The tool looks sick. I think the copilot vs black box approach is great. I found the demo to be enjoyable and satisfying to watch despite having no experience in the concrete estimation industry.
This is out of my wheelhouse but had a couple of thoughts. When you clicked P1, it found all of them. What happens if it doesn't? This would have been good to see in the video.
Also, I'm sure people familiar with these documents will have no trouble but was thinking it could be cool to do some effect to make references glow/be more noticeable at least temporarily when you are skipping around to them. Maybe some zoom controls too.
Anyways, good luck!
is_true 20 hours ago [-]
A friend works in construction and they have details of how much materials each part of a construction needs. Most of it comes directly from the (not sure the name) SW they use to calculate the structure/ draw the plans.
andyfilms1 20 hours ago [-]
I was going to say, I don't understand what this does that Revit doesn't already do better. I guess it's a fun demo, but I doubt this was a problem that needed solving.
debo_ 19 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
andyfilms1 18 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
debo_ 16 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
afzalive 20 hours ago [-]
Looks like a useful tool but I don't know anything about construction.
Love the transparent AI helper implementation though. I feel like you don't even need to say it's AI because it's so helpful but not in your face but maybe that's what people are searching for.
officialchicken 3 hours ago [-]
> We started this when Sahil took a construction management class and realized how the estimation workflows hadn't changed in decades
That's because it's been used in the construction industry for literally a couple of millennium (e.g. ancient rome) and it's a fairly well-understood material. The variations come in with the newer "exotics" rated above 5k psi that are more chemistry than aggregate, water, and portland cement.
Did your one class teach you that any non-parabolic concrete cross section is approximately 7% steel? And that the bidding issues with concrete are centered around the steel rebar/wwm/wwf installation and formwork/earthwork prior to pour?
seebeen 20 hours ago [-]
If the AI miscalculates, and building crashes and people die - who is held responsible?
layer8 20 hours ago [-]
The plans are the input here, not the output. The AI prepares cost estimates. It isn’t responsible for what is getting built.
seebeen 19 hours ago [-]
So basically you built an estimation wrapper ready to use - without any guarantees whatsoever? Someones still needs to double-check?
why is that different than other LLMs
motoxpro 18 hours ago [-]
Estimation is by definitely not final. Did you watch the demo? It’s a workflow tool.
You can trivialize anything like this, salesforce is just a Postgres wrapper, doesn’t mean it’s not valuable.
flyingmiata3303 20 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
madikz 14 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
DatumPlus 18 hours ago [-]
[dead]
so_it_be 20 hours ago [-]
[dead]
asdev 21 hours ago [-]
I wonder if this approach to starting a vertical business the founders have 0 experience in has ever panned out. I know YC pushes the B2B SaaS angle as hard as possible, searching for "underserved" niches, but seems like if you don't have true industry experience, it can't possibly work out.
mbesto 20 hours ago [-]
Travis Kalanick had zero taxi experience and Brian Chesky had zero hospitality experience.
Now they created new models to existing paradigms, because I do tend to agree that founders that have verticalized experience tend to be far more successful (but perhaps arguably less 'disruptive')
asdev 19 hours ago [-]
Those were consumer apps, not B2B. No deep niche experience needed, Uber had to fight regulations but wasn't something industry knowledge would've helped with a ton
conorplunkett 20 hours ago [-]
[dead]
maxignol 20 hours ago [-]
I know you don’t judge a book by its cover, but a vercel extension does not look professional nah ?
apsurd 20 hours ago [-]
it’s a good point. Their product likely is legit, but i even judge individual contributors who use these site builders for their resumes or portfolios and stick with the subdomain. It’s that last mile effort towards completeness i think.
20 hours ago [-]
nzjrs 20 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
themuskgpt2025 21 hours ago [-]
[dead]
Rendered at 17:37:25 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
This is out of my wheelhouse but had a couple of thoughts. When you clicked P1, it found all of them. What happens if it doesn't? This would have been good to see in the video.
Also, I'm sure people familiar with these documents will have no trouble but was thinking it could be cool to do some effect to make references glow/be more noticeable at least temporarily when you are skipping around to them. Maybe some zoom controls too.
Anyways, good luck!
Love the transparent AI helper implementation though. I feel like you don't even need to say it's AI because it's so helpful but not in your face but maybe that's what people are searching for.
That's because it's been used in the construction industry for literally a couple of millennium (e.g. ancient rome) and it's a fairly well-understood material. The variations come in with the newer "exotics" rated above 5k psi that are more chemistry than aggregate, water, and portland cement.
Did your one class teach you that any non-parabolic concrete cross section is approximately 7% steel? And that the bidding issues with concrete are centered around the steel rebar/wwm/wwf installation and formwork/earthwork prior to pour?
why is that different than other LLMs
You can trivialize anything like this, salesforce is just a Postgres wrapper, doesn’t mean it’s not valuable.
Now they created new models to existing paradigms, because I do tend to agree that founders that have verticalized experience tend to be far more successful (but perhaps arguably less 'disruptive')