FireForge: Prepare Architectural Drawings for Fire Sprinkler Design

Separate every layer into its own review workspace — without touching your original drawing.

The Problem Every Sprinkler Engineer Knows

You receive a large architectural background DWG: walls, doors, grids, dimensions, furniture, hatches — all stacked on dozens of layers. Before you can lay out sprinklers, you need to work through those layers one at a time: isolate, copy, space them apart, and inspect each group without damaging the source file.

Today that means manual isolation, copying, and spacing — layer by layer, for every project. It is repetitive, slow, and easy to get wrong.

FireForge automates that workflow inside AutoCAD. It scans your drawing, separates each used layer into its own copied group, spaces the groups so they do not overlap, and inserts a registration marker in every group so they stay visually aligned. Your original drawing stays untouched.

Tagline: Forge your drawings. Automate your workflow.

Compatibility: AutoCAD 2015 through 2027 on Windows.

Launch: Type FFSHOW in the AutoCAD command line, or use the FireForge ribbon tab.

Who Is FireForge For?

FireForge is built for fire sprinkler background preparation. It does not replace your engineering judgment — it removes the repetitive CAD labor around it.

The Workspace: Four Tabs, One Flow

FireForge opens as a dockable side panel with four tabs:

CODE // TEXT
PROCESS → SETTINGS → RESULTS → ABOUT

You can also run commands directly from the command line: FFSCAN, FFPROCESS, FFSETTINGS, and FFABOUT.

PROCESS — Scan, Review, Run

This is where you spend most of your time.

Step 1 — Scan Open your architectural background DWG and click Scan. FireForge reads every used model-space layer and shows you:

• Drawing name and file size
• A risk level (helpful for large files)
• Entity count per layer
• Warnings for xrefs, proxy objects, or heavy geometry

Step 2 — Choose a processing mode

Step 3 — Run Layer Separation Click Run Layer Separation, then pick a common reference point — for example, a grid intersection at the bottom-left of the building. You do not need to draw a circle on Layer 0; FireForge creates an FF_LAYER_REFERENCE marker and places it in every copied group.

Step 4 — Review results Switch to the Results tab to see which layers succeeded, which were skipped, and any errors.

SETTINGS — Your Defaults

Configure once, use every time:

• Default processing mode (Safe or Quick)
• Vertical spacing between layer groups
• Horizontal gap from the source drawing
• Safe Mode output folder
• Ribbon tab visibility
• License key (when App Store licensing is enabled)

Click Save Settings to persist your choices.

RESULTS — What Happened

After processing, the Results tab gives you a per-layer summary:

• Success — layer copied and spaced correctly
• Skipped — layer had invalid extents or no processable entities
• Error — cloning failed (common with proxy objects or certain xrefs)

Check here before handing the output to your team.

ABOUT — Version and Support

Version information, license status, and links to this guide and support resources.

A Typical Workflow

CODE // TEXT
1. Open architectural background DWG
2. Open FireForge palette (loads on startup, or type FFSHOW)
3. Click Scan → review layer list and warnings
4. Leave Safe Mode selected
5. Click Run Layer Separation
6. Pick reference point (grid intersection)
7. Wait for progress bar to complete
8. Review Results tab
9. Work through separated layer groups in the output DWG
10. Manually clean, delete, or keep groups as your judgment requires

FireForge creates the workspace. You decide what stays and what goes.

What FireForge Does

• Scans used model-space layers with entity counts and risk warnings
• Separates each layer into its own copied, non-overlapping group
• Inserts a registration marker (FF_LAYER_REFERENCE) in every group for visual alignment
• Shows real-time progress — per-layer status, command-line updates, progress bar
• Preserves layer names, colors, and object properties in copied groups
• Defaults to Safe Mode so your source DWG is never modified

What FireForge Does Not Do

FireForge is intentionally narrow. It prepares backgrounds; it does not clean them for you.

• Does not rename, merge, or explode layers or blocks
• Does not purge, audit, or overkill your drawing automatically
• Does not bind or explode xrefs
• Does not process paper-space geometry
• Does not let you pick a subset of layers yet (planned for a future release)

Cleanup stays in your hands — exactly where professional judgment belongs.

Safe Mode vs Quick Mode: Which Should You Use?

Use Safe Mode (default) when:

• You received the drawing from an architect or client and must not modify it
• The file is large or contains xrefs
• You want a separate review DWG you can archive alongside the original

Use Quick Mode only when:

• You own the drawing and accept copies in the same file
• The file is small enough that duplication will not cause performance problems
• You have read the warning and confirmed you understand the risk

When in doubt, stay in Safe Mode.

Tips for Best Results

1. Pick a stable reference point — a grid intersection or building corner that appears in every layer group.
2. Scan before you run — check entity counts and warnings. A layer with zero entities will be skipped.
3. Watch the Results tab — skipped layers often have invalid extents or proxy objects. You can handle those manually.
4. Large drawings — Safe Mode creates a new file, which protects your source from bloat. Quick Mode duplicates geometry in-place and can slow AutoCAD down.
5. After separation — inspect each group, delete what you do not need, run overkill or purge on individual groups if you choose. FireForge does not do this for you.

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Getting Help

For installation questions, bug reports, or workflow support, visit ahmedalsayed.work/about.

FireForge is designed to be transparent: you always know what drawing is being analyzed, which layers will be processed, and whether your source file will be modified. If something looks wrong, check the Results tab first — it tells you exactly what happened and why.