How RepSpec works
The full guide — what each tool does, the steps to use it, and how to tune the spec logic to your market. For your team and for the designers, engineers, and architects you coordinate with.
Getting started
- 1Go to your portal and sign in with your account (or the invite link we sent).
- 2You land on your portal home — every tool is a tile. You don't memorize them; you pick by the job in front of you.
- 3Stuck on what a tool does? This page is your reference — and the walkthrough videos below show each one end-to-end.
Coordinate a spec with designers, engineers & architects
Replace the email back-and-forth (and Lighting Exchange). The conversation lives on your subdomain, so they spec around your products — and you keep the spec.
Describe a space in plain language — 40×60 warehouse, food-processing, wash-down — and get a full fixture + controls spec with a bill of materials drawn from your line card.
Use it when: A designer or GC gives you an area and a use. Share the link; they refine it against your lines instead of emailing you PDFs.
Open →Paste a competitor part number or a whole schedule and get the equal from your lines, matched on lumens, optics, mounting, and finish.
Use it when: Someone says "you don't have an option for that." You usually do — this finds it across 120+ lines so nothing gets missed.
Open →Controls, DMX & scenes
The specific tools. A pro can use them as a fast checker; someone without the background gets the thinking done for them.
Drop occupancy sensors, wall stations, and power packs onto the plan; it wires them, sizes the BOM, and writes the sequence of operations.
Use it when: Any job with lighting controls — especially when the person laying it out isn't a controls specialist.
Open →Lays out universes, addresses, power injection points, and run-length limits for addressable/color runs.
Use it when: A DMX expert (like Jordan) uses it as a quick sanity-check; anyone less comfortable leans on it to get the addressing and injection right.
Open →Rigging, dimming, and DMX for stage and house — the entertainment-lighting counterpart to the controls canvas.
Use it when: Auditoriums, houses of worship, black-box and stage work.
Open →Visualize & verify
Turn a photo or a finished spec into something you can show — and defend.
Photograph an existing space and get a spec back — fixtures, quantities, and a starting BOM from what the camera sees.
Use it when: Walking a site or a retrofit and you want a spec started before you leave.
Open →Check a competing schedule against yours and get the point-by-point case for why your products hold the spec.
Use it when: You're specified and someone tries to substitute you out.
Open →How each tool is used
The actual steps — open the tool, follow along.
- 1Open System Spec.
- 2Describe the space in plain words — size, use, mounting height, any must-haves (e.g. "40×60 wash-down food-processing room, 22 ft ceiling, vapor-tight high-bay").
- 3Review the fixture + controls spec and the bill of materials it drafts — every line pulled from your catalog.
- 4Refine by chatting: "swap to a wet-location trim," "add occupancy sensors," "give me a lower-cost option." It re-works the spec and the BOM.
- 5Share the link with your designer or GC, or export the schedule.
- 1Open Cross'er.
- 2Paste a competitor part number — or upload the whole schedule.
- 3Review your line's equal with the match reasons (lumens, optics, mounting, finish) so you can defend it.
- 4Not the pick you'd make? Open Calibrate and vote — it learns your preference for next time.
- 1Open ControlSpec (Spot & Dot) and point it at the floor plan.
- 2Drop occupancy sensors, wall stations, and power packs onto the rooms.
- 3It wires them, sizes the BOM, and writes the sequence of operations.
- 4Check the findings — any engineering conflict (e.g. mixed control protocols) flags as a locked blocker.
- 1Open DMX Spec and enter the run — fixtures, lengths, product.
- 2Get universes, addresses, power-injection points, and run-length limits.
- 3Use it to sanity-check a layout fast, or to get the addressing and injection right when DMX isn't your strong suit.
- 1Open TheatreSpec and describe the venue — seats, stage depth, grid height, program tier.
- 2Get rigging, dimming, and DMX spec'd for stage and house.
- 1Open Vision Spec.
- 2Upload or take a photo of the space.
- 3Get fixtures, quantities, and a starting BOM from what the camera sees — a spec started before you leave the site.
- 1Open Spec Defense and paste the competing schedule (and yours).
- 2Get the point-by-point case for why your products hold the spec.
Control the logic — your playbook rules
Three layers decide what a spec recommends. You control the middle one — how your firm spec’s, by application.
Set a Tier-2 rule
- 1Go to your portal → Preferences (Spec preferences).
- 2Add a rule and choose an action: prefer · require · avoid · forbid.
- 3Point it at a manufacturer or a product pattern — and, optionally, what to lead with instead.
- 4Scope it: application (office, healthcare, wash-down…), market / jurisdiction, and customer type. Leave a field blank to apply it everywhere.
- 5Add a plain-language note (your rationale) and save. It applies deterministically to every spec your portal produces — layered on top of the engineering floor.
- For wash-down / food-processing → require NSF vapor-tight; avoid standard troffers.
- On BAA/BABA jobs → prefer your domestic troffer/panel line.
- For controls → lead with your anchor occupancy sensor.
Training your team & your customers
- Internally: nobody memorizes the toolset — you pick the tool by the job above. A controls layout → Spot & Dot; a substitution → Cross’er; a new area from a designer → System Spec.
- Externally: send a designer or GC a link to System Spec on your subdomain. They spec around your lines, and the spec comes back to you — you never lose it to the next firm they email.
- Watch it work: the walkthrough videos below show each tool end-to-end.