Trane Design Assist vs Structio for BAS documents
By Bassirou Thiam, building automation engineer · Updated
Trane Design Assist is a free web tool from Trane that builds BAS design documents for any controls brand: flow diagrams, sequences of operation, points lists, guide specifications and communication risers, from pre-engineered configurations. It is strong at the design stage. Structio is built for the contractor's side: the riser and points list of the job you install.
What Trane Design Assist does well
- Free. No license, subscription or user fees, and nothing to install: it runs in the browser.
- Documents generated together. Flow diagram, sequence of operations, points list and guide specification fill in at the same time as you pick configuration options for each unit or system.
- Pre-engineered applications. AHUs, cooling and heating plants, chiller-heater plants, DOAS, VAV, VRF and terminal units, based on what Trane calls proven ASHRAE control standards.
- Brand agnostic. Trane presents it as a resource for any controls brand, not only Trane equipment.
- Common formats. DWG, PDF, DOCX, and XLSX for the points list; the project specification follows CSI MasterFormat.
What to weigh for a controls contractor
- Design-stage content. Documents come from standard configurations per application. Anything they do not cover is edited by hand, in a custom mode, tab by tab.
- Part of the output serves the specifier. Item and project guide specifications are written for whoever writes the spec, usually the consulting engineer on a plan-and-spec job.
- One editor per project. A shared project is read-only or saved as a copy: per Trane's FAQ, users do not edit the same project at the same time, and changes come back as a re-shared copy.
- If your submittal must show the controllers you actually install and their network addresses, check that its outputs cover them before relying on it.
Side by side
| Trane Design Assist | Structio | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, no license or user fees | Paid, per active job, unlimited users |
| Built around | A pre-engineered configuration per unit or system | Your building: floors, rooms, equipment, controllers |
| Main documents | Flow diagrams, sequences, points lists, guide specs, risers | Network riser and points list, kept in sync |
| Controller brands | Brand agnostic, per Trane | Any brand |
When to choose Trane Design Assist
When you design the controls, write the specification or start a design-build job, it gives a free and structured start: a standard sequence, flow diagram and points list per system. It is also a useful reference to check a sequence against a proven strategy. See how to write a sequence of operations.
When to choose Structio
Structio is built for one job: you describe the building once (floors, rooms, equipment, controllers) and it draws the network diagram and builds the points list from that same project, kept in sync when the job changes. Any controller brand, unlimited users, a 7-day free trial.