Guides & tutorials

Plain-English, step-by-step. No BIM or real-estate-finance background needed — each tutorial takes about five minutes.

Getting started — three ways to run it

Tutorial 1 · Explore a model

Learn to move around a 3D building and read its data.

1. Open the app and make sure you're in the Model workspace (top bar).
2. Click Open ▾ → BasicHouse (or any sample). The building loads in the viewer.
3. Orbit by dragging, pan with right-drag, zoom with the wheel. Click ⤢ Fit to recenter.
4. Click any element — its properties open on the right, grouped into Attributes, Quantities (areas / volumes / lengths) and each Property Set. Filter to find a field, click a row to copy it, or Copy all; the ⧉ button copies the element's permanent IFC GUID.
5. Use the left rail: the tree (spatial breakdown), layers (show/hide by type), and ⊙ Isolate / ⊞ Show all.
6. Try Section (cut through the model) and Measure (distances/areas) from the toolbar.
7. Need other formats? Open ▾ → Open mesh / point cloud / GIS… loads OBJ/STL/PLY/glTF meshes, PCD/XYZ/LAS/LAZ point clouds, and GIS / topography (GeoJSON site vectors, GeoTIFF DEM terrain) as georeferenced overlays. Tap 📱 Share via QR to open the project on a phone or tablet.
8. Layer & coordinate models (Navisworks-style): each reference model has a ⛭ align panel (offset / Z-up flip / scale / move-to-point). Add discipline IFCs in the Coordination & QA panel (＋ Add discipline IFC), then 🔗 Federated clash finds cross-discipline conflicts and files them as issues on the model.

Tutorial 2 · Generate a building from zoning ⭐

The headline feature: turn a lot + zoning rules into a real building and a first-cut deal.

1. Go to the Finance workspace → Proforma tab.
2. Find the 🏗️ Generate from zoning panel. Enter your lot (width × depth or area), FAR, setbacks, and a height limit.
3. Tick the options you want: structural frame, unit layout (apartments on a corridor), facade envelope, service core.
4. Click Estimate yield to preview the program (floors, units, GSF) and a starter proforma — instantly, without saving anything.
5. Happy with it? Click Generate IFC model + apply. It builds a real IFC building, publishes it to the viewer, and loads the numbers into the live proforma.
6. Switch to the Model workspace to see your generated building. Open Test Fit (back in Finance) to compare unit-mix schemes or ⚡ Optimize for the highest-yield layout.

Tutorial 3 · Underwrite a deal

Build the cost budget, balance the capital, and produce an investor package.

1. In Finance, open the cost budget panel. Add line items by category — acquisition, hard (construction), soft (design/fees) — as $/unit × quantity, with a contingency %.
2. Click Apply to proforma — the budget rolls into the deal's cost tree.
3. Open Sources & Uses to see the capital plan (debt sized to your LTC/LTV/DSCR, plus equity).
4. Tune the drivers (rent, exit cap, hold). Watch the returns bar — IRR, equity multiple, yield-on-cost — update live. Guardrail badges flag anything outside market ranges.
5. Open the Statements tab for full financial statements off the live deal: a stabilized income statement (rent → NOI → depreciation → net income), a balance sheet that balances every year, a cash-flow statement, the tax at sale (depreciation recapture + capital gains → an after-tax IRR), and the budget as a two-sided Uses ∣ Sources view.
6. Click 📄 Investment memo or 📊 Pitch deck to generate a polished PDF from the live numbers.
7. Once the job is live, track the capital: the developer dashboard reconciles the GC's GMP to your underwritten hard cost (one click to sync), models construction-loan draws (equity-first, with interest accrual), and exports a lender draw-request PDF. The portfolio view rolls returns up across every deal.

Tutorial 4 · Run a project (GC portal)

Manage construction — works even with no model loaded.

