Free, open-source irrigation design software with an AI assistant

An AI assistant that draws and designs with you

Open the AI panel beside the drawing and ask in your own words. The assistant reads the project, looks at the satellite image and the terrain and works with the same tools as the menus, so what it draws is a real design: items, pipes, valves, zones and results, not a picture. Every change waits for your approval, or applies automatically if you prefer, and can be undone in one click.

• Draws and designs automatically

  Lays out sprinklers and drip lines, divides fields into blocks, fits pivots, routes pipes and valves, places the pump and the water supply, runs the design, fixes the warnings and optimises the cost, then writes the technical report and the quote.

• Sees the site

  Finds the site from an address, looks at the satellite image of a georeferenced project and at the terrain (hillshade, contours, slope, profiles), reads the drawings and GIS files you attach and adds catalogue items from a data sheet in PDF. Outlines the fields on the image by itself, follows the points and lines you mark on the map and pins field photos with GPS where they were taken.

• Explains and checks

  Answers questions about the project and its results, explains every design message and how to fix it, runs the analyses and keeps a to-do list and notes of your decisions in the project. On request, reviews the whole design without changing anything, and looks at the drawing sheet before you export it.

• Your key, your control

  Claude (Anthropic) or GPT (OpenAI) models in top, intermediate and fast tiers, with your own API key, called straight from the browser with no server in between. Read-only, plan-first, ask-before-each-change or automatic modes, a step limit and a spending cap per task, undo for every answer, and nothing sent before you press Send.

Open the AI assistant

What OpenCADIrrigation does

• AI assistant

  Optional: ask the AI about the project, or let it draw and design for you. It lays out heads and drip, divides fields, routes pipes, runs the sizing and the automatic tools, looking at the satellite image and the terrain, with Claude (Anthropic) or GPT (OpenAI) models and your own API key, straight from the browser with no server in between. Nothing is sent before you press Send, and every change waits for your approval (or applies automatically, if you choose) and can be undone.

• Automatic design and sizing

  Lateral blocks and sprinkler grids in one click, head layout with matched precipitation, zoning by flow, pipe and valve routing, field subdivision, pivot fit and vegetation detection in aerial images; pipes sized by linear programming within the emitter pressure window and the pipe pressure class, trading pipe cost against energy.

• Full CAD drawing

  Lines, polylines, arcs, splines, hatches, dimensions, text, layers and blocks, with typed coordinates, snaps, polar tracking, grips, revision clouds and AutoCAD-style shortcuts (L, PL, C, D, ZE…).

• Hydraulic network

  Water supplies, fixed and variable-speed pumps, mainline, zone, pressure-reducing, pressure-sustaining and flow-control valves, valve-in-head sprinklers, laterals with emitters, drip tapes, filters and meters, plus centre pivots and linear moves with their sprinkler package, hose-reel travellers and surface irrigation.

• Validated hydraulic engine

  Hazen-Williams, Darcy-Weisbach, Scobey and Manning, minor losses from the fittings used, emitters q = k·Hˣ, network solver by the Global Gradient Algorithm (as in EPANET), pump curves with NPSH, transients by the method of characteristics with air valves, and a 24-hour simulation with energy tariffs.

• Terrain, climate and agronomy

  Contours, spot heights, a triangulated terrain model with breaklines, online elevation, LAS point clouds, slope maps and profiles; site climate downloaded or typed in, FAO-56 crops by stage, soils, effective rain and leaching for the water requirement, plus landscape water budgets.

• Reports, plans and materials

  Zones, pipes, emitters, uniformity (CU, DU, EU), controller programme and valve wiring; a bill of materials with fittings and a quote with labour, taxes and payback; PDF sheet sets with construction details and charts, in any of the 20 languages, and every table in Excel, CSV and TXT.

• File exchange

  Imports DXF, DWG, PDF plans, KML/KMZ, shapefiles, GeoJSON, GPX, LandXML, LAS, DGN, EPANET .inp, CSV/XYZ, GeoTIFF and images; exports DXF 2000 with native entities (or R12), DWG, PDF, PNG, SVG, KML/KMZ, GeoJSON, shapefiles, GPX, LandXML, EPANET .inp and IFC.

• Manufacturer catalogues

  Manufacturer catalogues in JSON (Netafim, Rivulis, Jain, Toro, Rain Bird, Nelson, Hunter, NaanDanJain, Senninger, Irritec, Bermad, Schneider, Amanco Wavin, Multilit) ready to use, plus your own packs loaded from a file or a URL.

• Offline and in the field

  After the first visit the app starts without a network, on desktop, tablet or phone, in a light or dark theme. In the field the device GPS records walked outlines and lines, marks points and gives the distance and bearing to the selected item for staking out.

How it works

1. Draw or import the area. Bring a DXF, DWG, KML or a satellite image, draw the field, garden or pitch directly, or tell the AI assistant the address and it finds the site on the map. Add contours or download the elevation from a coordinate.
2. Build the network, by hand or with the AI. Generate lateral blocks or sprinkler grids in one click, or ask the AI assistant to lay out the heads, divide the field, route the pipes and place valves, pump and water supply; then connect everything with the mainline.
3. Design and document. Press F5, or ask the AI: the app sizes zones and mainline, checks pressures and velocities and produces reports, the bill of materials and the PDF sheet.

Ready examples to open

Every project opens complete and designs with F5. Use them to get to know the app or as a starting point.

• Orchard

  Micro-sprinklers on citrus and drip on grapes, well with pump and filter, sloping ground.

• Residential garden

  Pop-up sprays, rotors and drip in the beds, fed by the mains through a meter and a backflow preventer.

• Football pitch

  Full-size pitch with impact sprinklers in five rows, reservoir, pump and night-time shifts.

