Choosing the right air handling unit (AHU) selection software can make or break how quickly your sales team quotes a job and how smoothly that quote turns into a manufacturable unit.
Below is a look at the leading platforms AHU manufacturers use to configure, price, and document custom and catalogue units, including where public information and user feedback are thin, since this is a niche corner of industrial software with limited crowdsourced reviews.
1. Kinetix Air
Kinetix Air is a cloud-based selection and design platform built specifically for the custom AHU industry.
It was founded in 2016 and is based in Woodland Hills, California, with Sevag Ajemian as President and CEO.
Where the four products below still ask a design team to bounce between separate coil, fan, and controls programs, Kinetix runs everything through one connected platform.
Live API integrations into 150+ component manufacturers cover selection, pricing, submittals, bill of materials, order entry, scheduling, and shipping.
The company also sells PreSelect, a lighter version built for manufacturer reps who need to answer a consulting engineer’s request for design before a competitor firm locks up Basis of Design.
Automated validation runs continuously in the background against a manufacturer’s own engineering and pricing rules.
Those rules live in a content management system the manufacturer controls directly, rather than routing every change through Kinetix’s support and development queue.
KAI, the platform’s built-in AI agent, sits on top of the workflow to guide configuration and speed up selection further.
Kinetix produces 2D/3D output in DXF, STEP, and Revit formats.
It reports deployment in about 30 days versus the roughly year-long rollouts common with legacy on-prem tools, and cites savings in the range of 20 hours per unit.
Flex Air’s Director of Sales and Marketing, Rusty Herbst, is quoted by name on the company’s site, crediting the platform with cutting down on paper generation and speeding up communication with manufacturers.
The company has also shown up at AHR Expo in recent years, where it introduced PreSelect to the show floor.
| Pros | Cons |
| · Built specifically around the race-to-BOD dynamic, with PreSelect letting reps generate a defensible preliminary design in 3 minutes instead of days | · Founded in 2016 and self-funded, so it’s a newer, growing company next to some of the 40-plus-year-old European players in this list, with a track record that’s still building |
| · 150+ live component manufacturer integrations running through one connected system, instead of the seven or so separate programs a design job typically requires elsewhere in this category | · Its public review footprint is still young. Kinetix Air has Capterra and GetApp listings and a testimonial from Thermal Corporation, but hasn’t built up the review volume some longer-tenured platforms have yet |
| · Covers the full project lifecycle, selection, pricing, submittals, bill of materials, order entry, scheduling, and shipping, not just design and drawing | · US-first go-to-market, so manufacturers who specifically need Eurovent certification support, the way Computair and Unilab offer it, may find those platforms further along on that particular requirement |
| · A built-in AI agent, KAI, guides configuration and selection on top of the automated validation, a feature none of the other four products in this list currently advertise | · A full published case study with hard, named-account numbers is still in the works. Testimonials exist, but a documented before-and-after account hasn’t gone public yet |
| · 3D parametric output in DXF, STEP, and Revit formats, plus a manufacturer-controlled content management system, so pricing and validation rules can be updated in minutes instead of through a vendor change request | |
| · Cloud-native from the ground up, with a reported 30-day deployment window against the roughly year-long timelines legacy on-prem tools in this category are known for | |
| · A named, on-the-record customer testimonial from Thermal Corporation published on the company site and YouTube channel, unlike some of the stale sites elsewhere on this list | |
| The deepest documented output set of any product here: drawings, BOMs, costing, weight sheets, quotation letters, psychrometric charts all itemized, and more |
2. WinTADS by Computair
Computair Ltd is a UK-based software house (Toddington, Bedfordshire) formed in 1980 that builds bespoke HVAC-R technical software, and WinTADS is its flagship AHU product line.
It’s described as “a fully-integrated software application for the design, selection and manufacture of Air Handling Units,” working from first principles so both standard and fully custom units can be configured, with the system surfacing viable sizing options for the operator to choose from.
WinTADS is really four products in one, scaling with a manufacturer’s needs: Lite for entry-level estimating on standard pre-engineered units, Lite+ for configurable mix-and-match standard sizes, Custom for fully bespoke units in 1 mm increments with multi-fan grid arrangements and vestibules, and Manufacturing for full factory output: panel arrangements, cut lists, and nesting-system links.
It produces 2D/3D drawings in DXF or DWG “with no CAD training required,” and offers a Revit feature plus Eurovent certification support.