1. Click ＋ New in the top bar to create a project (no IFC needed).
2. Go to the Construction workspace. You'll see the dashboard and a catalog of modules (RFIs, submittals, change orders, daily reports, inspections, safety…).
3. Open RFIs → ＋ New, fill in the subject and question, and save. Use the workflow buttons (submit → respond) to move it along.
4. Contracts & change orders: open a Prime Contract, Subcontract, or Change Order record → Generate the document (AIA-style PDF), Compose Exhibit A (scope from the clause library), View & markup to redline, and Sign (per-party typed signatures) — then approve via the workflow. Change orders show the original → revised contract sum.
5. Explore Board (kanban), filters, and the Related panel on a record (it links RFIs → change events → CORs automatically).
6. Use Schedule for CPM/critical path, the takt chart, and the ⏱ 4D sequence slider to scrub the build in the viewer. ⏩ Accelerate (advisory) reads the critical path and suggests where to crash or fast-track work (advisory only — it never rewrites your schedule).
7. Permitting → 🏛 Import from city open data: pick a city (NYC · SF · Chicago · LA · Austin, more easily added), search by address or near the site, and import issued/filed permits straight into your permit log — owner, architect, GC, units, valuation and status come along, deduped on re-import.
8. Pull a report: the Report Center renders an executive summary, cost, EVM, change-order, RFI, contracts and a risk digest — each as a PDF and an Excel workbook.
9. Track health with the analytics dashboards (each a live tool and a PDF/Excel report): a quality dashboard (inspection pass-rate, NCR disposition→close loop, deficiency ball-in-court), RFI and submittal registers (ball-in-court / overdue / turnaround), a T&M rollup tied to change events, a field-log rollup (manpower / weather lost-days), an OSHA safety dashboard (TRIR / DART), and a closeout dashboard (punchlist, commissioning, warranties) — all stitched into an executive project-health rollup.
10. Specifications → submittals: keep your project manual in the Specification register (Preconstruction), then run § Spec submittal log to derive the required submittals per CSI section — typed (shop drawing, product data, sample…) — and see which are missing against what you've logged, with a coverage %. ✨ Extract submittals from a spec turns pasted spec text into a typed submittal list (AI when an API key is set, a built-in parser otherwise) and, one click, logs them and builds the register straight from the spec book.
11. Open Schedule → Budget for the project GMP: it assembles automatically from your cost codes, committed subcontracts (buyout) and GC/GR staffing, plus overhead / fee / contingency. Each line carries budget → committed → actual → forecast (EAC) and the variance, and reconciles to the prime contract. A cash-flow S-curve spreads it across the schedule.
12. See cost on the model (5D): click any element for its 5D readout (cost code, budget, progress), or open the cost / progress heatmap to color the whole model by spend or % complete.
13. Bill the owner: generate the pay application (G702/G703) PDF from the Schedule of Values — it draws straight from the budget lines, with retainage and stored-materials handled.
14. Watch the Deadlines widget on the portal home — a cross-module feed of what's overdue or due this week across RFIs, submittals, change orders, inspections and more.
15. Ask the "Ask AI" box plain-English questions like "what's overdue?" or "are we over budget?"

Tutorial 5 · Hand it over (turnover)

Close the project out and produce the handover package.

1. Work the Punchlist: open an item, mark it ready, attach a photo, then verify (verification requires the photo — an evidence gate).
2. Record commissioning, as-builts, warranties, and the completion certificate.
3. Export COBie (the standard facilities-handover spreadsheet), the QTO, and a one-click turnover package (as-built IFC + COBie + closeout docs).

Tutorial 6 · List & value it

Take the finished (or off-plan) building to market and put a defensible value on it.

1. In Finance, open the Listing panel and click Auto-fill from model + proforma. It pulls the address, areas, unit mix, amenities and price straight from the IFC model and the deal — no retyping.
2. Generate the marketing fact sheet PDF (a BIM-native Listing Fact Sheet), then Share to get a signed public link + QR code — read-only, so you can market a building off-plan before it's built.
3. Open the Valuation tab to appraise it three ways — cost, income, and sales-comparison cards — then set the reconciliation weights to blend them into a final value. Import comparables (paste CSV or upload — RESO field names work too) to feed the sales approach, and download the Valuation report (PDF or Excel).
4. Once you own and operate it, the Operations tab is a live rent roll (occupancy, WALT, in-place income) plus lease management — renewal/expiration pipeline, rent-escalation schedule and CAM/expense-recovery reconciliation. The Investors tab holds the cap table, runs capital calls / distributions and an equity-waterfall distribution scenario (pref → return of capital → promote, allocated per investor), and mints a signed, no-login link to each investor's statement.

Glossary — plain English

FAQ