• Drip row crop

  Four tomato blocks on drip tape, screen filter, pump and a 1 % slope.

• Centre pivot

  A 300 m pivot on maize fed by a well and a pump, with a tower, span and sprinkler report.

• Vegetable greenhouse

  Four tunnels on pressure-compensating dripline, tank, small pump and disc filter.

• Plant nursery

  Beds under overhead micro-sprinklers on a 4 × 4 m grid, elevated tank and small pump.

• Coffee on contour lines

  Curved laterals following the hillside contours, PC dripline, well and pump.

• Banana plantation

  Pressure-compensating micro-sprinklers at 5 × 5 m, well with submersible pump and disc filter.

• Subsurface drip sugarcane

  PC dripline buried 0.3 m deep in 180 m laterals, screen filter and air valve.

• Gravity-fed drip

  A reservoir 40 m above the blocks, no pump, with a pressure reducing valve on the mainline.

• Sprinkler-irrigated pasture

  Three paddocks with impact-sprinkler spray lines at 12 × 18 m, reservoir and pump.

• Golf hole

  Tee with sprays, fairway with rotors on a triangular grid and green with rotors around the edge.

• Sector pivot with end gun

  A 250 m pivot sweeping 270° with an end gun, pond, 20 hp pump and gate valve.

• Linear move

  A 392 m lateral-move machine travelling 800 m along a canal, with intake and pump.

Frequently asked questions

What is OpenCADIrrigation?

OpenCADIrrigation is a free, open-source web application for designing pressurised irrigation systems: a CAD with a hydraulic engine that lays out the network, sizes the pipes, checks pressures and uniformity and produces the bill of materials and reports, from a home garden to a centre pivot, plus an optional AI assistant that draws and designs the project with you from a description of the site.

Can an AI design the project for me?

Yes, if you want it to. The optional AI assistant works on the open project with the same tools as the menus: describe the site, or let it look at the satellite image and the terrain of a georeferenced project, and it lays out sprinklers and drip, divides fields into blocks, routes pipes and valves, places the pump and the water supply, runs the design and the automatic tools, fixes the warnings, optimises the cost and writes the report. It asks before each change, or applies the changes automatically if you choose, and every answer can be undone in one click. A model can be wrong, so check its work as you would a colleague's.

Which AI models does it use?

Claude models from Anthropic (Claude Opus 5.5 by default, Claude Fable 5.1, Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Claude Haiku 5.5) and GPT models from OpenAI (GPT-6 Astra, GPT-6.1 Sol and GPT-6 Luna): a top, an intermediate and a fast tier of each company, each with five depths of reasoning. You choose the model in the assistant's settings and paste your own API key; the panel shows the tokens and the estimated cost of every answer, and a step limit and a spending cap end a task that runs long.

What does the AI assistant send, and where?

Nothing until you press Send. Then your message, the files you attach and the project data you tick go straight from your browser to the API of the provider you chose, Anthropic or OpenAI, with no server of OpenCADIrrigation in between, together with the results of the tools it uses while answering, pictures of the drawing included. The provider bills the use to your account. The key stays in memory for the session unless you choose to remember it on the device, and it never goes into project files, share links or exports. Voice dictation, if you use it, is done by the browser's own speech recognition, which sends the audio to the browser maker (Google in Chrome, Microsoft in Edge, Apple in Safari). Saved conversations stay in your browser, never in project files or links.

Is OpenCADIrrigation free?

Yes. It is free for professional, academic and personal use, with no sign-up. It is also open source under the MIT licence, with the source code published on GitHub. The optional AI assistant uses your own Anthropic or OpenAI account, and the provider bills its use to that account.

Who is it for?

Agricultural and landscape irrigation designers, agronomists and engineers, equipment dealers, teachers and students. The interactive tutorial, 15 ready examples and the AI assistant let you start without reading a manual.

Do I need to install anything?

No. It runs in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari on desktop, tablet and phone, and can be installed as an app (PWA) to open in its own window.

Does it work offline?

Yes, after the first visit: the app keeps a copy of itself in the browser (about 24 MB, once per version), so the next start, of the installed app or of the site, works without a network, in the office or in the field. Base maps, online elevation and climate, catalogues loaded by URL and the AI assistant still need a connection; a new version downloads in the background and is used from the next start.

Are my projects stored in the cloud?

No. Projects are saved in your browser and as .oci.json files you keep wherever you like; a share link carries the project inside the address itself, so nothing is uploaded. The internet is reached only when you ask for it: base maps, online elevation and climate, catalogues loaded by URL and, if you use it, the AI assistant, which talks only to the provider you chose (Anthropic or OpenAI).

How does it calculate the hydraulics?

Friction losses by Hazen-Williams, Darcy-Weisbach, Scobey or Manning, emitters by q = k·Hˣ and the whole network solved by the Global Gradient Algorithm, the method used by EPANET. Pipes are sized by linear programming within the emitter pressure window and the pipe pressure class, and the design also checks uniformity (CU, DU, EU), flushing and transients by the method of characteristics (valve closure, pump trip, air valves), with a 24-hour simulation of pressures and energy cost.

Does it work with AutoCAD and other CADs?

Yes. It imports DXF and DWG up to AutoCAD 2018, DGN V7 and PDF plans, and exports DXF 2000 with native entities (polylines with arcs, hatches, splines, dimensions, blocks with attributes), DXF R12 for older programs and DWG 2000. For GIS, survey and BIM it also reads and writes KML/KMZ, shapefiles, GeoJSON, GPX, LandXML and EPANET .inp, reads LAS point clouds and exports IFC 4.

Which languages are available?

Twenty, the same as this site (the list is at the foot of the page). The app opens in your computer's language and you can switch at any time under View → Language.