FORGE/BY TRADE/BUILDING AUTOMATION
ix.FORGE — FOR BUILDING AUTOMATION CONTRACTORS

The controller is still the controller.
The points list is what eats the project.

The sequence of operations that lived in a Word doc no one could find at commissioning. The points list rebuilt by hand in Excel for the third time because the estimate, the submittal, and the field never agreed. Forge is the chest a working controls contractor would build for his own crew — and ships to the operators who recognize themselves in the work. The building-automation drawer is in development. Charter members shape it first.

Charter — 0 of 2 seats filled
2 seats remaining. Locked rate forever.
BUILDING AUTOMATION · CHARTER
Two Charter seats reserved for building automation. None filled yet — this vertical is in Charter development. The first operators in shape the drawer.
Apply for Charter3-MIN ASSESSMENT →
i.The chest — opened for building automation

The drawers that matter most
when the truck door opens.

I
Estimating · Points
A · ESTIMATE

Built to estimate controls off the points list, not a guess — DDC controllers, sensors, actuators, valves, and integration labor as trade assemblies. The points count drives the BOM and the bid from one source. In development; Charter members define the assembly library with us.

II
Sequence · Submittals
B · DOCUMENT

Designed to carry the sequence of operations, points list, and riser as version-controlled documents inside the project record — not a Word doc emailed around until commissioning. The Documents module ships today; the controls-specific templates are being built for Charter.

III
Commissioning · As-Built
C · DOCUMENT

Built to track point-to-point checkout, functional tests, and the as-built handoff in the same chest the estimate started in — commissioning packets as living records. Designed for the controls workflow; Charter members pressure-test it on real projects.

IV
Compliance · Payroll
D · COMPLIANCE

Davis-Bacon, prevailing wage, certified payroll, and WH-347 are native to Treasury today. Building-automation crews on public and institutional work inherit the same compliance engine the active verticals already run.

THE ONE NO ONE ELSE HAS
Hyperion — for building automation.

Hyperion is built to scan mechanical rooms, ceiling plenums, and equipment lineups so the points list and device locations are built against real geometry instead of a marked-up PDF. For building automation the drawer is in development — the spatial scan is designed to ground-truth where the controllers, sensors, and runs actually go. Charter building-automation members get it on the same day the founder ships it to himself. Hyperion's published accuracy methodology — ±0.8% on commercial flat and low-slope geometry, ±2% on complex geometry — is on the proof page and graduates to a measured benchmark after independent third-party verification.

See Hyperion →
ii.What Forge replaces — for building automation

What a Charter building-automation operator is built to consolidate from when they sign.

  • 01 · STACK ITEM
    Tridium Niagara / WebCTRL / Metasys (engineering tools)
    Controller programming and supervisory platforms. Forge does not replace your controls engineering tool — it is designed to own the layer above it: the estimate, the points list, the submittal, and the commissioning record on one chest. Niagara owns the device tree; Forge is built to own the project around it.
  • 02 · STACK ITEM
    Accubid / Trimble / spreadsheet takeoffs
    Controls estimating and point-count takeoffs. Forge is built to ship native controls assemblies driven by the points list, so the bid, the BOM, and the field stay on one source instead of three spreadsheets that drift apart.
  • 03 · STACK ITEM
    Word / Excel sequences of operation + points lists
    The SOO and points list that live in scattered documents until commissioning. Forge's Documents module is built to carry them as version-controlled records inside the project, so the field and the estimate finally agree.
  • 04 · STACK ITEM
    Bluebeam / paper submittals
    Riser diagrams, point-to-point drawings, equipment cuts. Plate is built to carry the submittal workflow with version control and AHJ/engineer markup inside the project record; Bluebeam stays useful for operators who use it elsewhere in the org.
WHEN NOT TO CHOOSE FORGE

If you are a controls shop doing pure service and small retrofits with no competitive bidding, no certified payroll, and no multi-trade integration scope, your existing engineering tool plus a spreadsheet may still be the right fit. Charter is built for the commercial building-automation contractor whose projects die in the gap between the estimate, the points list, and commissioning.

ii.The page that fills itself

The first building automation Charter member
writes their own page here.

The quote, the metrics, the photograph — all of it. The Forge team supports every word; the operator carries the page. If you've been waiting for the moment that earns you the badge, this is it.

BUILDING AUTOMATION · CHARTER · 0 OF 2 FILLED

Two Charter seats reserved for building automation. None filled yet — this vertical is in Charter development. The first operators in shape the drawer.

Apply for Charter3-MIN ASSESSMENT →
iii.Questions a working operator asks

The honest answers,
without the sales gloss.

01.
Is building automation live on Forge today?

No — this vertical is in Charter development. Forge ships today for roofing, security and fire, AV and low-voltage, solar, HVAC, and electrical. Building automation is the next trade we're building the drawer for, and the first Charter operators in shape it with us before it graduates to a shipping vertical. We won't claim a feature for this trade that doesn't exist yet.

02.
Does Forge replace Tridium Niagara, WebCTRL, or Metasys?

No. Those are controls engineering and supervisory platforms, and they stay. Forge is built to own the layer above the device tree — the estimate, the points list, the submittal, the certified payroll, and the commissioning record on one chest. Niagara owns the controllers; Forge is designed to own the project around them.

03.
What can I actually use today as a controls contractor?

Everything in the active platform: estimating, scheduling and dispatch, the CRM and project pipeline, Documents for submittals and as-builts, Treasury for certified payroll and Davis-Bacon, embedded comms, and field ops. The building-automation-specific assemblies, sequence-of-operations templates, and commissioning workflow are what's in development — and what Charter members get first.

04.
What does Charter cost for a building-automation operator?

by application: $27,000 prepaid for 36 months (~$750/mo equivalent), locked forever, ten seats. Public pricing is a la carte: Forge Core $499/mo flat (unlimited users, no per-seat) plus modules (Hyperion $399, Atlas $149, Torch $99, Treasury $99 + $8/employee, Sigil $49, Calliope $149/function, Mentor $79/rep, Herald $59/rep), packaged as Starter $299, the Working Stack about $900 (Core + Hyperion + Sigil), and Full Platform about $1,999. Two building-automation Charter seats are open. Because this vertical is in development, the first operators in don't just lock the rate — they shape the drawer.

iv.The covenant — how to get in

0 of 2 building automation seats
filled.

Charter is the operator who builds with the new tools first. Ten seats across all trades. Locked when filled. The rate doesn't move — ever — while the public list rises around you.

BUILDING AUTOMATION · CHARTER
2 building automation seats remaining.
RATE
$750/mo · locked forever
TERM
$27,000 prepaid · 36 months
FULL PLATFORM (PUBLIC)
~$1,999/mo
CHARTER HONORS
Badge · case study · office hours · first-in-line
THE SPINE — RETURN

The needs have been the same for 4,000 years.
The building has gotten smart. Forge is the chest for the operator who makes it think.

Read the full Forge story →