Talos3D
Log in Sign up

Case study · Reference Cottage 5×6

From napkin sketch to blueprint set.

A 30 m² lakeside cottage, designed in conversation with the Talos3D agent over two evenings. A hand sketch of the plan became an authored model with walls, openings, framing, an insulated roof and two foundation options. The full A3 drawing set and every image on this page come from that one model. Each revision was checked against the model, not just eyeballed.

White timber cottage with a dark standing-seam roof seen from the southeast, a granite rock wall behind it.
AI-assisted illustration Revision I on its slab, southeast. The building geometry comes from the model.
5 × 6 m
Wall footprint, gable to the lake
22°
Roof pitch, ridge 3595 mm above floor
194
Framing members in the model
8
A3 drawing sheets at 1:25
32 / 32
Bearing contacts checked, all passing
  1. 01The sketch
  2. 02Iterating with the agent
  3. 03Massing & structure
  4. 04Blueprints
  5. 05On site & inside

01 · The sketch

It started with a few lines.

The brief was small: a 5 × 6 m guest cottage on a lakeside plot, with a rock wall behind it and the water in front. The plan arrived as a quick hand sketch. It showed two rooms, two pairs of doors to the west and one at the south gable, a round table with four chairs, two beds and a compact bathroom.

The agent read the sketch as intent and did not trace it as geometry. The furniture became conceptual space reservations, and the model marks them as grounded only in the supplied sketch. That mark stays until a real product replaces each piece.

Hand-drawn floor plan on a dot grid: round table with four chairs, two beds, a bathroom and swinging double doors.
The hand sketch, as supplied.
Top-down horizontal section of the Talos3D model showing two rooms and the bathroom.
The same plan as an authored model, cut horizontally.

02 · Iterating with the agent

Every revision was a conversation, and every answer was checked.

Each round started with a plain-language direction. The agent edited the authored model through the same MCP command surface the UI uses. It then verified the result, re-exported the drawings and kept the previous revision for comparison. The directions below are summarised from the project's revision log.

  1. Day 1

    Massing

    A 5 × 6 m cottage with a gable roof, patio doors to the west and south and high windows to the east.

    The agent authored the walls, roof and openings. Doors and windows are reusable Definitions, sized from a Swedish manufacturer's catalogue from the first pass.

    Checked: first native elevations and a window and door schedule.

    Early Talos3D massing model seen from the southwest.
  2. Day 1

    On the real site

    Put it on the actual plot, with the rock wall to the north and the lake to the south.

    The agent turned the building, added the 2.5 m rock wall with a flat terrace above it and moved the trim and gable boarding to a pale grey.

    Checked: the site illustration was regenerated from a fresh model view at each step.

    First site study: cottage on a generic meadow. Corrected orientation with the rock wall behind the south gable. Grey trim and a 2.5 metre rock wall.
  3. Rev D

    From sketch to plan

    Here is the plan I want. (the sketch above)

    The agent added interior walls, the bathroom, beds, the table and chairs, plus shared Definitions for the patio doors and light windows. The first five-sheet drawing set followed.

    Checked: saved, reopened, and confirmed every drafting view still resolved all of its members.

  4. Rev E

    Real products

    Use doors and windows we can actually order.

    The agent matched the patio doors and high windows to catalogue sizes and derived the narrower west doors from the south door's Definition. It hung the west sliding shutters on one shared 5640 mm track.

    Checked: the south door size accepted by the supplier's public configurator (no order placed), and shutter travel against every opening.

  5. Rev F

    One room or two

    Let the two rooms open into one.

    The agent replaced the divider with a four-leaf folding partition on standard hardware, giving a 2337 mm clear opening.

    Checked: each folding pair swept through 361 positions from 0° to 90° against every bed, chair and fitting.

    Model cutaway with the folding partition open.
  6. Rev G

    The bathroom door

    Fix the bathroom door swing.

    The agent turned the south bathroom door to swing inward.

    Checked: clearance between that door and the south bed went from 40 mm to 750 mm.

  7. Rev H

    Lower roof, two foundations

    Lower the roof, and show me a slab versus piers.

    The agent cut the pitch from 30° to 22°, lowering the ridge by 442 mm. It made the three high windows instances of one 1180 × 580 Definition and built a pier variant with 12 piers, three bearers and a joisted floor.

