Name: Simple Tools for Better, Faster Specs
Uploaded: 2026-04-23T16:00:38.308Z
Duration: 27 min 16 s
Description: Simple Tools for Better, Faster Specs

Transcript for "Simple Tools for Better, Faster Specs": For the best webinar experience, we recommend using Google Chrome or Firefox. Audio should be streaming through your computer. There is no dial in option. Just make sure the volume on your computer is up. You can download slides and additional resources in the resources widget on the top right hand side, and all widgets can be resized to fit your computer screen to your liking. An on demand recording of this presentation will be emailed to you within twenty four hours after the presentation ends. And if you have any questions along the way, feel free to drop that in the q and a box. We do have time reserved at the end of the presentation to go over your questions. However, if we do run out of time and we're not able to get to your question, we'll be sure to address that with you individually offline. I want to thank you for taking time out of your day to join us on our presentation, Simple Tools for Better, Faster Specs. My name is Nick Chin, and I'm a solutions engineer for Deltek's specification solutions. So today's webinar will be focusing on our SpecPoint software. This is our latest generation of specification editing software, still powered and using master spec as our baseline content throughout the system. But obviously adding some intelligence and automation to master spec, with some different workflows, that are available within Specpoint. If you've never worked with or heard of Specpoint, we'll be going over a comprehensive demonstration to help you understand some of the basics of how things work and, how to work within Specpoint. If you have looked at Specpoint in the past, there's a lot that is new within the platform. And some of the focus today will be focusing on our new workspace. So, very recently, we have released our new workspace within Specpoint. It has completely redesigned the look and feel of editing specifications within Specpoint. We're adding increased efficiency, accelerating processing speeds, but overall hoping to make it more easy to use and intuitive while you're working within here. Also providing some better automation within the platform as well. And just to talk a little bit more about, some of the numbers behind, you know, what is actually material about what we're saying with increased performance, you can see some of the different times to take to execute some of these actions. We're seeing up to 10 times faster performance. You know, if we're talking about setting up office masters and using the automation and some of the efficiency within here, we are gaining 50 to 75% with workflow efficiency while working within Specpoint, to use that as a way to edit your specifications. But, again, you know, night and day differences in the time it takes to, load some of our content, use some of the automation within here. So, you know, whether you are new to Specpoint, or have looked at it in the past, you know, certainly a good time to look at it now as, again, so much has changed. So with that, let's go ahead and dive into the demonstration. So to start things off within Specpoint, to access our content, it is designed to be within, a project. This is a cloud based application. So all you need in order to access the application is, an Internet browser. And then by going to spec point, this is where we can access our content and our project data as well. So to add a new project, all you need to do is go to the add new project button and then you can fill out anything that has a red asterisk. A lot of the information around project parameters may not be useful right away. There is some automation available, where you can tie specific components of specifications to parameters. So if you have differing building types and you want certain sections to populate when you create your project, just adding some more efficiency to your workflow. Maybe you have an office master that you wanna use for certain owners, but maybe just the master spec content for, other scenarios. We're not gonna be covering that level of automation, today. But if that is something that you're interested in, we'd be happy to have a conversation with you. I'll be sharing contact information. So if you do wanna get in touch with us and learn more about that, again, happy to have that conversation. But as you're getting started, you can certainly leave most of this information as none if it is not useful. You can use it for organization organizational help, to understand how to find some of your projects. But again, if you're not using that automation or this isn't really valuable to you, you can leave it as none. Some of the things that will create some differences in our content is the sustainability field. This is just simply turning on some of the language for lead requirements, for example, where it exists within master spec. So again, just turning on that content where it exists within our library for your project. All this information can change throughout the project lifecycle. So if this is something that you don't have information for upfront or something changes, again, you can always revisit it to change it later on. Alright. I'm not going to have everyone watch me fill this out, so I'm just going to go into a project that I've already created. However, nothing has been added to this project. I have the entirety of the master spec library available to me. Again, nothing has been added to this project, and within this view we can simply just open or select a division. To then see all the corresponding sections underneath. So one of the things that we are doing within Specpoint is breaking out the product type from the overall section. This is the baseline for our automation. So as you start to identify the product types that are actually gonna be relevant for your project, rather than taking the entirety of the master spec library, as you start to identify the product types that are gonna be relevant, we're bringing in any related part one, part two, part three information. So it's a little bit of a tighter fit into what your project is actually going to need and not overwhelming