alt Hacker NewsWhat kind of system to you have for parsing symbology?
Do you check anything like cross discipline coordination (e.g. online searching specification data for parts on drawings like mechanical units and detecting mismatch with electrical spec), or it wholly within 1 trades code at a time?
edit: there's info that answers this on the website. It seems limited to the common ones (e.g. elec vs arch), which makes sense.
Replies
We parse symbols using a mix of vector geometry, OCR, and learned detection for common architectural/MEP symbols. Cross-discipline checks are a big focus as we already flag mismatches between architectural, structural, and MEP sheets, and we’re expanding into deeper electrical/mechanical spec alignment next. Would love to hear which symbols matter most in your workflow so we can improve coverage.
Symbol variation is a huge challenge across firms.
Our approach mixes OCR, vector geometry, and learned embeddings so the model can recognize a symbol plus its surrounding annotations (e.g., “6-15R,” “DIM,” “GFCI”).
When symbols differ by drafter, the system leans heavily on the textual/graph context so it still resolves meaning accurately. We’re actively expanding our electrical symbol library and would love sample sets from your workflow.