The document discusses Crosswalk, a new API that allows for the standardized translation of data between different construction classification standards like MasterFormat, Uniformat, and OmniClass. This addresses the challenge of sharing data between different software applications that use different standards. The API aims to improve workflows in areas like preconstruction, building products, and connecting BIM models. Crosswalk sees opportunities to expand its role in integrating construction data across the building lifecycle and enabling new types of data flows and integrations through its API platform.

1. Standards Delivered
Digitally
September 23rd, 2021
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2. What We’ll
Discuss
• Industry Digitization
• APIs and Software
• What is “Crosswalking?”
• Crosswalk by CSI
• Customer Examples
• Crosswalk into the Future
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We have room for Q & A – stop me along the way

3. Who Am I
• General Manager, Crosswalk
• Bona Fide Construction Tech Geek:
• Author, Construction Technology Handbook
• Publisher, Construction Technology Quarterly
• Host, Constructed Futures Podcast (check out Ron
Geren today!)
• 25 years in technology
• Serial Software entrepreneur
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4. The Entire Building Industry is Digitizing
First it was BIM
Accounting
Facilities
Field
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5. Along The
Way, Some
People Have
Made Some
Money
• Assemble (Autodesk)
• Building Connected (Autodesk)
• Plangrid = $875MM
• Procore = $9.6 Bn (IPO)
• Esticom = ? (Procore)
• Indus.ai = (Procore)
• Honest Buildings = (Procore)
• Many More...
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6. This has Led
to More
Investment
Into the
Ecosystem
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7. Which Has
Also Led to:
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8. There’s
Another
Side: That
2017 Article
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9. What APIs Do For Software
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10. Software
Augments
Human Effort
Through Data
• Data can be:
• Specifications
• Changes to Specifications
• Content of Specifications
• Design parameters
• Field progress
• Operating data for the building
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11. This Data
Used to Be
Hard to
Share
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12. Exchanging
Information
Was Still Hard
• The web connected everything
• You could drive to the restaurant, but every
order was still unique and individual.
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13. Application
Programming
Interfaces
• APIs are like McDonalds Drive Thru:
• You can only get what they offer
• They tell you how to ask for it (”Sausage
McMuffin with Egg”)
• You know exactly what you’ll get
• You can order 100 and each will be identical
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14. Programmers
Look to
Documentation
for Their
“Menu”
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15. APIs In Summary:
An Incredibly Flexible, Standardized
Way to Provide and Access Data of
(Almost) Any Kind
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16. What’s A Crosswalk?
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17. The World is
Loaded With
Standards
• Many Overlap
• Many Address the Same Thing from a
Different Angle
• Many are almost completely duplicative
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18. Crosswalking Is
“Reclassifying” Data From
One Standard To Another
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19. Enter CSI
Standards
• MasterFormat®
• UniFormat®
• OmniClass®
• And ASTM E1557 (Uniformat II)
• They overlap
• They describe similar things
• They can be duplicative
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20. CSI Standards Are Used For More Than Just
Specifications
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Financial Cost
Codes
Building Products Safety Data BIM Sub-
Assemblies

21. The Standards
Are
Embedded in
More and
More
Software
• Autodesk
• Trimble
• MasterSpec
• BSD Speclink
• RSMeans
• Tririga
• Revit Plugins
• Estimating Software
• More...
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22. In 2020, We Combined
Overlapping, Industry-Critical
Standards With Modern Data-
Centric Workflows to Create
an Industry First API
drums please.
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24. Industry First:
– Standards
API
• MasterFormat
• MasterFormat 95
• Uniformat
• ASTM E1557
• OmniClass
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• Easily Integrated into
Software
• Easily Transclassify
from One Standard to
Another
• Including MF 95 to
MF 2020

25. Crosswalk is a
Platform for
Development
• We have launched with a rock-solid,
enterprise class API
• It has vast potential for further features,
integrations and connections
• My job is to understand what will actually
be used before we build more
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26. 26

27. https://www.Crosswalk.digital
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32. How Crosswalk
Helps:
Preconstruction
• Many preconstruction processes involve
moving specifications, requirements and
quantities from MasterFormat to
UniFormat
• Crosswalk helps to rapidly move this data
back & forth
• By using Crosswalk instead of homegrown
translations, designers, specifiers, and
contractors can ensure consistency in
moving from one standard to another
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33. Key Point:
Mapping
Standards
Requires
Judgment
• Even two similar standards like UniFormat
and ASTM E1557 required a great deal of
judgment calls
• While two standards experts might agree,
many ad hoc judgments will be less
consistent
• Crosswalk addresses this by providing
consistent, professionally made mappings
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34. Customer
Example: Join
• Join is a preconstruction platform that has
licensed Crosswalk
• They use MasterFormat for intake, and can
now support UniFormat
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35. How
Crosswalk
Helps:
Building
Products
• Keeping building products catalogs and
interfaces consistent is much easier with
Crosswalk
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36. How
Crosswalk
Helps:
Contractor
Financials
• Contractors sometimes use MasterFormat
for cost codes
• Many of them use MasterFormat 95 (e.g.,
16 divisions)
• Crosswalk can help to translate and
update
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37. How
Crosswalk
Helps:
Connecting To
BIM
• OmniClass is often used in Revit/BIM
workflows
• Crosswalk can help connect these
workflows to MasterFormat data
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38. Customer
Example:
Collectus
• A Revit Plugin with thousands of product models, Collectus
needed to organize and manage these models.
• By integrating with Crosswalk, Collectus is able to support
multiple standards-based workflows in Revit.
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39. Crosswalk into the Future
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40. Crosswalk as Data Conduit
• Across the Building Lifecycle, many forms of data, from building
products to safety information to finance can be managed with
CSI standards.
• Crosswalk creates a new way for design and construction data to
flow between stakeholders in an organized, managed way.
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41. API Networks
• Modern IT systems
integrate many APIs
from different
sources
• Crosswalk promises
to integrate CSI
standards directly
into these networks
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42. High Level
Roadmap
• API – the digital expression of CSI
standards
• Artificial Intelligence – augmenting
design, making recommendations
• Blockchain – securing transactions and
making document flows auditable
• IoT – managing sensor information flows
as construction information
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43. The Way Forward
• Crosswalk was created to integrate CSI standards, and by extension
specifications, more efficiently into modern workflows
• By creating an API, we let the market decide what the workflows are –
we will be ready wherever technology leads.
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44. Thank You
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