Component selection draws on live vendor DLLs/web services rather than static tables.
| Pros | Cons |
| · Genuinely first-principles custom design, with 1 mm sizing increments, multi-fan arrays, and complex topologies for true custom AHU builders, not just catalogue lookups | · No independent reviews turned up anywhere: no G2, Capterra, or TrustRadius profile, and even a dedicated Eng-Tips forum thread asking about AHU selection software with psychrometric reporting got zero product recommendations |
| · One continuous workflow from sales quote to factory floor, with cut lists and nesting-system links baked in | · Fully quote-only: no published pricing, no license terms, and no self-serve trial. Every evaluation starts with a sales call |
| · 2D/3D DXF/DWG output without requiring CAD expertise, plus a Revit option | · No named client references or case studies published anywhere on the site |
| · 45+ years in business with an in-house-only development team (no subcontracting) and software available in eight languages | · Appears to be Windows-desktop only. Computair markets web editions of its fan, coil, and fan-coil tools, but not of WinTADS |
| · Active, visible presence at industry events: AHR Expo every year 2023 to 2026, AMCA’s 2024 annual meeting, and the FAN 2025 conference in Antibes | · Marketing pages are light on hard engineering specifics like acoustics and energy-efficiency (ErP) reporting, making it harder to compare on paper |
3. VISUAL-AHU by CCSI
VISUAL-AHU comes from CCSI Ltd, an HVAC engineering software developer based in Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, Ireland.
It’s billed as “a Windows based sales & production system specially designed for air handling unit manufacturers,” combining 3D visualization with customizable component databases for fast selection.
Of the products covered here, VISUAL-AHU has the most explicitly documented output list: scaled AutoCAD GA drawings, cabinetry bills of materials, panel cutting lists, cost and weight breakdowns, scope-of-supply documents, quotation letters, fan curves, and psychrometric charts.
It supports inline, double-deck, side-by-side, and U-shape unit configurations, and its Manufacturing module includes editable sheet-metal equations, per-part drawings, and automatic links to most CNC and MRP systems.
It’s also the only product in this roundup with a full, named 3D Revit/BIM output plus Autodesk Inventor integration.
CCSI describes itself as an Authorised Autodesk Developer.
Editions range from a cut-down Lite tier up to a fully web-based “Visual AHU Online” version.
| Pros | Cons |
| · Drawings, BOMs, costing, weight sheets, quotation letters, and psychrometric charts all itemized | · No independent reviews found on any platform: no G2, Capterra, or TrustRadius presence at all |
| · Strongest manufacturing/automation story, with automatic links to most CNC and MRP software | · The website is notably dated and thin. Some sub-pages consist of just two duplicated sentences with no screenshots or specs |
| · Real BIM path: full 3D Revit output plus Inventor integration, unusual in this category | · No changelog, release notes, or news section, and nothing dated 2023 to 2026 was found on the company site |
| · Both installed and fully web-based editions available, plus a lighter Lite tier for smaller buyers | · A very small vendor: registered as a “Small Company” with a single shareholder, which raises key-person/continuity questions for software this embedded in factory operations |
| · A named international customer list, including SKM (UAE), Innovent (USA), Direct Coil (Canada), and Bluestar (India), which is unusually transparent for this niche | · Headline features like Revit/BIM, Inventor integration, Manufacturing, and Eurovent support are paid upgrades on top of the base product, so the entry-level package is narrower than the brochure suggests |
| · Genuine warmth in the trade community: a LinkedIn tribute to a long-serving CCSI staffer known as “the AHU software guy” drew 95 reactions and 59 comments from across the industry | · No public pricing and no self-service trial |
4. Smart-Air by Unilab
Smart-Air comes from UNILAB S.r.l., a 100%-Italian-owned software house based in Padova, established in January 1987 with roots tracing to 1979.
UNILAB now says it’s “trusted by 700+ customers in over 75 countries”, and it leans heavily on its own thermodynamic engineering pedigree.
The coils calculation engine baked into Smart-Air is UNILAB’s proprietary DLL, not a bolted-on third-party tool.
Smart-Air is modular: a SELECTION module (available in Standard and Professional tiers) sizes units by airflow and face velocity and generates a commercial offer in minutes; an OUT OF RANGE module handles custom units outside the standard catalogue; an optional VIEW3 module supports production drawing; and separate modules cover ERP integration and Eurovent certification.
UNILAB claims Smart-Air handles roughly 80% of a technical department’s work, leaving only drawing revisions to human designers.
