Install and open a project

Studio is in early access. Builds go to the people on the waitlist: join it on the Urbium website, and we send you a build when there is a place for you.

Install on macOS

1. Open the .pkg installer you were sent and follow its steps. A portable .zip of the app is also made for each release.
2. Open Urbium Studio.

Note. A build that is not notarized by Apple is only ad hoc signed, and macOS warns that it cannot check the app when you first open it. Open System Settings › Privacy & Security and choose "Open Anyway" for Urbium Studio. Builds signed and notarized by Urbium open without the warning.

Install on Windows

1. Run UrbiumStudio-<version>-setup.exe. It installs for your user only, with no administrator prompt, into %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Urbium Studio, and adds a Start menu entry.
2. The installer is not signed yet, so SmartScreen warns on the first run. Click "More info", then "Run anyway".

Install on Linux

1. Make the AppImage executable: chmod +x Urbium_Studio-x86_64.AppImage.
2. Run it.

Limit. The AppImage needs the glibc of Ubuntu 22.04 or newer, and a desktop's usual libraries: Wayland or X11, Vulkan or GL drivers, and libdbus. File dialogs go through the XDG desktop portal, or zenity when there is no portal.

Set up the agent

The chat inside Studio runs Claude Code, so first install Claude Code so that claude is on your PATH. On macOS and Linux, Studio takes the PATH of your login shell, so it finds claude even when you open it from the Dock or a desktop entry. On Windows, claude must be on your user PATH.

Then sign in one of two ways:

• Your own Claude account. Run claude once in a terminal and sign in.
• A key from your firm. See Firm API keys.

Everything that does not run the agent works without either.

Answer the first-launch questions

The first time Studio opens it asks Send crash reports? Choose Send or Don't Send. A build that collects usage data also asks Share usage data with Urbium? Choose Share or Don't share. You can change both in Settings. See Usage data and privacy.

Try the sample house

On a fresh install Studio opens the sample project, a two-storey house, with a Try this checklist beside the view. Once it opens, a short tour points out each part of the window (see The tour). Each step of the checklist ticks itself when you do it:

1. Orbit or zoom the 3D view.
2. Ask the agent: "add a window to the kitchen".
3. Drag a wall and watch the plan and section update.
4. Open the Sheets tab and export a PDF.
5. Check the Regulation tab.
6. Export IFC or DXF.

The checklist's Agents row shows whether Claude Code is installed and signed in. Click Sign in to run claude auth login. Until it is signed in, a demo agent answers with scripted replies, so step 2 still works.

Your progress is kept for you, whichever project is open. Click Dismiss to close the checklist. A second launch doesn't open the sample again; Help › Try the Sample Project (⇧⌘Y) opens it with the checklist at any time.

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Open a famous building

Help › Sample Projects… (⇧⌥⌘Y) lists the sample house beside five landmarks: the Colosseum, the Eiffel Tower, the Pantheon, the Parthenon and the Villa Savoye. Click Open beside one and Studio builds it as a new project of your own, at its real size, from the same steps the agent takes when you ask it to "Build the Pantheon". Switch to the Materials visual style (⌥2) to see them in stone, steel and white render.

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Open a project

With no project open, the window says Start a project and offers three buttons:

1. Click New project, Import IFC… or Open sample project.
2. For a new or sample project, Studio asks Start in Design or BIM? Start in Design ("Sketching / early design") sketches rooms and masses before any wall exists; Start in BIM ("BIM (detailed, coordinated model)") models walls, openings, IFC properties and schedules. Design is highlighted, so Return takes it. You can promote a Design project to BIM later.

Later, Open Project… (⌘O) switches to another project, and the project picker at the top left of the window lists your projects and has the same actions: New project, New project on a Miami lot…, Open sample project and Import IFC…. Opening and creating a project run as a job with a progress bar and Cancel.

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To start from a real lot, see From a lot to a massing.

Where projects are kept

Platform	Folder
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/@urbium-studio/desktop/studio
Windows	%APPDATA%\@urbium-studio\desktop\studio
Linux	~/.local/share/@urbium-studio/desktop/studio (or under $XDG_DATA_HOME)

Each project is a folder under projects/ holding its model and its conversations.