About findings and sign-offs

In short: a finding is a draft until a named engineer signs it off, and a sign-off applies to one exact version of it. Change what the finding says and the sign-off is withdrawn; nothing — not even Undo — can give it back silently.

A finding

A finding is a record tied to a place on the structure: a point observation, a saved measurement, or an AI proposal. Each has:

• A number — OBS-001, OBS-002 and so on — issued once and never reused. A deleted finding keeps its number, and a restored one comes back with it.
• A saved view, which Fly to returns to and from which its PDF page is rendered.
• A review state: draft, signed off, signed off and independently reviewed, or dismissed.

Drafts and sign-offs

Every new finding starts as a draft — those recorded by people as well as those proposed by the AI. A draft is in the project’s records and visible to everyone, but it is not in any report.

A sign-off records that a named engineer accepted the finding, with its severity. AerTwin takes the name from the engineer’s sign-in and the time from its own clock, so neither can be typed in or backdated. Only signed-off findings are printed in PDF reports and exported to CSV.

An optional second review, by an Admin who is not the first engineer, adds a second stamp: ✓✓ on the card.

A sign-off binds a version

Every change to what a finding asserts creates a new version, and a sign-off applies to the version it was given to. So these changes withdraw a sign-off:

• Title, Engineering assessment, Severity, Category, Dam component / location, Recommended action or Target date;
• the outline (Apply, Restore, Measure as) or the saved view (Update Fly-to view).

These do not, because they do not change the engineering judgement:

• Status and Tags;
• filing the finding in a group, or taking it out of one.

A finding whose sign-off was withdrawn shows draft again until someone signs it off again. Undo restores content, never a signature: undoing an edit brings back the old wording, but the finding stays a draft.

Nothing is lost

• Deleting keeps the record. A deleted finding leaves the list, the model and the reports, but the record is kept and can be restored with its number.
• Moved points are remembered. A saved outline keeps its last 5 previous positions, each with what it measured, so a change can be put back with Restore.
• Reports say what they leave out. The first page of a PDF report counts the AI proposals that were dismissed and those not yet reviewed, so that a reader can tell a finished inspection from an unfinished one.