Sitemark vs PlanGrid for Grade Documentation

What PlanGrid Does Well

PlanGrid, now part of Autodesk Build, pioneered mobile plan management for construction. The core value proposition is simple: instead of printing and distributing paper blueprints that go out of date, field teams access current plan sets on tablets and phones, and any revision automatically updates for everyone. Issues can be pinned to specific plan locations, giving project managers a spatially organized view of what needs attention.

For general contractors, superintendents, and trades that work directly from blueprints — framing, concrete, MEP coordination — having current plans on mobile with the ability to mark up and share observations is a meaningful workflow improvement over paper. PlanGrid's daily report and photo functionality supplements the core plan management capability.

What PlanGrid Does Not Do

PlanGrid does not have a structured workflow for elevation verification. A grading contractor cannot use PlanGrid to log a grade shot at a specific control point, compare the field elevation to the design elevation from the grading plan, calculate the deviation, and track whether the pad is within tolerance. That data structure — which is the basis of as-built documentation for grading work — does not exist in PlanGrid.

PlanGrid's field issue system can capture a photo and a note ("pad 14 is low"), but it cannot generate a structured as-built report that shows the measured elevation at each control point, the deviation from design, and the final accept/reject status. That output is what engineers and inspectors require for grading acceptance, and it requires a purpose-built field verification tool to produce.

Equipment calibration records are also absent from PlanGrid. For grading contractors who must demonstrate that field measurements were taken with calibrated instruments, the calibration record must be maintained separately — typically in Sitemark, which ties instrument calibration dates and certificates to job records.

Feature Comparison

How Grading Contractors Use Both

On projects where the general contractor has deployed PlanGrid or Autodesk Build, grading subcontractors often find themselves with plan access through the GC's system but no grade verification capability within it. The typical workflow is to use PlanGrid for accessing current grading plans in the field — referencing design elevations, lot layouts, and drainage patterns — while using Sitemark to capture and document the actual field measurements against those design values.

The Sitemark-generated as-built reports then get delivered to the GC's document management system (PlanGrid or Autodesk Build) as project record documents. That combination — plan access through PlanGrid, grade verification through Sitemark, as-built documents back into PlanGrid — is a common pattern for grading subcontractors on commercial projects.

Sewer and Invert Documentation

Sewer contractors have a specific documentation requirement that neither PlanGrid nor general construction apps address: invert elevation documentation at each manhole and structure. The invert is the inside-bottom elevation of the pipe at the structure, and it must be verified as installed to ensure proper slope and drainage. Each invert measurement must be logged with the structure identifier, the design invert, the measured invert, and the deviation.

Sitemark has a dedicated invert documentation workflow for exactly this use case. PlanGrid's issue system can capture a note about an invert location but cannot produce the structured invert log that sewer inspection authorities and engineers require. For sewer contractors, that structured logging capability is the difference between documentation that satisfies a municipal inspector and documentation that does not.

Frequently Asked Questions