It ships with the broadest free component library of the group: DLLs for Nicotra, Comefri, Yilida, Soler & Palau, Kruger, Ziehl-Abegg, ebm-papst, Hoval, Klingenburg, Heatex, and more at no extra cost, and supports both Eurovent and AHRI certification (AHRI support offered since 2022).
| Pros | Cons |
| · Strongest thermodynamic credentials of the group: a native, proprietary coils engine backed by an in-house thermal engineering department with roots going back to 1979 | · No independent reviews: UNILAB’s Capterra listing exists but is completely empty (no ratings, no reviews) |
| · The broadest free component DLL library documented among the four: a dozen-plus fan and heat-recovery vendors included at no extra cost | · UNILAB is refreshingly candid that its own VIEW3 module “is NOT a CAD software”. It doesn’t produce CNC-ready 2D drawings, doesn’t build a real 3D model (the “3D” is a sketch), and can’t export to SolidWorks, Solid Edge, or Rhino |
| · Supports both Eurovent and AHRI certification, with customer logos shown for both | · No Revit/BIM output at all, unlike CCSI’s VISUAL-AHU and the DMN-related Airsoft product |
| · Fastest quote-to-price story: pre-composed, pre-priced unit templates can give a phone-call estimate in seconds | · Its cloud offer-storage feature is only half there. The customer has to buy, host, and manage its own server, with UNILAB stating “server costs and management are the full responsibility of the customer” |
| · The most actively and transparently developed of the four, with itemized, ongoing feature change logs including user-reported bug fixes | · Cost creep is real: the ERP module, extra component DLLs, Eurovent support, and AHRI support are all separately chargeable add-ons, and Eurovent support is restricted to the Professional edition |
| · Large scale and reach: 700+ customers across 75+ countries | · A small team (13 staff) relative to the 30+ software products the company maintains |
5. Airsoft by DMN Software
Airsoft is made by DMN Bilişim Yazılım (DMN Software), founded in 2003 and based in Ataşehir, Istanbul, and is described as software for “selecting, drawing and reporting air handling units” for AHU manufacturers and vendors.
It’s a Windows desktop application (C# WinForms, running on an Access database) built by a small team: the company’s About page lists a founder plus three developers.
Airsoft’s feature set covers a wide component library: radial and plug fans, water/mixed-fluid/refrigerant coils, plate and rotary heat recovery, electric heaters, multiple filter types, humidifiers, silencers, and standard accessories, along with built-in psychrometric functions and charts, a feature not clearly advertised by the other three vendors.
It exports technical datasheets, production documents, priced material lists, and proforma invoices in PDF, Excel, or Word.
DMN’s named reference list is the most impressive of the four, including Daikin Industries, France Air, and Friterm.
Worth flagging: a related English-language product at , and a 10-day free trial.
It’s the only product among the four with public pricing and a self-serve trial.
Its contact page lists a different operating entity (“Smart Project Designer” in Tallinn, Estonia) than DMN Software’s Istanbul address, and no source confirms how the two companies relate, though their reference logos overlap heavily.
This is worth clarifying directly with either vendor before buying.
| Pros | Cons |
| · Rare price transparency and a real trial in this product family, since most competitors in this space are quote-only | · Zero independent reviews found on any platform, and no customer testimonials published on either associated site |
| · Built-in psychrometric functions and charts, which several competitors don’t clearly advertise | · DMN’s own web presence looks stale. The site is copyright-dated 2019, still cites Eurovent readiness against the January 2016 catalogue, and has broken navigation links |
| · Broad component vendor coverage across fans, coils, heat recovery, humidifiers, and accessories, with user-extendable filter types | · Corporate identity is confusing: the commercial pricing site lists an Estonian operating company with a Turkish phone number, distinct from DMN’s own Istanbul contact details, with no public documentation clarifying the relationship, so buyers should get this in writing before contracting |
| · A strong named reference list including major OEMs like Daikin Industries and France Air | · Airsoft itself, as documented by DMN, has no Revit/BIM output. That capability sits only on the separate, higher-priced related product |
| · The related , 12 interface languages, and a detailed audit trail with record restore | · Legacy technology stack (Access database, and Visual Basic 6.0 referenced for related DMN engineering tools) raises questions about long-term maintainability for multi-user factory deployments |
| · The published cloud hosting spec for the online edition runs on Windows Server 2012 R2 and SQL Server 2012, both long out of mainstream support, with only 3-day backup retention | |
| · Small development team, listed as a founder plus three developers |
Final Thoughts
Computair, CCSI, and Unilab built solid reputations on decades of engineering depth, and Airsoft carves out a niche with rare price transparency. But most of them are still solving only selection and drawing. The handoffs to pricing, submittals, and production are left for someone else to stitch together, usually by hand.
Kinetix Air is built around the race to Basis of Design.
It’s the only platform here that connects selection straight through to pricing, submittals, bill of materials, and production in one workflow, backed by 150+ live component integrations and an AI agent that speeds up configuration further. For a rep or manufacturer trying to win the spec before a competitor gets there first, that combination makes it the clear choice.