    Checked: the pier floor sits 577 mm above the slab floor, derived on the drawing as 300 + 220 + 220 + 23 + 14 − 200.

    Pier foundation with bearers and floor deck in the Talos3D model.
  8. Rev I

    Make it buildable

    Frame it, and insulate the roof.

    The agent added studs, plates, headers, gable framing and a glulam ridge: 194 framing members. A vaulted roof with 220 + 45 mm of insulation raised the ridge by 63 mm. Three drawing sets followed, for the slab, the piers and the structure.

    Checked: all 32 bearing contacts pass. The saved geometry was cross-checked against MCP evaluation after reopening.

    Timber frame of the cottage on piers, seen from the southwest.
  9. Day 3

    Inside and out

    Show me what it will feel like.

    The agent made site and interior studies from fresh model exports and saved visibility groups that reveal the frame in two clicks.

    Checked: model geometry unchanged, so the drawings stay valid.

03 · Massing & structure

One model, from massing to the last stud.

The massing and the frame are not separate files that drift apart. Walls, roof layers, openings and members live in one authored model, sorted into saved visibility groups. Hide the shell to see the frame, or switch foundations to compare the slab with the piers.

  • 22° roof Ridge 3595 mm above finished floor
  • 2300 mm Clear height at the eaves, open to the ridge
  • 220 + 45 mm Roof insulation under a glulam ridge
  • Slab or 12 piers Pier floor 577 mm higher
Finished cottage model from the southeast.

Native Talos3D viewport captures of Revision I.

04 · Blueprints

A complete A3 drawing set, projected from the model.

Every line on these sheets is projected from the model's geometry. The agent composed the sheets and wrote the drafting back into the model as native drafting views. Opening marks, dimension chains and product notes come from the same Definitions the 3D view uses. Whenever the model changed, the set was re-exported and checked page by page.

Sheets are in Swedish, at 1:25 on A3. Select one to enlarge it.

05 · On site & inside

Pictures that stay true to the model.

Each illustration started from a fresh model view. An image model added the lakeside setting and the materials, under instructions to keep every door, window, pitch and dimension as modelled. Switch any view to see the model capture it came from.

Illustration of the cottage from the southwest showing two pairs of patio doors with sliding shutters.
AI-assisted illustration Southwest: two patio doors behind sliding timber shutters.
Illustration of the cottage from the northeast with the lake behind.
AI-assisted illustration Northeast: high light windows on the east side and north gable.
Illustration of the pier variant from the southeast.
AI-assisted illustration The pier alternative, 577 mm higher.

Inside the 30 m²

The interior studies follow the same rule. The model fixed the camera, walls, openings, vaulted ceiling and furniture positions. Image generation proposed only the finishes: warm white walls, pale oak and linen. Drag to compare.

Illustration: north room looking south through the open partition toward the lake. Model geometry reference for the same view. Model Illustration
North room toward the lake
Illustration: south room looking north through the folding partition. Model geometry reference for the same view. Model Illustration
South room toward the north
Illustration: south bedroom with French doors toward the lake. Model geometry reference for the same view. Model Illustration
South bedroom
Illustration: compact bathroom with shower, basin and WC. Model geometry reference for the same view. Model Illustration
Compact bathroom

How the picture evolved

  1. First massing
  2. On the real site
  3. Orientation fixed
  4. Grey trim
  5. Rev G
  6. Rev H piers
  7. Rev I

Honest status

What the drawing set is, and what comes next.

Revision I is a schematic proposal set, and the sheets say so in their title blocks. Member sizes and the support layout are preliminary. Before construction, a structural engineer still has to confirm loads, capacities, connections and foundations, along with moisture and energy performance.

Talos3D keeps those open questions inside the model as recorded gaps with a refinement ceiling, so a drawing cannot look more certain than its data.

Resolved in the model

  • Geometry, openings and catalogue-sized products
  • Door swings and clearances against furniture
  • Roof build-up and bearing contacts
  • Slab and pier alternatives, side by side

Recorded as open

  • Snow and wind loads for the site
  • Member capacity and connection design
  • Lateral stability, footings and reinforcement
  • Moisture, air sealing and thermal performance

Behind the cottage

Explore the platform that built it.

This case study used the same authored model, MCP command surface and drafting work that the public core exposes. Talos3D Architecture is the first hosted product surface.

Open Architecture App Read core README