SmartPlans — User Guide

Written so anyone can follow — make your first bid in about an hour.

For SmartPlans · Open SmartPlans

What's a Bid?

A bid is a paper that tells a customer how much money it will cost to do their job. Think of it like a price ticket for a big project.

When someone wants to build something — a school, a hospital, a train station — they ask companies like SmartPlans to send a bid. The customer reads all the bids that come in and picks one.

Your job is to make the bid right. SmartPlans helps you do that. This guide walks you through it from the very first click.

How long does it take? The first time, expect about an hour. After three or four bids, you'll do one in 20–30 minutes. The robot does most of the heavy work — you just check it.

Before You Start

Three things to have ready:

  1. The plans — The drawings of the building. Big pages with floor plans, lines, and tiny pictures of cameras and outlets. Usually a PDF on your computer.
  2. The specs — A book of rules. It tells you what kind of cable to use, what brand of camera, how to wire everything. Also a PDF, usually called something like "Division 27" or "Division 28."
  3. Your sign-in — Your email at @3dtsi.com and the password your boss gave you.

Got all three? Good. Let's go.

Step 1 · Sign In

  1. Open SmartPlans in your web browser (Chrome, Edge, or Safari all work).
  2. You'll see a box that says "Welcome to SmartPlans."
  3. Type your work email (the one ending in @3dtsi.com).
  4. Type your password.
  5. Click SIGN IN.
Forgot your password? Ask Tony or Allan — they can reset it for you in about 30 seconds.

Step 2 · Start a New Bid

At the top of the screen, look at the big toolbar. Find the button that says + NEW BID.

Click it. A blank bid opens. The screen changes to a form with lots of boxes.

If you were already working on something else: SmartPlans will ask "Do you want to save this first?" Click Save first — don't lose your work.

Step 3 · Tell SmartPlans About the Job

You'll see a list of boxes. Take your time. Fill in each one:

BoxWhat to type
Project NameWhat the job is called. Example: Sutter Health TI Building C
Project LocationWhere the building is. Example: Sacramento, CA
Prepared ForThe company asking for the bid. Example: Turner Construction
Bid Due DateWhen the bid must be done. Click the calendar and pick the day and time. (This one matters — it powers the deadline reminders below.)
EstimatorYour name. Pick from the drop-down list.
SalespersonThe SmartPlans salesperson on the deal. Pick from the list.

Pick the Disciplines

Below that, you'll see boxes called Disciplines. These are the kinds of work the job needs. Check ONLY the ones that match your job:

Don't check everything! Only pick what the job actually has. If you're not sure, look at the drawings or ask the GC. Picking extra disciplines makes the robot count fake stuff.

Step 4 · Upload the Plans

Click Next at the bottom of the page. You'll see a big box that says "Drop files here or click to browse."

  1. Click that box.
  2. Find your plans file (the PDF) on your computer.
  3. Click Open.
  4. Wait while the file uploads. You'll see a green check when it's done.

You can add more than one file if the job has multiple drawing sets.

Tip: Plans should be vector PDFs from the architect — not scanned pictures of paper. If your PDF looks fuzzy or like a photo, the robot might have trouble. Use the OCR Recover button if it gets rejected.

Step 5 · Upload the Specs

Click Next again. You'll see the same kind of box.

Click it, find your specs PDF, click Open. Wait for the green check.

What if there are addendums? If the GC sent you updates (Addendum #1, Addendum #2…), upload those on the Addenda step. They have new rules that override the original specs.

Step 6 · Let the Robot Count

Click Next until you see the green START button light up at the top of the page.

Click START.

Now SmartPlans goes to work. Two robots run at the same time:

Robot 1 — the Pin Counter (counts the devices). It finds the symbol legend on the drawings by itself, learns every device symbol from it, and then pins and counts every matching symbol on every sheet — the same exact-match counting you can watch in Verify on Plan, just with zero clicks. These pin counts become the bid's official quantities.

Robot 2 — the Reader (reads and writes everything else). It:

When BOTH robots finish, SmartPlans does the rest automatically — no clicks needed:

  1. The pin counts replace the AI's counts wherever the device names match (pins count, AI writes)
  2. The bid saves itself so nothing is lost
  3. A full proposal draft is written and saved with the bid, ready for your review

This takes a little while — sometimes a few minutes, sometimes longer for a big job. You'll see messages on the screen telling you what it's doing right now.

Don't close the tab! Wait for it to finish. You can switch to another window and do email — just leave SmartPlans open.

When it's done, you'll see a green message that says "Analysis Complete," then toasts confirming the pin counts, the auto-save, and the proposal draft.

