Design standards

Design standards are the rules a review checks against on top of the NEC: bus sizes, breaker frames, feeder and ground sizing tables, interrupting ratings, conductor material, anything your firm or client requires.

Two layers

• Workspace standards apply to every project. Owners and admins set them on the Standards page; everyone in the workspace can read them.
• Project requirements apply to one job, for example a client's design guide, the utility's service requirements, or an AHJ's local amendments. Anyone in the workspace can edit them on the project page.

A review reads both. Where they conflict, the project's requirements win. Each review keeps a copy of the standards it ran with.

Text or files

Write rules directly in the text box, or upload them as files:

• PDF: a design guide, typical details, a specification. Up to 100 MB.
• Text (.txt or .md): up to 256 KB. A longer document works better as a PDF.

Numbered rules work best in text, because findings can cite them ("Rule 3"). For example:

1. Panelboards fully rated, 22 kAIC minimum.
2. Equipment grounds per NEC 250.122, never smaller than #10.
3. 75 kVA transformer secondary: 4 #4/0, #2 G, 2-1/2" C.

Reference files

Reference files aren't rules: they're material the reviewer reads when a check needs it, such as equipment cut sheets or the project specification. Add them alongside standards on the project page or the Standards page. They're free.

Without standards

With no standards at all, the review checks against the NEC and sound engineering practice, and says so in its summary. If your jurisdiction has adopted a specific NEC edition or local amendments, put them in your standards.