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What's new in 1.44 to 1.46

The features that arrived in 1.44.0, 1.45.0 and 1.46.0, one section each, with an example you can run, plus the circulation overlay, which is older and since 1.45.0 reads the plan after a demolition. Every command and code name below is the one archlang <command> --help and the error catalog print. The full list of changes, version by version, is in CHANGELOG.md.

Feature	Since	Section
Quantities for a takeoff	1.44.0	Quantities and takeoff
Locking what an edit must not change	1.44.0	Locked elements
Walls marked existing, demolish or new	1.44.0, drawn from 1.45.0	Wall status
Feet and inches	1.44.0	Imperial lengths
A sheet for the reviewer	1.44.0	Review sheet
Walking routes drawn on the plan	opt-in flag	Circulation overlay
Storeys that must stand over each other	1.44.0	Stacked storeys

Quantities and takeoff

archlang takeoff prints the quantities a plan holds: wall lengths per category, each room's perimeter and net area, the storey's net floor area, and door and window counts by width. Each figure carries its convention in its name (length_centreline_mm against length_face_mm, area_net_m2), so a number read from a spreadsheet says what it measures. --format picks csv (one figure per row) or md (tables, the default); --waste <pct> adds a floor area with the allowance you chose, and no allowance is ever assumed. The same figures are describe --facts quantities.

archlang takeoff cabin.arch --format csv --waste 10

level,section,item,width_mm,field,value
,walls,exterior,,count,1
,walls,exterior,,length_centreline_mm,13412
,walls,exterior,,length_face_mm,26824
,rooms,main,,perimeter_centreline_mm,13412
,rooms,main,,perimeter_net_mm,12612
,rooms,main,,area_net_m2,9.85
,floor,storey,,floor_area_net_m2,9.85
,floor,storey,,waste_pct,10
,floor,storey,,floor_area_with_waste_m2,10.84
,doors,hinged,900,count,1
,windows,window,1500,count,1

The plan is the cabin from Imperial lengths. The definitions of each figure are in Analysis: Quantities.

Locked elements

archlang impact --against old.arch compares two versions of a plan. Add --lock with the ids that must not change and the command exits 2 with E_LOCKED_ELEMENT_CHANGED for each locked element that moved, resized, was re-hosted or vanished, with its position in both files. A lock must name an element written with an id=; an assigned id such as room_3 shifts when a statement is inserted ahead of it, so it is refused with E_LOCK_UNNAMED.

archlang impact cabin2.arch --against cabin.arch --lock shell,front

Locked (2): 2 changed, 0 refused
  E_LOCKED_ELEMENT_CHANGED: Locked wall "shell" resized (13412 mm → 14020 mm long).
  E_LOCKED_ELEMENT_CHANGED: Locked door "front" moved 152 mm right.
Locked elements that changed, before → after:
  shell: cabin.arch:3:3 → cabin2.arch:3:3
  front: cabin.arch:5:3 → cabin2.arch:5:3

Here cabin2.arch is the cabin of the next sections widened from 12ft to 13ft. The report above the lock lines (what moved, what held, what broke) is the usual impact report.

Wall status

A wall can say what the works do to it: status existing, status demolish or status new, after height on a wall and after the thicknesses on walls from rooms. A wall that writes no status is existing. A demolished wall is drawn as a dashed outline with no poché, beneath the walls that stay; it encloses nothing, hosts no door, window or opening (E_OPENING_ON_DEMOLISHED_WALL), and counts in no area or quantity. A new wall draws as any wall, and the legend adds a demolished row when a wall is demolished. The DXF files the two on their own layers, A-WALL-DEMO and A-WALL-NEWW. Rooms are drawn as the plan will be after the works, so the schedule and describe() agree.

plan "Remodel" {
  units mm
  grid 100
  legend
  wall id=shell exterior thickness 200 { (0,0) (8000,0) (8000,4000) (0,4000) close }
  wall id=old partition thickness 100 status demolish { (4000,0) (4000,4000) }
  wall id=new partition thickness 100 status new { (2500,0) (2500,4000) }
  room id=a at (0,0) size 2500x4000 label "Study" uses office
  room id=b at (2500,0) size 5500x4000 label "Living" uses living
  door id=front on b.bottom at center width 900 swing into b
  door between a and b at 1000 from start width 800 swing into a
  window on b.top width 1500
}

Furniture cannot back onto a demolished wall: against wall old is E_FURN_AGAINST_DEMOLISHED_WALL (1.46.0). A larger example is examples/remodel.arch.

