In November 2025, Standards Australia invited us to show an early prototype of CalcTree at a series of roundtables it ran with Engineers Australia in Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Sydney. This week they published what came out of them: an article and a joint white paper, Trusted Standards in a Connected Digital Engineering Environment.
Now that it's public, here's our side: what engineers told us, and what's live in CalcTree today.
Four cities, four different rooms
Each session had a different crowd. Brisbane was emerging engineers. Perth was practice leaders. Adelaide was digital delivery teams. Sydney pulled the threads together.
We came with a prototype: calculations assembled by AI from verified templates, linked to the clauses behind them, with an automated review on top. It was useful to show, but the real value was listening to engineers describe how they work with standards today, and what worries them about AI.
What engineers told us
Standards are stuck in PDFs
Standards live in static PDFs behind DRM, disconnected from the software engineers actually use. The feeling against DRM was stronger than we expected. What people asked for was simple: the data behind the PDF, and links to the exact clause.
AI is already in use, just not where anyone can see it
Engineers are screenshotting standards into ChatGPT. That breaches usage rights, and general-purpose language models aren't built to compute. A wrong number looks just as convincing as a right one.
The worry is quality, not jobs
Nobody was afraid of being replaced. They were afraid of wrong designs going out faster. The concern grew with seniority, and the people responsible for risk were the most alarmed.
Confidentiality matters
Firms want their client data and their own methods to stay inside their own environment, with AI that works there rather than somewhere else.
Judgement stays with the engineer
Every room agreed on this. AI can get you to a decision faster. The sign-off is still yours.
What's live in CalcTree today
At the roundtables it was a prototype. Everything below is now live in CalcTree.
- A verified template library. A template can be a single clause or the design of a whole structural system. Use CalcTree's built-in library, or build and maintain your own in your workspace.
- Template references. Pull a checked template into any page as a live block, pinned to the version that was reviewed. More on template references.
- CalcTree AI builds from your templates. Ask it for a calculation and it assembles one from verified templates, rather than making the maths up.
- Page reviews. Ask a colleague to review a page. It freezes at a version, they comment and approve, and the sign-off sits on the page. Edit it afterwards and the page says so. More on page reviews.
- AI review against your documents. Upload your design basis or reference documents and ask CalcTree AI to check a calc against them. It's a first pass that flags issues for the engineer before the human review. It never signs anything off. More on AI review.
- Your templates in your own environment. For the confidentiality concern, the same templates work from Excel and from your own AI assistant, not only inside CalcTree.
Where we stand
Our view hasn't changed since the roundtables. As our founder Tim Rawling put it in the Standards Australia article, automation should handle the assembly, while "judgement and final sign-off remain with the practitioners."
See what it became
If you were in one of those rooms, we'd love to show you what the prototype turned into. If you weren't, the offer stands. Book a demo and we'll walk you through it.
