
How much natural light actually reaches each room?
Drop in your Rhino model and see a colored map of your floor plan — bright areas, dim corners, and spots where the sun will cause glare. ArchiTool tells you in plain English which rooms feel gloomy, which ones overheat, and what to try: bigger windows here, shading there, a skylight in that corridor.
→ You'll learn the standards (sDA, ASE, glare) as you go — explained in tooltips, not thrown at you.
Industry terms: sDA · ASE · Glare · LEED v4.1 daylight credits
Open Daylight Advisor →Envelope Advisor
Will my walls keep the building warm in winter and cool in summer?
Build a wall, roof, or floor by stacking materials like Lego — concrete, insulation, plaster, glass. ArchiTool instantly tells you if it's good enough for your climate, where heat is leaking, and what to swap to fix it. No formulas, no spreadsheets.
→ Climate-aware defaults pick the right targets for where you're building — temperate, hot-arid, cold, tropical.
Industry terms: U-value · Thermal mass · Condensation risk · ASHRAE 90.1 · ISO 6946
Open Envelope Advisor →New · AI Advisor
Chat with a consultant grounded in your run.
When your daylight analysis finishes, click Ask the Advisor. It reads your actual rooms, answers in plain English, and suggests specific changes you can try — by name, with numbers from your simulation.
- ✓
Knows your rooms by name
"Your Bedroom is at sDA 31% — below LEED's 55% target." Real numbers, pulled from your latest run. Never made up.
- ✓
Explains the jargon as it goes
Ask “what is sDA?” — get one paragraph in plain English, with the LEED threshold for context. No textbook, no Googling.
- ✓
Suggests what to try next
"Widen the north window 30% and the Bedroom should cross LEED's threshold." Specific to your design — not generic best practice.
- ✓
Honest about its limits
Estimates qualitatively, but always says “re-run to confirm.” It's an advisor, not stamped engineering.
Included with ProBuilt on Claude · grounded by tool-call lookups against your run
AI
LiveDaylight Advisor
Pro · grounded in your latest run
Which rooms are too dark?
Two rooms are below the LEED 55% sDA target: Bedroom (31%) and Study (42%). The Bedroom's north window is small for the floor area. Want me to estimate the change if you widen it 30%?
Yes — and does this pass LEED?
Checking LEED v4.1 compliance…
Widening the Bedroom window 30% should lift sDA into the 55–65% range — likely a pass. Across the project, 3 of 5 rooms currently meet LEED's threshold. Re-run to confirm the new number.
Ask about a room, glare, LEED, or what to try next…
The toolkit
The full ArchiTool toolkit for assessing your project.
Diagrams, BIM export, climate, daylight, solar, hydrology, site context — all in your browser, all working today. Most tools are free to try, with Pro for unlimited use. Click any tile to start.
Design Representation
Diagram tools to communicate design ideas with clarity and style.
Climate & Performance
Dashboards and studies that make data-driven storytelling effortless.
updated
Climate Dashboard
Pick a city on the map or upload an EPW — comfort, solar, wind, and rainfall timelines side by side.
Try it →
Historic Rainfall Studio
Upload IMS spreadsheets to chart multi-year precipitation narratives.
Try it →
beta
Sun Path & Shadow Lab
Upload a Rhino 3DM + EPW to explore sun positions, shadow coverage, and sun-path diagrams.
Try it →
new
Sky Mask Analysis
Visualize sky view factors and occlusion masks from a central point.
Try it →
new
Solar Radiation
Calculate accumulated solar energy (kWh/m²) on architectural geometry.
Try it →
new
PV Analysis
Evaluate rooftop solar potential (kWh) with global panel specs and shading analysis.
Try it →
new
Daylight Analysis
Fast sDA and ASE proxy simulation for LEED v4.1 daylight credits and glare risk assessment.
Try it →
new
U-Value Calculator
Build a wall section, compute U-value and thermal mass, and check it against ASHRAE targets for your climate.
Try it →
Context & Site
Bring reliable geometry into Rhino, Grasshopper, or any GIS workflow.
Studio Utilities
Faster iteration helpers for energy, daylight, and space-proofing.
Pricing
Free for students. Honest for everyone else.
Start free, forever. Students get a free educational license with full Pro features — verify your academic email and you're set. Upgrade only when you're a working professional shipping deliverables to clients.
Free
$0forever
Every tool, with sensible limits — try the whole toolkit before you decide.
- ✓All 7 tools accessible (with limits)
- ✓5 Daylight runs / month, basic U-Value library
- ✓Climate Dashboard, Sun Path viewer, basic PV analysis
- ✓OSM Downloader (geometry only, 500 m radius)
- ✓Watermarked exports
- ✓Community support
Student
Freeeducational license
Verify with .edu / academic email
Free for students with a verified academic email — full Pro features, on us.
