Autodesk Build vs. Constellation HomeBuilder Systems

Plangrid is well suited for companies (that are not currently using a different SaaS construction package) to make their construction document management more collaborative and mobile friendly. Companies requiring/wanting their subs and owners to collaborate with them as part of the life of a construction project will find Plangrid very helpful in fulfilling this goal. On the negative side, companies that are fully entrenched in using other construction suites will struggle to fully use Plangrid to its potential as pre-built integration between Plangrid and other packages is limited

Incentivized

NEWSTAR and its ecosystem are well-suited for any
homebuilder looking to manage end-to-end operations with software they can rely
on. It is a powerful tool supported by many modern integrations to benefit the
entire homebuilding business. It would be less applicable for businesses like trades or commercial builders

• Very easy to use, and training takes less than a few hours for field staff.
• Connects office to field quickly and efficiently.
• Uploading , naming, and tagging sheet is the best in the business.
• Sheet and document manager always display most current information and also gives you the ability to look back at previous versions for changes.

Incentivized

• BuildTopia excels at contract management. Every part of the contract process is able to be managed electronically from initial signing to closing, and can even handle more special cases like contingencies.
• BuildTopia manages all of our construction efforts well. All of our floorplans are pre-build in the system, so all we have to do is go in an build out the construction schedule from a pre-made template, and make any alterations from there.
• The selections process is always a headache, but BuildTopia makes it pretty painless. Everything is loaded right in to the system while making selections with the client, and more detailed things, like non-standard options, are easy to load in and process.

Incentivized

• It'd be nice to have access to upload and edit documents from the app. Only for certain users.
• A small business billing option that addresses multiple users of a single account would make managing access simpler. Being able to load unlimited sheets, but only access a specific limit on your team's devices.
• Allow users to integrate their own RFI templates into the app, so RFIs can be generated in your own format right from the field, immediately ready to ship.

Incentivized

• Requests for platform enhancements, while easy to submit and get approved, are slow to be turned around...often a year or more passes before they're implemented.
• BuiltTopia, while good for sales and construction, is missing one large thing...a CRM component. The system allows you to manage clients and prospects, but options for email marketing and other CRM-related efforts are lacking.

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

The implementations for Constellation’s products are
very well-organized and help make the learning curve as simple as can be.
NEWSTAR is an incredibly powerful platform and the integrations we are using
are modern and easy to adopt.

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.

Incentivized

Procore and PlanGrid are the most direct competitors. The pricing structures are very dynamically different between PlanGrid and Procore. Procore tends to succeed better in the "project management" realm, while PlanGrid succeeds far beyond Procore in its ability to deal with project documentation (plans and specs). Bim360 is a great product, but it is limited in its use due to the modeling requirement; while PlanGrid bridges that gap and plays in both 2D and 3D spaces. Buildertrend has some aspects of plan distribution, but it is limited in functionality.

Incentivized

• Positive: Syncing drawings. As I said, keeping an up-to-date set of drawings is seamless on ProCore, as compared to a traditional server or even the cloud. The software is designed to see and mark-up drawings. Though markup tools aren't as robust as, say, Bluebeam Revu (I wouldn't expect all of that from a web app, anyway), it's very nice to easily see all the newest drawings.
• Positive: Saved time. Documents are updated at the same time, across all devices, with only one upload.
• Positive: Punch list is easy. ProCore punch lists are quite complicated. In PlanGrid, with 1-tap we can add items and give a brief description. When doing a walk-thru, it should be easy to jot down notes. These can be detailed once you're sitting at a desk, and PlanGrid allows for that. But for field personnel, punch lists are an easy and efficient use of time.
• Negative: Photo management. For us, there should be a way to just upload photos, and not require to use the photo tool within the app.

Incentivized

• Overall, our company has saved money by being able to shut down all the various platforms we were using for different departments and transition to just BuildTopia.
• Company efforts are more efficient, with all pertinent information being in one place and able to be viewed by everyone as needed.
• Efforts of the sales team are better able to be managed and reviewed from afar whereas we only had physical paper trails before.

Incentivized