AECInspire v3.0 Release Notes — What’s New

Version 3.0 is our largest release of the year. It introduces a centralized estimation framework, automated panel and circuit detection, real-time collaboration on sheets, and significant performance gains across the viewer. This article walks through each feature in detail.

Before you start: press Ctrl + Shift + R to hard-refresh your browser and confirm you’re running the latest version.

1. Component Library, Assembly Builder & Labor Estimation

This is the largest change in v3.0 and replaces the old per-assembly parts list workflow.

Previously, you managed a parts list and uploaded or copy-pasted part data into every assembly individually. v3.0 introduces a centralized Component Library — think of it as a parts bin. You upload and maintain your parts once, then pull from that library whenever you build an assembly.

What’s new

Component Library — a single, reusable set of component definitions available across the project.
Assembly Builder — configure assemblies by selecting standardized components from the library rather than uploading data into each one.
Labor and material estimation — enter NECA labor rates across easy, medium, and difficult columns, plus a custom column, along with material costs. Install times and any other component attribute can be edited directly.
Automatic calculations — material and labor totals calculate as assemblies are placed, covering both fabrication and installation.
Category-level selection — bring in an entire parts category (for example, power), choose the options you want available in that assembly, and those options persist the next time you open it.

Migration note: existing projects are migrated to the new estimation framework and legacy data is preserved. Your existing assembly templates continue to work and are not affected by the Assembly Builder.

Why it matters: centralized component management, better estimating accuracy, less manual data entry, consistent labor and material reporting, and far greater reuse across projects.

Recommendation: contact your CSM before rolling this out. Setup decisions around library structure and labor rates are worth making deliberately.

2. Smart Data Capture — Automated Panel & Circuit Detection

Smart Data Capture can now detect panel and circuit number information automatically for selected assemblies.

How it works

Open Inspired Search and select Smart Data Capture.
The system identifies the assemblies and types present on the drawing.
Choose which panels you want to circuit on that sheet.
AECInspire associates assemblies to circuits automatically.
Review the detected information, visually validate assembly-to-panel relationships, and resolve anything unassigned or conflicting.
Save the reviewed information back to the selected assemblies.

For drawings where panel and circuit data isn’t cleanly placed, you can click into an individual assembly and assign the circuit directly — the connection line displays visually, and assignment stays on the mouse without keyboard entry. Manual assignment remains available at any time.

Important: existing panel and circuit information is never silently overwritten.

Why it matters: on drawings with panel and circuit callouts next to each device, expect circuiting to take minutes instead of hours.

3. Comments — Collaborate Directly on Sheets

A new Comments button on the right-hand toolbar lets your team communicate inside the drawing context instead of routing markups through separate PDFs and email.

What’s new

Place comments at specific locations on a sheet.
Associate comments with assemblies or connections.
@mention project users, triggering both an in-app notification and an email. Check your notification settings in the application to control delivery.
Reply to, resolve, reopen, and delete comments and replies.
Search comments and navigate directly to their location on the sheet.
New comments, replies, and updates appear in near real time.
Comment markers display on the sheet when Comment Mode is active.

Comments live on their own layer and are not included when you export your drawing.

Why it matters: this is a single place for detailing, VDC, project management, and field teams to coordinate on a document without markup PDFs getting lost in email threads.

4. Real-Time Collaboration — Active Users & Live Cursor

In the lower right corner of the viewer, you can now see who else is viewing or editing the same sheet.

View other users’ live cursor movements and activity in real time.
Their work appears on your screen when you save or refresh.
Live cursor visualization can be disabled through View Settings.
Active user presence stays visible even with live cursor visualization turned off.

Why it matters: fewer editing conflicts, less duplicate work, and clearer awareness of where your team is working.

5. Distance Indicator During Assembly Placement

When placing an assembly, you’ll now see a running measurement showing the distance from the previously placed assembly.

This was built for layouts like hanger runs, where spacing previously required laying down dimensions before placing anything. You can now space assemblies accurately as you place them, improving layout consistency and reducing manual measurement.

6. Connector Management for Electrical Assemblies

Electrical assemblies now include dedicated connector management.

A new Connectors section within Electrical Assembly Properties.
A new Default Connector Types screen under Project Settings.
Configure default connector types based on Connection Type and Connection Size.
Configuration follows the same pattern as existing Wire Settings.

Why it matters: more accurate connector selection and connector data that carries correctly into downstream BOM generation.

7. Redesigned Project Creation & Import from Existing Project

Creating a new project now follows a guided setup screen.

Two paths are available:

Start Fresh — create a project using default configurations, with no assembly template applied.
Import from Existing Project — create a project using selected configurations from an existing project. This is the default, and you select your assembly template directly on the setup screen with no toggles or submenus.

The screen also accepts optional project metadata — address, start date, end date, and other details. All of it is optional if you’d rather start detailing immediately.

Why it matters: faster setup, reuse of proven configurations, and less manual configuration on every new job.

8. Selective Import of Assembly Groups & Assemblies

You can now selectively import Assembly Groups and Assemblies from another project rather than importing everything.

Select specific assembly groups and assemblies to import.
Identify assemblies with matching names in the destination project.
Review available import options before importing.
Supports both Default/Predefined and Custom Assemblies.
Choose whether existing assemblies are updated, new assemblies are added, or current assemblies are replaced.

9. Batch Print — Multiple Sheets into a Single PDF

Printing to PDF now opens a new interface listing all sheets in the project.

Select sheets individually, in bulk, or across folders — including filtering to only the sheets you’ve detailed.
Change paper size.
Name the file export before generating.
Preview, then download as a single consolidated PDF.
Existing print settings are preserved.

