From the drawing to the takeoff to the estimate: an open vocabulary for the people who price the work, built sample by sample from real drawing sets on published classification standards, with its open questions in public view.
The same baseboard, three ways: "RB-1, see legend" on the drawing; "baseboard?? wood? ~1,200m?" in the takeoff sheet; "the usual 4-inch pine base, eh?" on the phone.
The three lines slide together into one named entry with its definition beside it and the drawing sample that produced it.
An estimator's reply, by text: "yes, that is what we call it." The draft mark clears. Tagline card.
The problem, then the fix
BEFORE
The same baseboard leaves the architect as a legend code, reaches the estimator as a guess, and reaches the trade as a phone call. Between each hop the data dies and gets re-typed.
WITH OPENBEAM
A component earns a name when a real document demands it. Over 200 named so far, most still drafts, each one traceable to the sample that produced it.
THE RESULT
Access is by invitation. A few minutes per item: do you recognise it, what do you call it, is the definition right, what is missing.
From the live product
REAL SCREEN CAPTURE · THE VOCABULARY AT app.openbeam.ca · NOT YET RECORDED
Planned sequence: open a component → read its definition and draft status → see the drawing sample behind it → answer the four review questions. Captured from the live vocabulary, not a mockup.
Proof
Not invented: OpenBEAM is built on published classification standards, not a taxonomy of its own. It is early, and its own front page says so; the studio says the same here. The estimating company of the studio, Cairo.so, is the first product built to speak it.
What one shared name does at each hand-off
A project-local legend code gets a name that means the same thing outside this drawing set.
No re-typing into a spreadsheet, no meaning reconstructed by hand.
Priced against a definition, not a memory and a call-back.
Drafts are marked as drafts. What is unresolved is visible.
Estimators answer a few questions per item, however they like.
Grows deterministically: a new name only when a real document demands it.