The big red STOP button: If something looks wrong (the robot is stuck, or you picked the wrong file), click STOP at the top. Then fix what was wrong and start over.
No legend on the drawings? The Pin Counter politely steps aside and the bid proceeds on the Reader's counts — then you can double-check with Verify on Plan like always.

Step 7 · Check the Numbers

Now the most important part. You see the results, and YOU double-check the robot's work. A robot is smart, but it can still miscount — that's why a person always checks.

Click the WORKBENCH button at the top. A big window opens with tabs on the left side. Visit each tab in order:

Tab 1 · Dashboard

A summary of everything. Look at:

Tab 2 · Estimate Summary

A one-page printable summary. Read it. If anything looks wrong, fix it on the regular wizard steps.

Tab 3 · Scope Validation

Tells you what's IN the job and what's NOT.

Tab 4 · Risk / CO Exposure

Lists things that could go wrong later and cost extra money. Click Auto-Detect from Spec to get the robot's list, then add anything YOU noticed that worries you (a short description, how likely it is, a dollar guess, and how you'd fix it).

Tab 5 · Value Engineering

Shows ways to make the bid cheaper. Click Generate from BOM — the robot suggests swaps like "use a cheaper camera here." Keep the good ones, delete the bad ones.

Tab 6 · Quote Comparison

If you know what other companies are bidding, type their prices here. SmartPlans shows if you are LOW, MID, or HIGH compared to them.

Tabs 7–12 (After You Win)

These tabs — Schedule, Procurement, Project Checklist, Submittals — are for after the bid is won. Don't worry about them yet.

When you're done checking, close the Workbench with the X in the top right.

Step 8 · Save Your Work

Always save before you walk away.

SmartPlans auto-saves every few minutes, but you can also click the SAVED button at the top to save on purpose. You'll see "Saved at 2:34 PM" in the corner when it works.

Lost your work? Don't panic. Click SAVED at the top, pick your project from the list, and everything comes back.

Step 9 · Manager Review

When you think your bid is done, the manager (Tony) needs to look at it before you send it.

The Quick Way

  1. Tell Tony the bid is ready (Teams message, walk over to his desk, whatever).
  2. Tony opens Admin → Manager Dashboard and sees your bid in the "Awaiting Review" column.
  3. He clicks into the bid and checks the scope, prices, and your Workbench notes.
  4. He clicks Mark as Reviewed and types a short note if he wants.
  5. Now your bid has a "Reviewed By " stamp on the proposal cover.

The Formal Way (Big or Public Jobs)

For really big bids — or any public-works job — use the Approval Chain (Admin → Compliance & Workflow → Approval Chain). It has four rows: Estimator → Tony → Allan → President. Each person changes their row to Approved as the bid moves up. The header reads IN REVIEW (yellow) until everyone signs off, then turns APPROVED (green).

Rejected? If anyone rejects, the header turns BLOCKED (red). Read their notes, fix the problem, set your status back to Approved, and ask them to re-review.

Step 10 · Send the Bid

Almost done. Two steps.

Make the Proposal

  1. On Step 7 (Results), click Generate Proposal.
  2. A Word document (.docx) downloads to your computer.
  3. Open it. Check the cover page — your name and the price should look right. The "About SmartPlans" page lists our credentials.

Send It

  1. Click Admin → Compliance & Workflow → Send / DocuSign.
  2. Type the GC's email in the To Email box (the rest is pre-filled).
  3. Click Open in Email Client — your email program opens with everything ready.
  4. Attach the Word document you just made, then click Send.
  5. Come back to SmartPlans and click Mark as Sent so the log knows.

You did it. 🎉

Bonus · Find New Jobs Automatically (Bid Board)

Normally a GC emails you a job and asks for a bid. But SmartPlans can also go find jobs for you. This is called the Bid Board.

If your boss has turned it on, you'll see a button at the top called Bid Board (it has a little radar icon). Here's how it works:

  1. Click Bid Board. A screen opens with a list of jobs.
  2. SmartPlans looked at websites where cities, schools, and the government post work — and pulled out the ones that match what SmartPlans does (cameras, card readers, fire alarm, cabling).
  3. Each job is a card. It shows the job name, who's asking, where it is, and when the bid is due.
  4. Green badges tell you what's NEW since last time, what CHANGED, and what's closing soon.
  5. See one you like? Click Start Bid on that card. SmartPlans opens a brand-new bid and fills in the name and due date for you. Then you follow the normal steps above.
It's optional. The Bid Board is a tool the boss switches on and off. If you don't see the button, that's fine — you can still do every bid the normal way.

Bonus · The Whole Pipeline (what runs in what order)

Here is the exact order SmartPlans works a job, start to finish. Steps marked 🤖 automatic run by themselves; steps marked 👤 you need a person.

