Built for the way construction actually works.
The full project lifecycle on one record, built for architects — from the first trace on Sketch Paper to the final closeout set. LODE compiles your drawings and specs, gives the team a live surface to review on, then runs bidding, CA, financials, and closeout without ever leaving the record.
The Record — Drawings & Specs
Automatic Sheet Detection
Upload a PDF drawing set and LODE identifies every sheet — by page label, bookmark, filename, or OCR of the title block. Sheet numbers are parsed into discipline, series, sequence, and suffix. Sorted automatically in AIA standard order.
Revision Resolution
When a new issuance arrives, LODE compares it against the existing registry and resolves the current authoritative version of every sheet. Latest revision wins — but nothing is ever deleted. Full history preserved.
Field Set + Revision Record Set
Every issuance generates two compiled outputs. The Field Set holds only current sheets — clean, buildable, for the crew. The Revision Record Set keeps superseded sheets clearly overlaid — the full project record in one document.
Sheet Index + Revision Log
A structured sheet index showing every current sheet, its source issuance, and its reference health. A chronological revision log showing every issuance processed and what it changed. Both generated automatically on every upload.
References That Stay Current
Sheets cite each other constantly — SEE A301/3, SIM, TYP. LODE reads those references and keeps them pointed at the current version of every sheet as revisions land, automatically. A callout never strands you on a superseded drawing.
Specs, on the Same Engine
CSI MasterFormat sections get the same treatment as sheets: section detection, per-section revision resolution as addenda arrive, batch review of what changed, and compiled spec outputs beside the drawing sets.
Sorted the way you expect.
LODE uses AIA standard discipline order — G, C, L, S, A, I, P, M, E — so your sheet index always reads like a real drawing set. Suffix sheets (A201A, A201B) insert correctly between their parent sheets.
You'll never see A301 sorted after Z101.
Specifications
Specs, resolved like drawings.
Upload the project manual and each addendum as it arrives. LODE parses CSI MasterFormat section numbers, resolves the current authoritative version of every section, and walks you through what each addendum changed — the same review discipline your sheets get.
- CSI MasterFormat parsing with table-of-contents detection
- Per-section revision history as addenda supersede sections
- Batch review of every change an addendum makes
- Compiled spec outputs beside the drawing sets — current and record
- Ask DOC about a section — answers from the section’s own body text
Markup & Review
The drawing is just the starting point.
Once a set is compiled, your team needs to talk about it, measure off it, and resolve what changed. LODE keeps every comment, count, and decision attached to the right sheet — and to the right revision.
Comments in context
Pin questions or notes directly on a sheet. Threaded responses, open/resolved status, internal-only by default. Every comment lives with the drawing it references.
Highlights and callouts
Mark areas of interest with semi-transparent highlights. Flag scope changes, callouts, or anything the team needs to look at — without ever modifying the source PDF.
Calibrated measurements
Linear and area measurements with per-zone scale calibration. Architectural and civil presets included. Numbers stay accurate across revisions.
Count tool
Tally fixtures, doors, devices — anything you need to count off a drawing. Grouped, filterable, exportable.
Working & record layers
Every markup belongs to a layer with a lifecycle. Working notes stay internal to LODE and travel with the review; record markups ship on downloads and stand with the sheet they annotated. You choose which is which.
Never on your originals
Markups sit on a clear layer above the drawing — trace over a base sheet, never redlines burned into the file. Toggle any markup on or off; print and export with or without them.
Review comments and record comments.
Every markup sits on a clear layer above the sheet — owned by whoever placed it, timestamped, tied to the issuance the sheet came from. And when a revision supersedes that sheet, you decide what happens next: which comments carry forward to the new sheet, and which retire with the one they were written on.
The open question travels with the work. The settled note stands with its sheet, exactly where the history happened. That's the difference between a review comment and a record comment — and it's yours to call, per markup.
Live Review
The review cycle, flattened.
A review cycle is usually a chain of events: each reviewer marks their own copy, and the review only exists once somebody merges the versions. LODE flattens the chain into one live document — every comment and cloud lands on the same sheet as it's made, so the review is a single composite, always current, with no consolidation step and no versions to reconcile.
Together or on your own time — the document is always the review's current state. Reviewers join by link, and every decision keeps a name and a timestamp. On the sheet viewer and on Sketch Paper alike.
Sketch Paper
Sketch, trace, repeat.