Imperial lengths

A length may be written in feet and inches: 12ft, 6in and 12ft6in, also inside a size such as 12ftx10ft. Each literal is converted exactly (1 in = 25.4 mm) and rounded to a whole millimetre (12ft6in is 3810). Every output stays in millimetres, and a plan written in feet compiles to the same bytes as its millimetre twin. The quote forms 12'6", a fraction such as 1/2in, and the wrong order 6in12ft are refused with E_IMPERIAL_FORM, whose message names the accepted forms.

plan "Cabin" {
  units mm
  wall id=shell exterior thickness 200 { (0,0) (12ft,0) (12ft,10ft) (0,10ft) close }
  room id=main at (0,0) size 12ftx10ft label "Main" uses living
  door id=front on main.bottom at center width 900 swing into main
  window on main.top width 1500
}

A room written size 12'6"x3000 stops with E_IMPERIAL_FORM and the fix Write 12ft6in for 12'6", 0.5in for 1/2", and put feet before inches. The rounding table is in the language reference.

Review sheet

archlang preview --review renders one PNG for whoever reviews a plan: the plan, the access graph over it, and every element a compile or default-lint warning names ringed with a number and its code. A legend lists number, code and message, and a strip of close-ups, at one fixed scale, shows the flagged openings and furniture pieces (at most 24). It is a separate image; compile, describe and lint do not change. --json adds marks[] with each warning's span and the elements it ringed. One storey per sheet (--level); it is refused beside --ascii, --view and --overlay.

archlang preview remodel.arch --review -o review.png --json

For the remodel above with its window deleted, the sheet carries one mark, W_HABITABLE_NO_WINDOW, ringing the living room; marks[0] reports "n": 1 and "line": 9. A plan with no warning gives a sheet with "rings": 0.

Circulation overlay

--overlay circulation is an opt-in diagnostic layer for compile and preview: the walking routes with a marker where the way is narrowest. The default drawing is unchanged, and since 1.45.0 the routes read the plan after any demolition.

archlang compile remodel.arch --overlay circulation -o remodel-walks.svg

The numbers behind it (walk distance, narrowest pinch, how roundabout the route is) are in Analysis: describe and lint, and W_PATH_TOO_NARROW and W_CIRCUITOUS_PATH are the rules that read them.

Stacked storeys

In a plan of level blocks a stair, elevator or void with the same id on two storeys is one shaft. keep stacked <id> on levels <n> <n> states that the shaft's footprint must stand over itself on those storeys. A keep is checked and never solved: when it breaks, the compiler reports W_KEEP_VIOLATED with the signed residual and moves nothing. Two stair checks sit alongside it: W_STAIR_UNMATCHED for a run whose id appears on a single storey (usually a typo in the id), and W_SHAFT_FOOTPRINT_MISMATCH for a run whose footprints on two neighbouring storeys overlap by less than half of the smaller, run along different axes, or are different kinds of run.

plan "Stacked" {
  units mm
  keep stacked core on levels 1 2
  level 1 "Ground" {
    wall id=shell exterior thickness 200 { (0,0) (6000,0) (6000,4000) (0,4000) close }
    wall id=p1 partition thickness 100 { (2000,0) (2000,4000) }
    room id=hall at (0,0) size 2000x4000 label "Hall" uses hall
    room id=living at (2000,0) size 4000x4000 label "Living" uses living
    door id=front on hall.bottom at center width 900 swing into hall
    door between hall and living at center width 900 swing into living
    stair id=core at (200,200) size 1000x2400 dir up
  }
  level 2 "First" {
    wall id=shell exterior thickness 200 { (0,0) (6000,0) (6000,4000) (0,4000) close }
    wall id=p2 partition thickness 100 { (2000,0) (2000,4000) }
    room id=landing at (0,0) size 2000x4000 label "Landing" uses hall
    room id=bed at (2000,0) size 4000x4000 label "Bedroom" uses bedroom
    door between landing and bed at center width 900 swing into bed
    window on bed.top width 1500
    stair id=core at (200,200) size 1000x2400 dir down
  }
}

As written the plan lints with two advisory warnings unrelated to stacking (the living room has no window, and the upper stair has no clear landing at its head). Move the upper stair to at (3000,200) and the keep reports W_KEEP_VIOLATED while the lint reports W_SHAFT_FOOTPRINT_MISMATCH ("the footprints overlap by 0% of the smaller, under half"). Remove the keep and rename it cor, and the lint reports W_STAIR_UNMATCHED on both storeys. The keep forms are in the language reference.