Portland, ME (March 25, 2026) – Chalkline, Inc., developer of VisiSpecs®, The Visual Specification System, has released a new update to its industry-leading specification management and BIM coordination platform. This release introduces significant improvements to cross-team collaboration, keynote management efficiency, and enterprise-level control and reporting.
Project design teams are often segmented with communication limitations resulting in errors and omissions. Exporting and emailing documents and then waiting to receive markups is not efficient or error proof. Then side-by-side comparison of markups is a manual process with no direct means of asking for clarification on markups.
VisiSpecs v26.0 enables all project team members to view and markup docs directly in VisiSpecs without any need to export and email docs. Using Microsoft Word for editing, commenting, and collaboration is easy to learn and use since it is already installed on everyone’s laptops. VisiSpecs now alerts the specifiers as soon as documents are marked up or comments are added. Specifiers can then make changes or reply to a comment asking for clarification. Users with the role of TeamViewer are restricted to only editing Word comments in sections, ensuring unauthorized changes to content do not occur.
When comments are still open and unresolved, the VisiSpecs QA Report flags them to ensure all issues are addressed and a higher quality of product is delivered. The reports can also take advantage of the Project Tree Filter (i.e. Package 15) to review the references, optional bracket selections, and comment threads without needing to create duplicate projects. Independent specifiers can also share projects with their clients, enabling a more efficient collaboration process and saving time while improving product quality.
The leading Keynote Management tools also received upgrades based on user feedback. The Multi-User Keynote Manager now includes the ability to update the company master keynote files from newly created project keynotes, improving keynote management and reuse of preferred drawing language. Additionally, linked model projects can now share one keynote file for all models with the Multi-User Keynote Manager enabling many simultaneous users to access and update keynotes at the same time. Detailers assigning keynotes now have an intelligent filtered list of keynotes matching the linked specs and receive alerts when they don’t match, helping to immediately correct mistakes and save time and money. Viewing the linked model drawing details in the main model improves efficiency, accuracy, and verification time, further improving the quality of product delivered.
Customers using keynotes to call out a simple ID such as C-12 and a legend indicating C-12 = Modular Carper wanted a means of integrating these into the specifications to ensure a high level of coordination with the specs. VisiSpecs now includes the ability to tag any keynote with the related spec section for automatic linking and verification with the project specs. This related spec reference doesn’t require any change to the keynotes but does automate the selection of keynotes for detailers, as well as flag the users when there are coordination issues between drawings and specs.
Automatic synchronization of the BIM model data to the VisiSpecs cloud server enables specifiers to access the model data directly in VisiWord. This facilitates the integration of the specs and models with alerts to coordination issues. VisiSpecs enables the integration of the keynotes, model elements, and specifications for the highest level of design coordination and verification available, reducing the errors and omissions that often add costs and delays to projects.
Additionally, tools to better access and manipulate data requested by customers have been included, such as keynote manager having the ability to change all keynote text case to UPPER case or Title case. The VisiRevit Link Console now has a search field highlighting all matches in any field and speed improvements refreshing data when needed. Furthermore, integration panels, including the Link Console and Doc Linker now open alongside the active specification document in VisiWord to provide better context during model coordination in Microsoft Word.
Enterprise level administrative and security controls have also been refined in this version to offer more granular project oversight. The creation, editing, and deletion of Corporate Project Groups are now restricted to MasterAdmin and Admin roles, while ProjectAdmins are now limited to deleting only the projects and templates they personally created. The User Manager has also been improved with additional search functions and enhanced performance when loading large numbers of corporate users. Reports have been updated to include more project management data such as project creator, date, and last access. QA Reports have also been updated to include full paragraph text of a reference section, highlighted text, and last unresolved comments enabling a quick review and verification of next steps without having to open every document.
VisiSpecs v26.0 is released to all current subscribers, and further information can be found by contacting support@chalklineinc.com.
