Linea.
The alternative to SketchUp and AutoCAD, built for how a practice actually works.
Linea models in 2D and 3D at the same time. Walls, doors, windows, roofs and stairs behave like the objects they are; the plan and the model are one building rather than two files you keep in step by hand; and a drawing issues at a true plotted scale on paper, A4 through A0. A job starts where it really starts, with the survey: drop the surveyor's DWG in and it lands on its own grid coordinates, with the spot heights becoming ground you can build on. For the everyday work of a small practice it's a serious and far cheaper alternative to SketchUp and AutoCAD, with a rendering studio, a film studio and a website builder already sitting next to it.
What it replaces, and what it adds.
The SketchUp job
Model in 3D, push and pull surfaces, move around a scheme smoothly. Linea does all that, with one difference: every object knows what it is, so you aren't the one keeping loose geometry tidy.
The AutoCAD job
Plans, sections and elevations at a true plotted scale, DXF both ways, a title block carrying a real drawing number and revision. You issue a set the way a consultant expects to receive one.
The thing neither of them does
Walk the finished model in first person and publish it to a link. Nothing to export, nothing to install, and it opens on a phone as readily as a laptop.
Draw in plan, and the 3D is already right.
Draw a wall in plan and it's there in 3D. Drag its height in 3D and the plan is still correct. Most software makes you pick which view is the source of truth, then treat the other as a picture of it; here the building is the source of truth and you work on it from whichever side suits.
Open Linea
Massing before there are walls.
A separate direct-modelling workspace for blocking out a scheme and its site context with real solids: push, pull, split a face, cut a shaped hole clean through, group blocks to hide the scaffolding without deleting it. Move to Build for the detailed walls and doors once the massing has actually earned it, in the same file.
Bring in whatever a consultant sends you.
Send in the DWG itself, straight off a consultant's machine (AutoCAD 2000 through 2018 and later), and it arrives as editable linework; a DXF behaves the same way. Either one, the import finds the separate drawings inside the file, so you take just the plan you need rather than all twenty-five of them. An IFC out of Revit or ArchiCAD grafts in as real walls, doors, windows and levels, parsed entirely in your browser. GLB, FBX, OBJ, DAE and STL drop straight in as well. None of it needs rebuilding before you can use it.
Start from the survey, on the surveyor's own coordinates.
Drop the topographical survey in as the DWG it arrived as. Linea reads the survey grid out of the file and offers to make it the drawing's origin, so the scheme sits on real eastings and northings from the first line you draw; move the pointer over the site and the readout gives you E, N and metres AOD. The spot heights and contours become actual ground in one action, ready to build on. Every file that comes afterwards lands on that same origin, which is what puts the architect's, the engineer's and the surveyor's drawings on top of each other instead of near each other.
Open Linea
A model a client can actually walk.
Step inside the scheme in first person, with collision against the walls you drew and doors that open. Publish it to a link nobody needs an account to open, on a laptop, a phone, or in VR. As the design moves you republish over it; the link you already sent keeps working, and you can revoke it whenever you like.
What Linea gives you as a piece of software.
Parametric building elements
Walls, doors, windows, stairs, roofs, columns, floor slabs and lifts, each carrying the behaviour that goes with it rather than being loose geometry you align by hand.
A real massing workspace
Push, pull, split and group solids before there are walls, then move to the detailed model in the same file.
Sheets at a true plotted scale
A4 through A0, with a title block carrying project, client, drawing number, revision and scale, never squeezed to fit.
DWG, DXF and IFC in
A consultant's DWG, DXF or IFC comes in as editable geometry, and the import finds the separate drawings in the file so you take just the one you want. Your own drawing goes back out the same way, as a DWG (DXF is the alternative).
Bring your own model
GLB, FBX, OBJ, DAE or STL drop straight into the drawing alongside anything built here.
Walk it, then send a link
First-person walk with real collision, published on a link that needs no login, working on a laptop, a phone, or in VR.
Real light and material
Skies we ship or your own HDRI, a time of day you drag, and materials with real reflection and roughness.
Site and terrain
Build the ground from a survey's own spot heights, sculpt it by hand, place a scheme on a real location, and pull in the surrounding context automatically.
Generate a piece and place it
Describe a chair, or photograph one, and a real model comes back for you to click into place in the drawing.
A calibrated underlay to draw over
Place a scanned plan or a photograph as an underlay and calibrate it against one known dimension, so it sits at true size to draw over by hand.
Draft on the plan
Lines, arcs, text, leaders and hatching on your own named layers, with Offset, Trim, Extend, Fillet and Mirror to tidy up.
Sections and elevations
Cut from the model as real linework rather than a picture, and issued on a sheet at true scale like a plan.
Frequently asked.
Ready to start? Jump straight in.
Every ArchAdemia Tools plan includes Linea itself, from £29 a month, all in. One thing is charged, and it shows its figure first: generating a 3D model into the drawing, at 55 credits for a quick shape or 180 for cleaner geometry and real textures.