Home/Features/The whiteboard stage, before the model exists

online whiteboard for architects

The whiteboard stage, before the model exists

Architecture does not begin as a model. It begins as a wall of ideas that need sorting. The sketchboard is that wall, with a voting mechanism so the sorting actually concludes.

Freeform first

Sticky notes, freehand strokes, polylines and shapes with no schema to satisfy. Nothing on a sketchboard has to be valid, which is the point of having one separate from the model.

Voting sessions that end

Start a session, set how many votes each person gets, and the group allocates them. A live leaderboard shows what is winning. Whoever starts the session hosts it, and the host ends it — so a workshop reaches a decision instead of trailing off.

Then formalise

What survives the vote becomes the starting point for a real diagram and a real model, with everything the rest of the product provides — standards, validation, review.

What this covers in the product

Every capability below is part of this area of Yantra Studio.

  • Sketchboard
  • Voting sessions
  • Freehand
  • Polyline

Questions

Who can start a voting session?

Anyone. Whoever starts it becomes the host and can end it.

How many votes does each person get?

You set the limit when the session starts — 1, 2, 3, 5 or 10 per person.

Is a sketchboard the same as a diagram?

No, and deliberately so. A sketchboard has no model behind it, which is what makes it usable at the stage where nothing is decided.

Put your architecture under version control

Model it, govern it, and keep it true to the system it describes.