you with the entirety again of a section, for your project. So to add this in, we can just select the, the element either being the section or the product type and going to add to project. For added efficiency, we can bulk add our items within this section in multiple sections. If we wanna add in all of the product types of a section, I can hold down the shift key. On my end, I'm going to hold down the control key, which is going to allow me to pick and choose the sections that I want to bring in. And again, if I do want to bring in other sections as well, I can bulk add those items into the project. So it is important to note, just to kind of give you a lay of the land of what we're seeing within Specpoint and how we're organizing our content within here. We have the three parts of the specification broken out into these tabs. So we have, part one, two, and three. We're still in the old workspace, so, you know, we are gonna have, some longer load times. I'll be switching over in just a moment to show, how drastic of a difference it is by going into the new workspace. But, again, we have our content broken out into these three tabs, part one, two, and three. And then underneath, we have all the articles underneath. Right away, we can see some of the things that have been faded out based on the product types that we have selected. So we're not going to see the entirety of this section. We are only going to see the information that is relevant to these two product types. And again, we can see that very clearly right here. If we want to see the content underneath, we can just expand the article to see the content. As you can see again, some more information that has been faded out. Another option with breaking out the product type from the overall section. This is an opportunity for you if you do want to assign out some content to specific users while working within the same project and the same section. This just allows you to have very clear swim lanes on who's working on what. So again, if you do want to divide that out, just a way for you to understand what priorities are for different members within the team. If it is part of your QAQC process to have someone else review content, letting them know that, within the platform, you can go to the overview screen, see what has been assigned to yourself or anyone else on the team, and also filter on the urgency or priority of what needs to be addressed with the filter here. But that same information is available at the overall section level. So if you don't want to break out the product type, that is fine. We can just focus on the section. And again, that same information is going to be available within part two. And this little icon that we're seeing here is letting us know that that's the same information that we could find within the product type. Keep in mind, the end result of this is going to be the standard word or PDF version of a document that we're used to available in the three part CSI format. So, again, in the older environment, this will take some time. And we can see that here. I do have a template assigned on here, so we'll change that at the end. But as you can see, kind of the standard Word or PDF version of a section that you would, that you're used to. So, going back over to the overall section, again, we have our new workspace that just has a lot better speed throughout the platform. You've already kind of seen how slow it can be, with some of the actions that we're doing within here. But a really clear example of it is just going to expand all. We can see that's taking some time for everything to load. So it's kind of loading as we're kind of scrolling through. But again, take some time, not as immediate as we'd like. Going into part two products, same thing, kind of taking some time for it to to all generate. Within the new workspace, again, overall this is looking a little bit more like familiar word document, but as we go to expand all, we can see that the results are pretty instant. So not necessarily that lag that we're seeing from before, but just overall a much cleaner way to edit an interface within the platform. So some of the edits within here, you know, really not much of a trick in terms of adding in your own custom content. We're just typing in line wherever you want to make an adjustment. Typing in line as you would a Word document. If I need to remove information, I am just backspacing on my end. If we need to hide any content, we can inactivate it by using the eye icon. And we can also add additional lines of content by hitting the plus sign. So, again, very easy to manipulate within here. Everything that we're doing, for changes within here is also being tracked for us. So, again, if you do have a QA QC process, whether this is, a master spec document that you're editing or an office master, being able to track some of the changes that are happening over time. Again, if we're gonna be assigning this back and forth to other people, you know, they can come in to accept or reject a change and just being able to very clearly see what is happening, as you're getting documents passed back to you after there have been some edits, and just understanding who is making those changes as well along the way. We also have our, new way of presenting our options or bracketed information. We're doing so with these green pills that you're seeing throughout the document. We still have the opportunity to insert our own requirements as well. So just being able to select the pills as you come across them. And again, still being tracked within the track changes as well. Some other things from a content perspective, you know, a lot of libraries have this, but I think ours do a better job of kind of indicating what we're expecting within a given paragraph. And that's our notes to specifier. That's these blue blocks of text that we're seeing. Traditionally, just the blue text that you may have seen in the word version of MasterSpec. But, again, just presenting that in a little bit of a different way here. Sometimes this will point to our supporting documents. This is also something that we have available right in the application, being able to reference the references, standards, some of the changes that have happened within a