  1. 🤖 Find the jobs (nightly). Every night at 2 AM, the Night Dispatcher scrapes the public bid boards (PlanetBids, BidNet, SAM.gov, Bonfire and more), scores every job against the boss's saved criteria, stages the best matches (up to 5 a night) as draft bids, and fetches their documents (plans, specs, addenda). You can also pull jobs anytime with the Bid Board's Refresh button.
  2. 👤 Pick a job, press START. Open a staged draft (or start a bid yourself), make sure the plans and specs are attached, and click START. That is the last required click for a long time.
  3. 🤖 Pin Counter runs. Finds the legend, learns every device symbol, pins and counts every device on every sheet — deterministically, the same way every time.
  4. 🤖 Reader runs (at the same time). Reads plans + specs, prices materials and labor, calculates cable, writes RFI questions for anything missing or contradictory, flags change-order risks, builds the BOM and the full estimate.
  5. 🤖 Counts lock in. When both finish, the pin counts become the bid's quantities of record (pins count, AI writes), and the totals recompute.
  6. 🤖 Bid saves itself. The whole estimate — counts, BOM, pricing, RFIs, risks — is saved to the cloud for human review.
  7. 🤖 Proposal drafts itself. A complete customer proposal is written and saved with the bid.
  8. 👤 Human review. An estimator opens the saved bid, walks the Workbench tabs (Step 7), spot-checks counts with Verify on Plan if desired, adjusts pricing, and gets manager approval.
  9. 👤 Send it. Export the proposal to Word/PDF and send the bid. Sending to a customer is always a human decision — on purpose.
Why two robots? Counting must be exact and provable, so a deterministic pin-matcher does it — the same answer every run. Reading and writing need judgment, so the AI does that. Each does what it's best at.

Bonus · Never Miss a Deadline (Deadline Reminders)

The scariest mistake in bidding is missing the due date — or sending a bid the morning it's due without noticing the city changed the rules yesterday (an "addendum"). SmartPlans watches your back.

When a bid you started from the Bid Board gets close to its due time, SmartPlans does two things:

Even when SmartPlans is closed. Your boss can switch on email reminders, so you also get an email — "this bid is due soon, go re-check it" — even if nobody has SmartPlans open. Ask Allan if you want that turned on for you.
The ribbon is a helper, not a replacement. Always keep your own calendar reminder too. The ribbon only pops up for bids that are being watched, and the email part only works if the boss turned it on.

Bonus · Double-Check the Count on the Plan (Verify on Plan)

The robot is great at counting, but sometimes you want to see it with your own eyes — especially on a big drawing with hundreds of little camera and door symbols. Verify on Plan lets you do that. You click one symbol, and it finds and puts a dot on every matching one, so you can count them by looking.

Click the button at the top called Verify Plan (it has a little magnifying-glass icon). It opens in its own tab so it never slows down your bid.

Easiest way — open it from your finished bid. On the Estimate Complete screen, click Verify on Plan. The tool opens with your drawing already loaded and a checklist of every device type with the count the robot found (like "Camera 0/9"). For each row, click 🔎 find on plan, then click that symbol — the badge turns green when your count matches the estimate. Go down the list and watch them all go green. (Works right after you run the bid, while the drawing is still loaded.)
🏷️ Train from the legend — it names the symbols for you. Open the drawing's legend / symbols sheet (use the ◀ ▶ arrows by "Sheet"). Click a symbol there and the tool reads the words next to it and fills in the name by itself (look for the green "✓ Auto-naming ON" tag; if a sheet has no text, you just type the name). Clicking on the legend only trains the symbol — it doesn't count that busy page. Then flip to your floor-plan sheets; your symbols carry over, and each 🔎 find on plan adds that sheet's count to a running, whole-job total. Train once, walk the sheets, counts add up. No robot counting — it's free and stays in your browser.

Count a symbol in 5 steps

  1. Load the drawing. Click Choose File and pick the plan. A PDF works best. If it has many pages, type the page number in the PDF page # box.
  2. Zoom in. Roll the mouse wheel on the drawing until you can clearly see the little symbols.
  3. Click one symbol — for example, one camera. A picture of it shows in the Symbol box and the robot starts looking.
  4. Wait a few seconds. Colored dots pop onto every matching symbol, and a row appears with the count — like "Cameras: 9."
  5. Type a name for it (the box is already lit up — just type "Cameras").

Want to also count door readers, strobes, or speakers? Just click a different symbol — it gets its own color and its own count. The TOTAL at the top adds them all up.

