Autodesk Build, based on the former PlanGrid, is construction productivity software. It includes tools to collaborate, collect, and manage project information throughout the project’s construction and operations lifespan. It enables document centralization and tracking.
$39
user per month
B2W Maintain
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
B2W Maintain is a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) that aims to reduce downtime and fleet maintenance costs by automating preventive maintenance and connecting the field, shop, and office in real-time. The vendor states the software streamlines repair requests and work order processes and provides centralized access to equipment status and…
PlanGrid performs really well in all aspects of construction from the general to the sub/trade. The platform distributes and communicates project documentation in an extremely user-friendly manner. As with most software, it is cheaper the larger the scale of the project. In situations where the project is relatively small, and the trade contracts are also of relatively low dollar value, the product can be cost-prohibitive.
We use the full suite of features in Maintain as it covers most of our needs, it is nice to have most of your data in one system, much easier to manage. We use telematics from third parties and even though we use the Parts/Inventory/Purchasing we sometimes need to go through the vendor portal to order but for the most part those work well most of the time, very little issues or minor ones at that. We can manage our shop/fleet/mechanic departments through this one program for the most part and users adapt to it very quickly.
Plangrid is the best SaaS I have seen for ease of uploading construction plans and automated organization of those plans.
For companies that are not using other products for mobile access, the Plangrid mobile apps are perfect to allow people on and off site to share and collaborate in many phases of construction project documentation.
Plangrid has a very responsive technical support team (although it is pretty much email only).
Plangrid's website layout is easy to use and understand and allows new users to jump right in and do basic to moderate tasks without little training.
The photo attachment process is a bit complicated. In ProCore (another similar software I've used), you can upload photos directly into RFIs for your reference, or into e-mails. For PlanGrid, you have to first upload the photo into the documents tab, then link them into the RFI. It's not intuitive and can add confusion to the documents tab.
Photos can't be directly uploaded. Between different devices and colleagues, it's possible you'll get an important photo outside of the PlanGrid photo capture feature within its app. Again, it's complicated for users to use.
In their new drawings viewer, the icons for actions do not have icons available. I had to use them all in order to understand what they meant, and I'm fairly tech savvy. I'm not sure if a new person to PlanGrid will pick up on each icon's abilities very easily.
There's no all-in-one solution in CM, but PlanGrid is fairly barebones, and I don't believe it has any ability to connect to other software. There's no ability to take meeting munites; you can hack the field reports feature to accomplish this, but it's clear that was not the intent of the designers.
We are at the point where we have shown our teams what is possible with this software. We cannot take it away and go back to the way we used to do things. I think that they would push back on us to give them access to something electronic. It is a good program that we will continue to use
Hard to get the hang of this software, but with time it become very repetitive and easier to navigate. I have used this software for over a year now and the constant updates by Autodesk have made the software better and better to use at work. This allows me to use this tool more effectively
Very easy for users to learn the system. The interface is easy to navigate. Contains fields for all the info we want to capture. Very little bugs occur and maintenance is low. Available on mobile (tablet/phone). Doesn't take long to perform most functions. Configuration isn't difficult except for when integrating with third parties for telematics and other data transfer. Aside from those few integrations, it performs most of the functions we need within the program.
Online chat during business hours is extremely helpful. The Plangrid staff has gone above and beyond many times to help us. One time they even offered to completely rebuild our 900+ sheet project so I could slip sheet a few old drawing revisions! This undoubtedly would have taken hours on Plangrid's end. They are always responsive and are continually improving, listening to user feedback.
Plangrid, while not serving the external document distribution function, is unrivaled for internal document distribution and sharing in the construction industry. The speed at which documents are navigatable, the ability to download your projects for viewing without an internet connection, and the document mark-up and photo tools place it head and shoulders above the competition.
B2W Maintain is the only program we used day-to-day to manage our fleet. We also have Viewpoint Vista but it isn't really used for equipment other than to track the financials (purchase, sale, depreciation, taxes, etc.). Vista does have features for fleet management but they aren't as good our easy to use as B2W Maintain and it isn't close. Vista as a whole is an older program (getting retired 1/1/2027) without a web interface or easy to use user interface, it doesn't really compare, but it is what we we use for accounting so equipment records need to be stored there. I would never use Vista to actually actively manage the fleet and shops.
It helped us "wow" a joint commission survey in 2016 and have a successful survey because he loved how we could access plans on an iPad, check suite sizes, and didn't have to carry around huge, heavy sets of life safety plans.
