What LODE does.
LODE compiles your drawings and specs into the current set, gives the team one sheet to review on, and then runs bidding, CA, financials and closeout on that same set, from the first trace on Sketch Paper to the closeout set.
Drawings and specs
Sheet detection
Upload a PDF set and LODE finds every sheet, from the page label, the bookmark, the filename or the title block. Sheet numbers are split into discipline, series, sequence and suffix, and sorted in AIA order.
Revision resolution
When a new issuance comes in, LODE compares it to the sheet index and works out which revision of every sheet is now current. The latest revision wins. Nothing is deleted; the history is kept.
Field Set and Revision Record Set
Every issuance produces two PDFs. The Field Set has only the current sheets, for the crew. The Revision Record Set keeps every superseded sheet, stamped, so the whole history is in one document.
Sheet index and revision log
A sheet index listing every current sheet, which issuance it came from and whether its references still hold. A revision log listing every issuance and what it changed. Both are rebuilt on every upload.
References that stay current
Sheets refer to each other constantly: SEE A301/3, SIM, TYP. LODE reads those references and keeps them pointed at the current version of each sheet as revisions come in, so a callout never lands you on a superseded drawing.
Specs, handled the same way
CSI MasterFormat sections get the same treatment as sheets: each section is found, each addendum supersedes the sections it changes, you review what changed, and the compiled spec sits beside the drawing sets.
Sorted the way you expect.
The sheet index follows AIA discipline order (G, C, L, S, A, I, P, M, E), so it reads like a drawing set. Suffix sheets such as A201A and A201B fall in after their parent sheet.
A301 never sorts after Z101.
Specifications
Specs, treated like drawings.
Upload the project manual, then each addendum as it goes out. LODE reads the CSI MasterFormat section numbers, works out which version of every section is current, and walks you through what each addendum changed, the same way it does for sheets.
- CSI MasterFormat section numbers read from the manual and its table of contents
- A revision history per section as addenda supersede it
- Review every change an addendum makes in one pass
- A compiled spec beside the drawing sets, current and record versions
- Ask Loupe, LODE’s AI assistant, about a section and get an answer from that section’s text
Markup and review
Talk about the set on the set.
Once a set is compiled, the team needs to talk about it, measure off it and settle what changed. Every comment, count and decision stays attached to the right sheet and the right revision.
Comments on the sheet
Pin a question or a note on the sheet. Replies thread under it, it is open or resolved, and it is internal unless you share it. The comment stays with the drawing it is about.
Highlights and callouts
Highlight an area, cloud a scope change, call out anything the team needs to look at. The source PDF is never changed.
Calibrated measurements
Lengths and areas, calibrated per zone, with architectural and civil scale presets. The numbers hold when the sheet is revised.
Count tool
Count fixtures, doors, devices, anything on a drawing. Grouped, filterable and exportable.
Working and record layers
Every markup belongs to a layer. Working notes stay inside LODE and follow the review. Record markups go out on downloads and stay with the sheet they were made on. You choose which is which.
Never on your originals
Markups sit on a clear layer above the drawing, like trace over a base sheet. Nothing is burned into the file. Turn any markup on or off, and print or export with or without them.
Review comments and record comments.
Every markup sits on a clear layer above the sheet, with the name of whoever placed it, the time, and the issuance the sheet came from. When a revision supersedes that sheet, you decide which comments move to the new sheet and which stay with the one they were written on.
An open question moves with the work. A settled note stays with its sheet, where it happened. That is the difference between a review comment and a record comment, and you make the call per markup.
Live Review
One review, not five copies to merge.
Usually each reviewer marks up their own copy and the review only exists once somebody merges them. In LODE every comment and cloud lands on the same sheet as it is made, so there is one review, current at all times, and no merging.
Work together or at different times; the sheet is always the current state of the review. Reviewers join from a link, and every decision keeps a name and a time. The same is true on Sketch Paper.
Sketch Paper
Trace paper, with the drawings underneath.
Issued documents are permanent, so the place you think out loud has to be somewhere else. Sketch Paper is every project's infinite canvas, named after the roll of trace on every architect's desk. Lay a sheet of trace over anything, draw on it, stack trace on trace, fan the stack out to compare options. Throwing things away is normal here.
