What PinMy does NOT do (and why we say it plainly)

What PinMy does NOT do (and why we say it plainly)

Most software marketing is a list of everything a product can do, padded with a few things it can nearly do, and a couple it hopes to do someday. This post is the opposite. It’s a plain, confident list of what PinMy is not — and an argument for why drawing that line clearly is the most valuable thing we can tell you. With the audiences we care about, honest construction software isn’t a softer pitch. It’s the whole pitch.

Why we lead with the edges

You can judge a tool by what it claims, or by where it’s honest about stopping. The second tells you far more. Anyone can say “yes, we do that too”; it costs nothing and means nothing. Telling you exactly where a product’s edges are is a gift — it lets you decide before you buy whether it fits, instead of discovering the gap on a live project. So here are our edges, stated plainly, with no hedging.

Not a common data environment

PinMy is not a CDE. We don’t manage your controlled document sets, your formal information workflows, or the single-source-of-truth governance a CDE exists to provide. If your project mandates a CDE, you’ll have one, and PinMy sits alongside it as a fast way to capture site reality on the plan — not as a replacement for it.

Not BIM coordination — and 3D is a snapshot

This is the one expert audiences test hardest, so we’ll be exact. PinMy is not BIM coordination. A pin on a 3D model is anchored to a point in 3D space — not a BIM element. It does not read element properties, does not version models, and does not interpret model data. The 3D feature is a dated snapshot for field documentation — a first, honest step into 3D on site, not coordination, and not a replacement for Revit or your authoring tools.

One line here has changed since we first published this post, and we would rather say so than quietly leave it. PinMy now imports and exports BCF 2.1 (in beta). On import it reads an element’s IFC GUID in order to place a pin on the right object — so we can no longer claim, as we once did, that PinMy touches no element identifiers at all. What has not changed is the shape of the thing: the pin still lives at a point in space, we still read no properties, we still version nothing, and it is file-based exchange rather than a live sync with Revit or Solibri. Being a link in the BIM chain is not the same as being BIM coordination, and we are not going to blur the two. We’d rather under-claim this and be believed than over-claim it and be caught.

Not a project-management suite

PinMy is not a PM suite. No Gantt charts, no critical path, no resource planning, no programme. The Kanban board tracks the status of located work — To-do, In Progress, Done — and that’s deliberately all. Scheduling and commercial management live in the tools built for them; PinMy handles the located, on-site layer those tools don’t reach.

The web report is useful, and still maturing

We won’t pretend the PDF report is a finished, locked-down deliverable. It’s genuinely useful today and still maturing — improving release by release. We say that to every prospect, because setting an honest expectation now is worth more than a happy demo and a disappointed client later. Use it, rely on it for what it does, and know it’s evolving.

Guest mode is openness, not access control

Guest mode lets someone join with a name and pin feedback — no account, no install. That’s light collaboration, not an identity or access-control system. A guest identifies with a name, not a verified login. It’s the right trade-off where frictionless input matters, and the wrong one where you need audited, governed permissions. We’d rather you use it for the right job than oversell it into the wrong one.

Why honesty is the feature, not a disclaimer

Here’s the argument, made plainly. With the people we build for — BIM professionals, grant reviewers, pilot teams, experienced site staff — trust is the scarce resource, and it’s spent the instant they catch an overclaim. Being a realistic construction app that names its own limits does something a feature list never can: it makes the claims we do make believable. When we say a pin lands on the plan and the voice note transcribes itself, you believe it — because we were the ones who told you what we don’t do. That’s not a confession. It’s the foundation.

Where this honesty came from

None of this is accidental. It’s the same discipline behind why we shipped 3D before we knew anyone wanted it — ship something real and modest, and never claim past it. And it’s why, when teams ask whether they need PlanRadar or something simpler, we’ll happily point them to the heavier tool if that’s the honest answer. A product confident enough to say “not us, for this” is a product you can trust when it says “yes, us, for that.”

FAQ

What is PinMy not? Not a CDE, not BIM coordination, not a project-management suite. The 3D feature is a dated snapshot that reads no element properties and versions nothing — BCF import matches an element GUID to place a pin, and that is as far as it goes. The web report is useful but still maturing; guest mode is light collaboration, not access control.

Why does PinMy publish what it can’t do? Because with expert audiences, honesty is what makes the rest of the claims believable. Knowing the edges before you buy is more valuable than a feature list, and it’s how the product earns long-term trust.

Does PinMy replace Revit or my CDE? No. It doesn’t replace Revit, your authoring tools, or a CDE. It sits alongside them as a fast way to capture and pin site reality on the plan — a point in space, not a model element.

What PinMy is NOT

This whole post is that subsection, said in full: not a CDE, not BIM coordination, not a PM suite. A 3D pin marks a point in space — a dated snapshot — not a model element; PinMy reads no element properties and versions no models, and BCF 2.1 exchange is file-based, not a live sync. The web PDF report is still maturing, guest mode isn’t access control, and pricing lives only on the pricing page. What PinMy is: a fast, honest way to capture site reality on the plan — and confident enough to tell you where it stops.

Trust the edges

If a tool that names its own limits sounds like the kind you can rely on, see what’s inside the lines.

• See how it works: pinmy.co
• Book a 15-minute demo: tidycal.com/pinmy