PROJECT ARC / QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Clear answers for a more connected practice.
Choosing software. Connecting project information. Carrying knowledge from proposal to closeout. Start with the questions that matter to your team.
Last reviewed: October 26, 2026. Project Arc is in development. Demonstrations distinguish current workflows from planned capabilities.
Architectural project management software helps a practice coordinate the people, tasks, documents, deadlines, and decisions behind its projects. Useful tools connect business development and project delivery, so teams can find the context behind a drawing, review, or instruction without rebuilding the story from emails. Project Arc’s direction brings that record across proposals, design, tendering, construction administration, and closeout.
Start with the work your team repeats every week: tracking opportunities, coordinating drawings, assigning reviews, answering questions, and preparing handovers. For an 8–50 person firm, evaluate ease of adoption, responsibilities, permissions, document history, reporting, and the effort needed to maintain the system. Test a real workflow with the people who will use it before choosing a platform.
Architectural project management covers the practice’s work from the first opportunity through design, delivery, and handover. Construction management concentrates on organizing and delivering the construction work. The activities overlap, but the architect, contractor, and owner have different responsibilities. A shared information system should help them coordinate while preserving those distinctions.
Compare the scope you actually need. Review how each tool handles proposals, design coordination, tendering, RFIs, submittals, field reviews, changes, and closeout. Then test whether information carries between those workflows without duplicate entry. Project Arc is being developed around the full lifecycle; confirm the working features in a demonstration rather than comparing a product vision with another tool’s released capabilities.
Check whether the software fits your project terminology, review process, document requirements, collaboration model, and client obligations. Ask separately about database and file locations, authentication, backups, subprocessors, and support. A Canadian audience or company identity does not establish Canadian-only data residency. Confirm the proposed deployment arrangements before adding confidential project information.
Project Arc is an architecture and construction project management platform in development. Its purpose is to connect people, information, and decisions in one project record, from the first proposal to final handover. The platform direction spans five phases: Proposals, Design, Bids & Tenders, Construction Administration, and Closeout.
Project Arc’s primary audience is architecture firms, with a wider collaboration vision for consultants, contractors, owners, and suppliers. The aim is to help each participant understand the information and decisions relevant to their role. Architect, contractor, and owner experiences have different development stages, so current access and workflow coverage should be reviewed with the Arc team.
The intended benefit is less time finding information, repeating coordination, or reconstructing decisions as people and project phases change. Start with your firm’s most expensive source of friction, such as drawing reviews, missed follow-ups, or incomplete handovers. Use a demonstration to assess that workflow and agree how a pilot would measure improvement. Arc does not promise a fixed time saving or return on investment.
Project Arc is focused on coordination and the project record. Specialist CAD and BIM authoring tools remain part of the design process. If your team needs a particular file exchange, model workflow, or integration, bring it to the demonstration so the current support can be checked. Do not assume a named integration is available.
No. The website includes working examples and product direction, and Project Arc continues to develop. A demonstration should distinguish available workflows from prototypes and planned capabilities, including audience-specific experiences. Confirm the exact features, permissions, and deployment scope you need before deciding to adopt or pilot Arc.
Keep the client brief, agreed scope, team responsibilities, issued documents, questions, and decisions associated with the same project as it moves between phases. At each handoff, identify what is current, what remains open, and who owns the next action. Project Arc’s five-phase approach is designed around this continuity, with current workflow coverage reviewed in a demonstration.
Use a consistent RFI process: describe one clear question, identify the relevant drawing or specification and revision, assign a responsible reviewer, and record the response and next action. A shared register reduces time spent searching separate inboxes and following up without context. Software helps organize the process; the project team still needs clear responsibilities and a disciplined review routine.
An RFI requests clarification about project information. A submittal provides information for review, such as shop drawings, product data, or samples. Both need a clear subject, relevant source documents, responsible parties, and a recorded outcome. Review status and contractual authority must follow the project’s agreed procedures; the software record does not determine those responsibilities.
Identify the issued set and revision, distinguish working material from issued information, and keep review comments tied to the document they concern. Make superseded material clearly recognizable and communicate new issues through an agreed process. When evaluating Arc, ask to see how the current workflow handles revisions, permissions, and distribution with your own document scenario.
Plan the handover record before the project ends. Depending on the project requirements, it may include record drawings, operation and maintenance manuals, warranties, training records, outstanding deficiencies, and the decisions needed to resolve them. Agree who supplies, reviews, and accepts each item. Arc’s closeout direction treats handover as part of the project record rather than a disconnected final folder.
Bring an active project to the demonstration. Review its phase, existing documents, open items, and access needs with the Arc team, then agree whether the current platform is suitable for a pilot. Existing-project onboarding and migration scope should be assessed for that project rather than assumed to be automatic.
That is Project Arc’s collaboration direction: connect relevant drawings, questions, decisions, and changes so participants can work from a shared understanding. Shared information does not mean identical access or authority. Firm roles, project permissions, external access, and the availability of each audience experience need to be confirmed for the proposed deployment.
Arc Intelligence is Project Arc’s developing direction for helping teams work with project information and context. Ask which capabilities are available and what source material they use in the current demonstration. AI assistance does not replace an architect’s, consultant’s, contractor’s, or owner’s professional review, responsibilities, or authority to make project decisions.
Discuss the current commercial terms with the Arc team when requesting a demonstration. Confirm the proposed users, organizations, workflow coverage, onboarding, and any pilot conditions together. Use the terms provided for your evaluation rather than assuming that a website example or developing capability is included in a plan.
Bring one real workflow, the people involved, the information it depends on, and a clear description of where time or context is lost. Useful examples include a proposal handoff, a drawing review, an RFI, or a closeout checklist. Ask the team to show the current workflow, identify any gaps, and agree what a useful next step would look like.
Bring a real project workflow to a demonstration. See what works today, discuss what your firm needs, and decide on the next step.