It stays connected to the project without being part of the issued set. Drop any project sheet onto the canvas and it stays pinned to the version you dropped, with a badge the moment a revision supersedes it.
- A trace stack: overlay, stack, fan out, compare
- Sheets and files from the project, pinned to their version and flagged when superseded
- Others on the same canvas, with cursors and each person’s active trace
- Save any region to Files when it is worth keeping, tagged as a sketch
Sketch Paper keeps no history and no versions. What is on the canvas is disposable, and nothing reaches the project files except what you choose to save.
The project, phase by phase
The rest of the project runs on the same set.
Every phase works from the same compiled set. Bidding prices it, CA refers to it, financials are certified against it, closeout archives it. This is the project's navigation; click a tab to see what it does, and each one has a page of its own.
Bid cycles next to the documents they price. Addenda go through the revision engine and the bid room serves only the current set, so every bidder prices the same documents.
Bidding
Bid the set you compiled.
Bid cycles sit next to the documents they price. Addenda go through the same revision engine as every other issuance, so bidders price the current set, and you can show which set each of them priced.
- Tabulation across packages, with bidder lists and prequalification
- An addenda register, issued through the project and served through the bid room
- Bid questions and substitution requests, logged and answered in one place
- A bid room your bidders open from a link. No accounts, no seats
Construction Administration
RFIs and submittals that name their sheets.
An RFI names the sheet and revision it is asking about. The submittal log is built from your spec sections. Ball-in-court shows who owes what, and for how long.
- RFIs with your number and the contractor’s, routed hop by hop, reopened with a fresh clock
- A submittal log generated from the spec sections, tracked through to approval
- Observations filed to the project; ASIs and bulletins handled as CA records
- A contractor portal, so your GC works in the project without a seat
Financials
Pay apps and change orders on the G702.
Pay applications do their own arithmetic as you type: contract sum to date, retainage, net change by change orders. Change events become change orders in the same place, and who certified what is written down at every step.
- Pay applications on the G702 summary, per contract group, to the cent
- Change events to proposed change orders to change orders, with the PCO and CO figures reconciled
- Retainage tracked per application; backup attached to the award it supports
- Projects with more than one GMP: pick the GMP, see every award
Closeout
Punch on the plan, deliverables from the submittals.
Punch items are pins on the sheet they belong to: walked, given a status, verified. The deliverables list is built from approved submittals during construction, so closeout has started before anyone calls it that.
- Punch lists pinned to the plan, with walk-throughs that know which revision is current
- A deliverables list built from approved submittals
- Certificates kept as the signed documents, with a summary above them
- The final record set, compiled from everything the project produced
The Hub
What the firm keeps between projects.
Projects end. The Hub holds what the firm carries from one to the next.
Firm files
Standards, typical details and templates, available in every project that needs them.
Lessons learned
What went wrong, what went right, and what the next project should do about it.
Companies and contacts
The firms and people you work with, in one directory across projects.
QAQC
Firm-level quality reviews, with their own logs and schedule.
Loupe reads the whole project.
Loupe, LODE's AI assistant, is off by default and turned on per project, and it reads only what you allow: issuances, sheets, spec sections, the logs. That is why it can answer the questions that usually die in an inbox search: what ASI 03 actually changed, why the hardware spec moved, where that material decision from a year ago ended up.
Open a submittal with Loupe on and it has already taken a first pass: read against the spec section, checked for the usual problems, with its findings drafted as review comments. Adopt the ones that hold and they go into the submittal thread. Loupe drafts; you decide.
Off by default. Turned on per project. Never used to train a model.
Everyone else on the project
Your GC does not need a seat.
Most of the people on a project are outside your firm, and none of them should need an account to do their part. They get a link, scoped to the job at hand and revocable when it is done. The bidder opens the bid room. The contractor works in the portal. The owner checks permit status. The consultant reviews a package. Nobody makes a password, and everything they do lands in the project.
Put your next drawing set through it.
We'll be in touch when early access opens.