You're the boss — fixing the count

Use a PDF, not a photo. The tool blows the PDF up big and sharp so it can see the tiny symbols. Blurry photos don't work as well. And nothing you load ever leaves your computer — the counting happens right in your browser.
It's a checker, not magic. It usually finds almost all of one symbol type from a single click — use +pin and +ex to grab the last few. Always glance over the dots before you trust the number. There's a full picture-by-picture how-to in VERIFY-ON-PLAN-HOWTO.md.

Public Bid? A Few Extra Steps

If your bid is for a public-works job (school district, city, state, federal), you have a few extras to take care of. They're all under Admin → Compliance:

DBE / SBE / MBE Suppliers

Many public bids require a percentage of certified small / minority / disadvantaged suppliers. Open DBE / SBE / MBE, list your suppliers and their cert types. The page turns green if you hit the goal, red if not.

Insurance Certificate (COI)

The GC needs a Certificate of Insurance. Open COI Generator, fill in the GC's name and address, click Print Broker Request, and send it to your insurance broker.

Bid Bond

Public bids usually need a bid bond (often 10% of the bid amount). Open Bid Bond — the amount is auto-calculated. Click Print Bond Request and email it to your surety agent.

DAS-140 (California public-works only)

After you win a CA public-works job, you have 5 days to send a DAS-140 form to the apprenticeship committee. Open DAS-140 / 142, click Generate Cover Letter, and mail it with the DAS form from dir.ca.gov.

If You Get Stuck

The robot didn't count my cameras right

Open Workbench → Dashboard and check the device counts. If a number is off, the best fix is on the wizard steps: make sure you uploaded the right drawing pages, the correct disciplines are checked, and the device schedule pages are included. Re-run the analysis. Still off? Ask Tony before you send it.

Want to see it with your own eyes? Click Verify Plan at the top, load the drawing, and click one camera — it pins every matching one so you can count them yourself. See Verify on Plan above.

The plans look blank or fuzzy

The plans are probably scanned pictures, not vector PDFs. SmartPlans shows a red rejection box with a button called OCR Recover. Click it — the robot will try to read the scanned image and pull out the device labels.

"API Rate Limit" message at the top

The robot is busy with other people's bids. Wait a few minutes and try again. It will still work — just a little slower.

"Audio Visual: 0 devices" stops me from exporting

You checked Audio Visual on Step 3 but the drawings don't actually show any AV stuff. Go back to Step 3, uncheck Audio Visual, and try again.

The bid total looks way too high or way too low

Open Workbench → Dashboard and look at the breakdown. Then check the AI Discrepancy view — it lists places where the robot's numbers don't match the sanity check. Ask Tony to look before you send it.

I closed the tab and lost my work

Click SAVED at the top, pick your project from the list, and everything comes back. SmartPlans auto-saves every few minutes — you almost never actually lose work.

I need help and the guide doesn't cover it

Words You'll Hear

Construction has its own language. Here's what the most common words mean:

WordWhat it means
BidThe total price you give to the customer.
ProposalThe pretty Word document that contains the bid.
PlansThe drawings of the building (floor plans, ceiling plans, riser diagrams).
SpecsThe rulebook for the building (the written part).
AddendumAn update to the plans or specs the architect sent after the original. The deadline reminders watch for these.
SolicitationThe official "we want bids" posting from a city/school/agency. The Bid Board reads these.
BOM"Bill of Materials" — a list of every part needed.
GC"General Contractor" — the company that builds the whole building. We bid TO them.
OwnerThe customer who pays for everything (school district, hospital, etc.).
RFI"Request For Information" — a written question you ask the GC when something's unclear.
SubmittalA package showing what brand of stuff you'll use, sent before installation.
MarkupThe extra money added on top of cost. That's our profit.
ContingencyMoney saved for "just in case" surprises.
Prevailing WageA higher hourly pay rate the government requires on public-works jobs.
NIC"Not In Contract" — work that's NOT our job.
By Others / By ECAnother contractor (or the electrician) does this part, not us.
DBE / SBE / MBE"Disadvantaged / Small / Minority Business Enterprise" — certified small suppliers public bids often require.
ScopeWhat the job covers (and what it doesn't).
CO"Change Order" — when the job changes after work starts. Extra paperwork, extra money.
VE"Value Engineering" — making the bid cheaper by changing what gets installed.
FACP"Fire Alarm Control Panel" — the brain of the fire alarm system.
IDF / MDFThe closets / rooms where network equipment lives. IDF = small, MDF = big main one.

Last Thing

The first bid takes the longest. The second is faster. By the fifth one, you'll feel like you've been doing this forever.

Everyone here was new once. Ask questions. Mess up. Fix it. That's how you learn.

Good luck.