- ✓Everything in Pro
- ✓Unlimited runs
- ✓Full-resolution sensor grids
- ✓Clean PDF + 3DM exports
- ✓Renews each academic year
Pro
$19per month
or $190 / year (save 17%)
For working architects who ship reports to clients.
- ✓AI Advisor chat — grounded in your run
- ✓Unlimited Daylight + full U-Value library
- ✓Sun Path, PV, and Water Flow labs
- ✓OSM with full metadata + Rhino export
- ✓Clean PDF + 3DM exports, no watermark
- ✓Priority email support
Studio
Coming soonfrom ~$49 / month
Join the waitlist
Multi-seat access for studios. Early access — tell us what you need and we'll prioritize it.
- ✓Everything in Pro, for the whole team — planned
- ✓Multiple seats with a shared workspace — planned
- ✓Higher AI Advisor message budget — planned
- ✓Branded report exports (your logo) — planned
- ✓Priority onboarding for early studios — planned
The free educational license requires a valid academic email or proof of enrollment. Renews each academic year — let us know when you graduate and we'll keep your projects.
Need 10+ seats, SSO, or a procurement contract? Talk to us about Enterprise.
Compare
How does this compare?
The existing tools are powerful, but they assume you're already an expert and they cost like enterprise software. ArchiTool keeps the rigor and drops the friction.
| Tool | Typical price | Form factor | What you also need |
|---|---|---|---|
| ArchiTool Pro | $19 / month · $190 / year | Browser, any OS | Nothing. Drag-and-drop a .3dm or .ifc. |
| ClimateStudio (Solemma) | ~$995 / year (quote-based) | Rhino plugin | Rhino license |
| Pollination Rhino (Ladybug Tools) | $1,375 / year + cloud credits | Rhino / Grasshopper plugin | Rhino license + simulation credits |
| Sefaira (SketchUp Studio) | Bundled in SketchUp Studio (~$759 / year) | SketchUp plugin | SketchUp Studio subscription |
| IES VE | Enterprise quote (typically $3,000+ / year) | Desktop application | Windows, training, IT setup |
Competitor prices are public-list or community-cited references; current quotes may differ. ArchiTool Pro is listed pricing.
FAQ
Questions
Which tools are free, and which need Pro?
Every tool is free to try, with a clear limit per tool — that way you can sanity-check the whole toolkit before paying anything. Pro removes the limits: unlimited Daylight runs, the full U-Value material library, advanced Sun Path metrics, unlimited PV analysis, high-res Water Flow simulations, OSM with full metadata + Rhino export, and the AI Advisor chat. Watermarks come off all exports too. Students get all of Pro free with a verified academic email.
What is the AI Advisor — does it just make stuff up?
No. The Advisor is a chat panel that opens after your daylight analysis finishes. It calls read-only tools against your actual run to fetch room metrics, definitions, and LEED v4.1 compliance — every number it quotes is pulled from your simulation, not generated. If it estimates the effect of a design change, it always tells you to re-run to confirm. It's an advisor, not stamped engineering. The Advisor is a Pro feature; the calculator tools stay free.
I've never run a daylight or thermal analysis before. Will I be lost?
No. ArchiTool is built for that exact moment. You drop in a model, see a colored map of your floor plan, and read sentences like “this room is below the recommended daylight level — try a larger window facing north.” The technical terms (sDA, U-value) appear in tooltips you can hover when you're curious — but you don't need them to use the tool.
Is this only for finished designs?
The opposite — it's most useful in early concept and schematic design, when you can still change things. Use it to test “what if I rotate the building?” or “what if I add a courtyard?” while it's still cheap to change your mind.
How does the student plan work?
Free educational license. Sign up with an academic email (.edu, .ac.uk, .ac.il, or any university domain) or upload a current student ID, and you get full Pro features at no cost. The license renews each academic year — graduate and your projects come with you.
Do I need Rhino?
Rhino is the easiest input (just drop in a .3dm file), but you don't need a Rhino license to use ArchiTool. You can also import IFC — so models from Revit, ArchiCAD, and other BIM tools work too. We're adding more formats; let us know what you use.
How does this compare to ClimateStudio, Honeybee, or Sefaira?
Those are powerful tools for specialists who already know environmental analysis. ArchiTool is for the rest of us — architects and students who want fast, defensible feedback without learning a new language. For deep-physics validation studies, keep using Radiance.
Where does the computation run? Is my model uploaded?
In your browser, on your machine. Daylight ray tracing runs on your GPU. Files are not uploaded to our servers — your model never leaves your computer.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. Cancel any time from the Stripe customer portal. Your account stays on the free tier — your past analyses are not deleted.
Drop in a model. Get answers in a minute.
Free to start. No credit card. The fastest way to find out whether your design is doing what you think it's doing.
Try ArchiTool free →