About Specifications and Specification Formats
Construction specifications describe requirements pertaining to the quality, standards, workmanship, and materials needed to complete a construction project. Since specifications can be complex documents, it is important to effectively deploy relevant specification information across multiple workflows and project members.
The Specifications tool in Autodesk® Docs, Autodesk® Build and Autodesk® Takeoff allows members with Create permission or above to add and publish specifications for use by project members. During the specifications publishing process, the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) analyzes high-level specification information, and then breaks out specification documents into a structure by correlating section codes and descriptions.
Once section codes and descriptions have been extracted, specification sections can be added, modified, and organized during the review stage.
After publication, specifications can be accessed and viewed by all project members working both in the field and the office, either on web or the Autodesk Construction Cloud mobile app.
Supported Specification Formats
The Specifications tool supports the following standards for organizing and communicating specifications and other written information for commercial and institutional construction projects:
- CSI MasterFormat
- Common Arrangement of Work Sections (CAWS)
- Uniclass
- Other/Unknown
Each format is made up of smaller segments of information representing specific parts of its organizational structure. Click on a desired format below for details.
CSI MasterFormat
Typically used for projects in North America, MasterFormat is a primary list of divisions, sections, and subsections for organizing construction documents such as specifications, bidding procedures, or work results.
CAWS
The CAWS format is typically used in Europe, providing a consistent arrangement for project specifications and bills of quantities. The format comes with 24 main categories, over 300 sub-categories, and multiple sections that provide details for each category.
Uniclass
The Uniclass format is a unified system of 16 tables used for organizing construction specifications and managing project information. The format can be used for all aspects of the design and construction process. The standard is typically used to organize and communicate specifications, library materials, cost information, and structuring product literature. See Uniclass construction classification for details about tables and codes.
