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Pre-screen submittals for code compliance

Reduce review cycles and maintain consistent standards across your team. Helonic does the first pass against IBC, NFPA, ADA, and energy code so your reviewers can focus on judgment calls.

What slows down plan reviewers

The three pressures that make consistent, thorough plan review hard to sustain at scale.

High Volume

Growing submittal backlogs with limited staff create pressure to review faster without sacrificing thoroughness.

Code Complexity

Overlapping IBC, NFPA, ADA, and local amendments make comprehensive compliance checking extremely demanding.

Consistency

Different reviewers catch different things, leading to inconsistent feedback and re-review cycles.

How Helonic helps

Five ways AI pre-screening changes how plan review departments handle volume and complexity.

1

Code compliance pre-check

Automatically screen submittals against IBC, NFPA, ADA, and energy code requirements before a human reviewer opens the drawings. Flag the most likely non-compliance areas for focused review.

2

Review consistency

Apply the same comprehensive checklist to every submittal regardless of which reviewer handles it. Eliminate the variability between senior and junior reviewers.

3

Priority flagging

Categorize issues by severity, life safety items surface first, followed by structural concerns, then general compliance. Reviewers can focus their time on the issues that matter most.

4

Automated checklists

Generate discipline-specific review checklists based on the project type and applicable codes. Track completion and ensure nothing is overlooked during the review process.

5

Review documentation

Maintain a complete audit trail of what was reviewed, what was flagged, and what was approved. Simplify re-review cycles by showing exactly what changed between submissions.

Common issues we catch

The recurring code and compliance gaps our pre-screen surfaces on plan review submittals.

Life Safety & Fire

  • Fire/life safety system gaps and omissions
  • Egress width and travel distance violations
  • Fire-rated assembly discontinuities
  • Missing fire alarm and detection coverage

General Compliance

  • ADA accessibility non-compliance
  • Structural design concerns
  • MEP code requirement gaps
  • Energy code and insulation issues

ROI for plan reviewers

What plan review departments see when AI handles the first compliance pass.

FASTER REVIEW
50%
Initial review turnaround
CODE COVERAGE
95%
Compliance checks per review
REVIEW QUALITY
Consistent
Across all staff

Frequently Asked Questions

How does Helonic assist code plan review?
It runs an AI-assisted first pass across the set for egress, occupancy, accessibility, fire separation, and other code items, flagging likely violations with the sheet reference so reviewers focus their time on verification and judgment.
Does it replace the plan reviewer's determination?
No. It accelerates the review by surfacing likely issues; the reviewer makes every code determination. It is built to speed up throughput, not to issue findings on its own.
Which codes does it check against?
It checks common IBC provisions, NFPA fire and life-safety requirements, and ADA/ANSI A117.1 accessibility items, and can account for the edition in use on a given project.
Can it help reduce plan-review backlog?
Yes. By producing a structured, sheet-referenced issue list quickly, it shortens the time each set spends in first review and reduces back-and-forth correction cycles.
MS

Milind Sagaram

Co-founder & CEO, Helonic

Milind is the co-founder and CEO of Helonic, where he leads product and go-to-market for AI-powered construction drawing analysis. He works closely with general contractors, project managers, estimators, and owners to understand how drawing quality drives project outcomes - and where AI can reduce RFIs, change orders, and rework. Milind has interviewed hundreds of construction professionals across project delivery roles, from preconstruction estimators at ENR top-400 contractors to facilities directors at institutional owners, and uses those conversations to shape both product direction and the way Helonic talks about the work.

Areas of focus
  • Construction project delivery and preconstruction
  • RFI and change order economics
  • Owner and GC workflows for drawing QA/QC
  • Estimating risk and bid-stage scope assessment

How this page was researched: Code-review guidance references IBC, NFPA, and ADA/ANSI A117.1 provisions plus local amendment workflows plan reviewers apply. Examples reflect the code items Helonic most often flags on submitted drawing sets.

Last reviewed by Milind Sagaram · May 2026

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Review smarter, not harder

See how Helonic helps plan review departments handle growing workloads without compromising quality.