Our mission is to remove the constraints holding our customers back
SketchDeck was built to solve the biggest problems facing the structural steel industry.
We started with estimating because, for years, it was one of the biggest bottlenecks in winning business, and many of our customers have solved it with SketchDeck. Through all of it, our job has stayed the same: understand where our customers are constrained, and build technology that removes those constraints.
Material availability is now the first thing many fabricators think about
A surge in data center construction and new steel tariffs have put the industry in an unprecedented position.
For many of our customers, material availability is now the first thing they think about in the morning and the last thing they think about at night. Steel prices keep climbing, and lead times are being pushed out further than most of them have ever seen. Missing a mill allocation can mean waiting months for the next chance to buy.
That makes getting to an advanced bill of materials (ABM, a bill of materials accurate enough to order material from) as soon as possible the main objective once a job is won.
Jobs sold earlier mean bigger change orders after award
The same pressure is pushing GCs to sell jobs at earlier design stages, to shorten construction timelines and lock in material prices. When projects are committed before designs are mature, change orders come more often and get bigger, and the fabricator has to absorb them after award.
Our customers need to know quickly what changed, what material was added or removed, and what it means commercially.
We rebuilt SketchDeck to help fabricators make material and commercial decisions earlier
To stay true to our mission, we’re focusing our business and our product on the constraints that matter most to our customers right now. That means expanding from helping estimators produce takeoffs faster to helping fabricators and erectors make material and commercial decisions earlier.
To do that, we rebuilt SketchDeck from the ground up, so the takeoff our customers already rely on can help solve the problems that matter most to them today.
SketchDeck 3.0 is the first release on that new platform. At launch, it gives estimators:
- Accurate takeoffs: detection estimators check instead of redo, with automations that cut the setup on every job
- Connection material, added right in the takeoff
- New markup tools to count anything on the drawing, with quantities that update as you count
- Section-cut linking, so you can follow any callout straight to its section or detail
- Bid management that shows where every bid stands, with roles and permissions for your team
Revision management carries over, so teams can see what changed between drawing sets. 3D modeling, column takeoff and page stitching are In Beta, and we’re opening them up to customers as they’re ready. See everything that’s new on the Meet SketchDeck 3.0 page.
We’re building toward four things our customers need next
The new platform is designed to ship new tools every few weeks instead of every few months. Here’s what we’re building toward with our customers:
- Bid more intelligently: visibility into which jobs depend on material that is available, constrained or unavailable.
- Buy material sooner: early takeoffs accurate enough to work as an early ABM and support purchasing before detailing is complete, or a faster path for detailers to provide an ABM.
- Manage change faster: the quantity, material and cost impact of revisions after a job is sold. Revision management is where this starts.
- Communicate reality clearly: better information for sales teams to explain material constraints, lead times and project impacts to GCs and owners.
As our customers’ constraints change, SketchDeck moves with them
SketchDeck has always been about removing the constraints that keep fabricators from moving faster. Estimating was that constraint when we started. As new constraints emerge, SketchDeck is shifting to move with them, and we’re building it alongside our customers.
More than 500 estimators use SketchDeck to build hospitals, stadiums and data centers. If your team is dealing with these constraints, we’d like to hear about it. See SketchDeck 3.0 on your own drawings: send us a set and we’ll run it in 3.0 on the call. Book a demo