Why it matters: generate complete drawing sets in one operation, with no manual PDF merging afterward.

10. Flexible Export for Installation & Kitting Packages

When generating Installation and Kitting Packages, you now choose which dataset to export.

Filtered Data — only the records currently visible based on your active table filters.
Complete Data — all applicable records within the selected Scope Box.

Filters can be applied through the Layers tab or within your bill of materials. For example, on a floor plan containing power, lighting, data, and cable tray, you can filter to power only and export an installation package for power alone, then switch to lighting and export separately.

Why it matters: system-specific packages without re-detailing — particularly valuable on dense multi-family drawings.

11. Scope Box Details in Fabrication Package

Fabrication Packages now include two new sheet types for scope box visibility.

Scope Box Master Sheet — added at the beginning of the package. Provides a consolidated view of all scope boxes included and shows the assemblies associated with each.

Scope Box-wise Assembly Summary — added after each assembly-level sheet. Shows the scope box distribution and quantity for that assembly. For example, a 2R duplex receptacle might show 5 in BioMed, 4 in Chemistry, and so on.

Both sheets are generated from the filtered dataset in Quantities/Itemized BOM, so only assemblies included in the generated output are represented. These sheets are added by default. Existing Assembly and Connection sheets are unchanged.

Why it matters: your fabrication team gets a direct answer to “how many of each do I need in each package?”

12. Automated Scope Box Enhancements — Merge & Split

The automatic scope box tool previously detected and labeled rooms. v3.0 adds two controls inside the automatic generation workflow:

Merge — box-select the scope boxes you want to combine, hit merge, then rename and adjust the color. The result is one consolidated scope box. Use this where you don’t want an individual kit per room.

Split — select a larger scope box and draw a split line to divide it. Renaming and color updates are available on the resulting boxes.

Why it matters: kitting areas now match how your team actually stages work rather than how the floor plan happens to be partitioned.

13. Highlight Overlapping Assemblies

A new viewer toggle identifies overlapping assemblies, helping you find duplicates, detect stacked objects, and clean up drawing quality before generating a BOM.

14. Undo Support for Viewer Actions

Undo is now supported across a range of viewer editing actions using Ctrl + Z or the Undo option.

Assemblies / Devices: move, rotate, delete.

Annotations & viewer elements: move annotation tag, connection tag, text box, legend table, linear assembly, scope box tag.

Connections: move connection, add connection points, move connection points, remove connection points, duplicate connection.

15. New Default Linear Assembly Types

A preconfigured Linear Assembly (Footage) type is now included, with appropriate defaults, visuals, and layout behavior for linear assembly creation.

16. Inspired Query (IQ) Enhancements

Switch folders mid-session — previously your search scope was fixed for the duration of a chat. You can now change scope during the conversation: pull project-level information first, then narrow to specifications for your next question while retaining what you’ve already gathered.
Download the full IQ Notebook as a PDF — previously you could export individual sheets to Word or download tables from the chat. Entire notebooks now export to PDF for emailing or filing.
Spanish translation — translate IQ responses directly into Spanish.

17. Company-Specific Sensitive Data Warning

Super Admins can configure custom sensitive data warning messages per company. Warnings display before document upload begins and users review the message before continuing.

User Experience Improvements

Unified BOM Navigation — BOM views now use a unified tab-based navigation for easier movement between BOM types, improved accessibility, and faster workflow.

BOM renaming:

Previous name	New name
Itemized BOM	Assembly BOM (Itemized BOM)
Supplier BOM	Material BOM (Supplier BOM)

Save Filter Configuration in BOM Templates — filters applied by users are retained when saving a new template and restored when the template is used. Applies to Assembly BOM (Itemized BOM), Wire BOM, Material BOM (Supplier BOM), and Supplier Wire BOM.

Enhanced Layer Controls — redesigned while preserving existing functionality. Show/Hide uses a new modal-based layout with full-width visibility options, updated toggle controls, visual highlighting, and a dedicated header and Close action. Opacity and Resize both offer larger selectable layer cards, clear selected-layer indication, a vertical slider, current percentage display, and a reset option.

Movable Layers Panel — the Layers panel can be unpinned, dragged anywhere in the viewer, and kept open while using other application features.

Improved Dimension Workflow — the dimension panel stays open after creating or editing a dimension, and previously selected values are retained for future dimensions.

Improved Annotation Leader Lines — leader lines now connect to the center of annotation tags, eliminating visual gaps and improving drawing readability.

Enhanced Color Picker — expanded color selection with a more flexible, customizable palette and a more consistent selection experience.

Performance Improvements

Symbol processing optimization — significant gains on symbol-related operations involving annotation tags and instance IDs, especially with large symbol counts. Existing sequencing, tags, assembly codes, connections, deletion, and tag regeneration behavior are unchanged.

Operation	Improvement
Manual assembly/symbol placement	Up to 86% faster
Switch assembly	Up to 97% faster
Update properties, save and refresh data	Up to 97% faster
Smart Count symbol placement	76% faster

Optimized copy-paste for connected assemblies — faster connection length updates, stable repeat paste operations, and preserved copy-paste and cut-paste behavior.

Selection size	Improvement
50 connected assemblies	~89% faster
100 connected assemblies	~34% faster

Questions or feedback? Reach out to your CSM. The Component Library and Assembly Builder in particular benefit from a guided setup session, and we’re actively collecting feedback on Smart Data Capture circuiting time savings and the new scope box merge/split workflow.