The record is permanent — so the place you think out loud has to be somewhere else. Sketch Paper is every project's infinite canvas: pre-record space, named for the trace rolls architects actually use. Lay a trace sheet over anything, draw on it, stack trace on trace, fan the stack to compare options. Deleting is normal here. That's the point.
It stays connected to the record without being part of it: drop any project sheet onto the canvas and it stays pinned to the exact version you dropped — with a badge the moment a revision supersedes it. Never silently "current."
- The trace stack — real trace paper, digital: overlay, stack, fan, compare
- Sheets and files from the project, pinned to their version, flagged when stale
- Live multiplayer — cursors, presence, and per-person active trace
- One deliberate door to permanence: save any region to Files as a real, tagged record
Sketch Paper keeps no history and no versions — canvas content is disposable by design, and nothing crosses into the record except what you deliberately save. A firm that treats its whiteboard as a system of record is the one with the problem.
The Project Lifecycle
The record doesn't stop at the drawings.
This is what separates LODE from a phase tool: every phase runs on the same record, and this is the project's actual navigation — click through it. Bidding prices the compiled set, CA cites it, financials certify against it, closeout archives it. Each tab has its own page — Dashboard, Files, and Planning included. Nothing drifts, because nothing leaves.
Bid cycles beside the documents they price. Addenda flow through the revision engine and the bid room serves only the current set, so everyone prices the same documents.
Bidding
Run the bid on the set you compiled.
Bid cycles live beside the documents they price. Addenda flow through the same revision engine as every other issuance, so bidders always price the current set — and you can prove which set they priced.
- Bid tabulation across packages, with bidder rosters and prequalification
- Addenda register — issued through the record, served through the bid room
- Bid questions and substitution requests, logged and answered in one place
- A bid room your bidders reach by link — no accounts, no seats
Construction Administration
RFIs and submittals that cite their sheets.
Every CA record is born on the project record: an RFI references the sheet and revision it questions, a submittal register seeds itself from your spec sections, and ball-in-court tracking shows exactly who owes what, and for how long.
- RFIs with dual numbering, hop-by-hop routing, and reopen with a fresh clock
- Submittal register generated from spec sections; full lifecycle to approval
- Observations with upload-for-record; revision issuances (ASIs, bulletins) managed as CA records
- A contractor portal — your GC works the record without a seat
Financials
The money arc, on G702 arithmetic.
Pay applications complete their own math as you type — contract sum to date, retainage, net change by change orders. Change events graduate to change orders on the record, and the certification chain is explicit at every step.
- Pay applications on the G702 summary, per contract group, penny-precise
- Change events → proposed change orders → change orders, with the PCO ↔ CO calculator
- Retainage tracked per application; backup files attached to the award they support
- Multi-GMP projects: pick your GMP, span every award
Closeout
Punch on the plan, deliverables from the record.
Punch items are pins on the sheet they live on — walked, statused, verified. The deliverables register seeds from approved submittals mid-construction, so closeout starts itself before anyone calls it closeout.
- Punch lists pinned to plan locations, with revision-aware walk-throughs
- Deliverables register seeded from approved submittals
- Certificates panel — the executed paper is the record, summarized above it
- The final record set, compiled from everything the project produced
The Hub
What your firm knows, across every project.
Projects end; the firm keeps learning. The Hub holds the knowledge that outlives any one job.
Firm files
The firm’s reference files — standards, details, templates — beside every project that needs them.
Lessons Learned
What went wrong, what went right, and what the next project should do about it.
Companies & Contacts
The firms and people you work with, across projects — one directory, not forty spreadsheets.
QAQC
Firm-level quality reviews with their own registers and schedule.
DOC, wired into the whole record.
DOC is LODE's assistant, and its reach is exactly what you grant it — per project, off by default. Turn it on and it reads what the record holds: every issuance, sheet, spec section, and register entry. That's 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 landed. The record was there. DOC reads the record.
Open a submittal with DOC on, and DOC has already taken a first pass — read against its spec section, checked over the product signals, findings drafted as review comments. Adopt the ones that hold and they land in the submittal thread, on the record. DOC drafts. You decide. The record reflects.
Off by default. Enabled per project. Never trained on your drawings.
Beyond the Firm
Your GC doesn't need a seat.
A project is mostly people outside your firm — and none of them should need an account to do their part. LODE hands them secure links — scoped to the job at hand, revocable the moment it's done. The bidder opens the bid room. The contractor works the portal. The owner checks permit status. The consultant reviews a package. Nobody creates a password, and everything they do lands on the record.
Start with your next drawing set.
We'll be in touch when early access opens.