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
NoteVault
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
NoteVault is a construction reporting tool with three components. The Notes! app is supported by an audio-to-text translation service, and the Crew! app allows users to track labor, materials, and equipment quantities. The AlertMe! app supports group calls for issue notification.
Notevault is who we decided to use, for the simple fact that it is the easiest on the market for our foremen to use. Make it easy, and they'll actually do it. Make it bulky and cumbersome, and they'll do a way less accurate job of daily reporting. This is why Notevault works …
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.
It's is absolutely well suited for all daily reporting/documentation needs, also since it essentially 'self archives' you can revisit past projects by logging into the admin panel faster than going to my own archived job files. It saved our skin by documenting where a bad GC Superintendent had been giving false information to the office, and we were able to prove our conditions/progress and alleviate the issue. It's very well suited for large projects, and ongoing projects. A bit less suited for small fast service type projects. We keep one 'service' job open to document the fast turn over stuff to alleviate that issue.
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.
As a delay has occurred in the field, the foremen are able to report it immediately. The project manager now gets this information as it happened, not just trying to remember the next time they talk or see each other.
As an RFI arises, the foremen can ask their questions immediately so that the PM can address it right away.
We input our manpower on a daily basis, which helps us project where we are as it pertains to hours on a job.
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.
Difficult to bring back reports from the archives. I don't archive any more; I just sequentially date my projects and keep them all live.
Notevault is set up for normal work shifts. But I mostly work night shifts from about 10 pm to 6 am. You then have to sort and filter the notes from two separate "days" in the system to get a coherent report from a single night shift. I live with it, but I don't like it.
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
Very well thought app, easy to use and provides fast access to the project's plans (your own and your team's), improvements in the annotation posibilities and on-site report generator will be appreciatted. The punch-list report generator and the current/previous plan version compare tools works flawlessly. Haven't used the RFI's nor field report options yet
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.
I have used both Raken and NoteVault. It is my preference to use NoteVault due to the simplicity of it. Raken tended to be a bit cumbersome. I did not like the photo features used with Raken as opposed to the very simple straight forward approach with NoteVault
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.
Daily reports get published the following day after downloaded to NoteVault.
From an executive standpoint, I am able to track the progress of each project on a daily basis and to be able to focus my efforts to the project that needs help.