section, product definitions. Just a lot of information can be found within here in a really helpful way to answer any questions that you may have, as you're going through a specification section. And, you know, maybe you're not necessarily aware of an ASTM code or something to that end, and being able to get some clarity within here. If you haven't used this before, while this is helpful, it can also be daunting. Master spec, if you get a subscription of Specpoint, you get some of the 900 plus sections that we have within MasterSpec. And all the sections that have, a set of supporting documents, which is a majority of them, they are unique to that section. So it can be a lot of information to sift through. We can see that this particular section, supporting documents, is 21 pages long. So as you can imagine, that times, you know, 900 some roughly. Again, that can be kind of like finding a needle in a haystack with a library that big and with all this information that can be rather expansive. So to aid in this, we have released our AI component, Della. This is a way for us to reference, you know, supporting document information, information that is embedded within master spec. This is specifically trained on master spec IP, so we don't have the totality and randomness of the Internet. Trying to answer questions for something that is a little bit more niche with the practice of specifications. But a way for us to bring that information a little bit more to the forefront, being able to ask in natural language, questions that we may have, and getting a direct result back. So maybe if we go into our product information, we can find like an ASTM code. I'm just going to grab this one here. And we'll be able to get results directly back. The nice thing about this is that it's also gonna provide us the reference material. So it's not just giving us an answer without any context. Additionally, we are not retaining any of your project information. So if AI is something that your firm has been hesitant of using, definitely a thing that we'd recommend just kind of dabbling with. You know, again, we're getting some nice reference information that we can go back to and then some context of what that is, rather than having to sift through the supporting documents. You know, even being able to answer questions like when to use a section for a given scenario or what section has, you know, x information. Just being able to to get that a little bit more to the forefront, providing us some guidance for us as well, as we're trying to edit this thing. Alright. So within this particular section, we do have some manufacturers, that you can choose within here as well. Sometimes we do have some automation example. Here we're having some of the core dimensions that have been defined by the manufacturer. So this is something that we can add directly into our project, either as a basis of design or just adding this product into our project. MasterSpec is one of the more product agnostic libraries out there. So if you don't want to necessarily include the manufacturer or product information, you can just include the properties if you'd like. Additionally, we are providing resource information. So if you do wanna get in contact with this manufacturer specifically, you can. We also have some other helpful links. Kind of depends on the manufacturer, but if you do want a performance specification from them, sustainability data, again, kind of depends on the manufacturer, but a way to incorporate that directly into your project with some automation as well. Alright, so we saw from before some of that formatting that was in our preview. So anytime that you pull up a preview, that is a live look at not only, the edits that you have made within the specification, but also any formatting that you have applied as well. So within here we can make some adjustments to our header and footer. Basic merge field information, some basic formatting controls as well that we'll have access to. But the style guide really allows us to be very granular on how we want this to look. We can see that we have a pretty extreme example where we're changing some color information based on the different paragraph level. But it does allow for that level of specificity. So if you do want different numbering or paragraph styles, within your section, that is something that you can control. The nice thing about this is you can set it up within one place and then apply it to, any future project as well. This template will exist kind of throughout the platform. Additionally, if you're looking to import any content within here, we are actually not taking in any of the formatting information from that import. So truly, whatever you define within here will flow through through to the entirety of your document set. So really just ensuring that you have consistency within your project. In terms of importing content, you can do so within the project itself. Or if you have an office master that you'd like to establish within here, that just means that you can access that content kind of regardless of the project that you're in. I'm not sure if I have here we go. I do have an office master right here. So, again, being able to have that kind of omnipresent within, within any project that you open within Specpoint, just allowing for that access across across the entirety of the platform. Does this need to be in the CSI three part format and in a docx file format to be able to be brought in? But, again, once you have that within here, it should be pretty seamless. We're still breaking out the section from the product type. And again your formatting will be consistent throughout the entirety of your project. And then lastly, when you're looking to finish your project and would like to export, we have the export button for this project. Here you can export a PDF or Word version of your project. You can include things like notes and specifier, track changes if you'd like, or you can just export a table of contents. This will also capture any imported information that you have. Also want to mention if you don't want to export the entirety of a project, you can just export a Word or PDF version of the section that you're working within. So both options are available to you.