Product Mgmt Deployment Automation Quality & Validation Risk & DFMEA

Product Management

How ConstructiVision releases are planned, tracked, and delivered — from version lineage to field feedback loops and release gate criteria. ConstructiVision 12 for AutoCAD shipped October 1, 2026 (current build CV 12.32.220, October 21, 2026), and ConstructiVision Web runs in the browser with no AutoCAD needed.

Product Lineage — Five Generations, One Product Line

ConstructiVision has run continuously in commercial use since the early 2000s. The modernization effort is not a rewrite — it is a disciplined packaging and deployment upgrade of a proven codebase, preserving the production-validated AutoLISP code and dialogs that field engineers rely on while bringing deployment, installation, and OS compatibility to 2026 standards.

v3.60 Legacy archive — read-only reference
DOS-era build, InstallShield installer, 32-bit only
Original shipping product. Preserved for archaeology. Source of the v7.0 build lineage. Never modified.
v7.0 Production master — XP golden oracle
Compiled program, deployed on Windows XP SP3
The long-running production release on customer machines before the modernization. Its compiled program was built from source that was never archived — the most critical gap in source archaeology. A pristine unmodified snapshot of this state is preserved as the golden oracle and is never touched.
v11 reference Production Build 11 — read-only baseline
The v11 source reference (closest available to the v7.0 compiled program)
Used as the reference for development and as the comparison target for XP validation testing. Must never be modified — it is the source truth baseline for the diff-based quality process.
v11 development Test build — became ConstructiVision 12
The modernization test build that received every code change
Validated against the XP golden baseline after every meaningful change cycle. No code rewrite — the same AutoLISP codebase that has run for 20+ years, brought to current AutoCAD with a reliable install and update experience.
CV 12 ← SHIPPED: October 1, 2026
Current build CV 12.32.220 (October 21, 2026); full AutoCAD 2025, 2026 or 2027 for Windows (2027 recommended) — not AutoCAD LT, AutoCAD for Mac or AutoCAD on the web
ConstructiVision 12 for AutoCAD. Download at simplestruct.com/downloads; installed copies are offered each new build through ConstructiVision's own update prompt, and every build is listed in the release notes. Coming to the Autodesk App Store.
CV Web ← LIVE in the browser
ConstructiVision Web — no AutoCAD required
ConstructiVision Web runs in any modern browser. Viewing projects is free; editing and the AI features — panel auto-layout and pick simulation — need a membership (plans). Pick simulation is a planning aid, reviewed by a qualified engineer. The AutoCAD product continues alongside the web version.

Stakeholder Map

ConstructiVision has a small, clearly defined stakeholder population. Every machine in the test lab corresponds to a specific role in the product management cycle — field testers run the same build the dev lab validates.

Product Owner

Product Owner / Lead Developer

Product strategy, architecture decisions, DFMEA sign-off, release gate authority. Defines AI-assisted development policy and governs all automated tooling within the project.

Alpha Tester

Alpha Tester A

Field environment. Real-world usage feedback from active construction project work. Issues raised during field testing are filed as tracked work items with DFMEA linkage required.

Alpha Tester

Alpha Tester B

Independent validation path — running the same build as Alpha Tester A on a separate machine. Cross-tester disagreements flag edge cases that single-tester workflows miss.

Test Lab

Win10 x32 Test Node

Automated test target from the modernization. Runs the AutoIT validation suite with OCR comparison against the XP golden baseline.

Test Lab

Win10 x64 Test Node

64-bit validation. Tests 64-bit registry redirection and the current-AutoCAD compatibility path. Catches x64-specific deployment surprises before a build reaches users.

Test Lab

XP SP3 v11 Reference Node

XP compatibility validation. V11 reference build against the v11 production baseline. Rebuilt by comparing against the golden XP oracle — the reconstruction process itself is validated.

Untouchable Oracle

XP SP3 v7.0 Golden Node

The pristine 2008 production environment. MASTER COPY. Never modified. Defines what "correct" means for every OCR comparison. No development activity permitted — ever.

Field Feedback Loop

Field testers and customers receive the same published build — offered by ConstructiVision's own update prompt, with no manual file copying. The loop from field observation to shipped fix is five steps.

Step 1
Code committed
Developer pushes to main; each commit references its tracked work item
→
Step 2
Build published
Fixes are batched into a published build, listed in the release notes
→
Step 3
Verified on the published build
The fix is observed working in the build a customer downloads, installed through the update prompt
→
Step 4
User finds issue
Field usage produces unexpected result; the user reports it with a screenshot
→
Step 5
Bug filed + fixed
DFMEA ID added to the work item; fix committed; loop restarts at Step 1

Turn-Around Time

Installed copies are offered the newest build through ConstructiVision's own update prompt — no reinstall and no manual file copying. A fix counts as verified only once it has been observed working in that published build, not when it is committed. What each build added and fixed is listed in the release notes.

Release Gate Criteria — The Modernization Gate

The release gate is a set of measurable pass/fail conditions — not a calendar date. Every condition maps to a verifiable test result or a version-controlled document state. "Seems fine" and "I think it works" are not gate conditions. The checklist below records the gate as it stood during the early-2026 modernization, before ConstructiVision 12 shipped on October 1, 2026; the statuses are that snapshot, not the state of the shipped product.

1/8
Release gate conditions passing at that snapshot
3/8
Partial / in-progress at that snapshot
4/8
Not yet started at that snapshot

Zero-Touch Deployment to All Stakeholders

Every stakeholder — from the test lab to field users and customers — receives the same published build through the same update path. There are no "alpha builds" produced separately from the customer build. This eliminates an entire category of "it works in the lab but not on the customer's machine" failures.

Download
simplestruct.com/downloads
Unzip, double-click Install.cmd, start AutoCAD. Downloads
Install
AutoCAD application bundle
The CV menu and toolbar load automatically in full AutoCAD 2025, 2026 or 2027 for Windows.
Updates
In-product update prompt
ConstructiVision's own update prompt always offers the newest published build.
Sign-in
SimpleStruct account
Each workstation links to the organization's account once, through a browser sign-in — nothing to type.

One Build, One Update Path

The build SimpleStruct verifies is the build a customer downloads, installed the same way — through ConstructiVision's own update prompt. A fix is not treated as shipped until it has been observed working in that published build.

GitHub Issues — The Single Source of Truth for Work Items

Feature requests, bug reports, tech debt, and deployment tasks all flow through GitHub Issues. The issue template is not optional — the DFMEA Reference section is a required field that connects every work item to the risk register. This creates the bidirectional traceability chain that makes risk coverage measurable rather than aspirational.

// Issue filing guarantee

Every GitHub Issue MUST have:
- Title: [Bug #N] or [Feature] prefix
- ## DFMEA Reference section with DFMEA ID + RPN
- Labels: severity + status + dfmea ID

Every closed issue MUST have:
- Commit hash of the fix
- Updated DFMEA Detection (D) rating if fix adds a control
- Confirmed by: OCR comparison result citing the specific screenshots

// An issue that closes without these is not closed — it's abandoned.

Why This Matters for Product Management

Standard product management assumes the feature backlog and the risk register are separate documents maintained by separate teams. When they are structurally the same graph — every feature generates DFMEA rows, every bug links back to a DFMEA row — the product manager can answer questions that are otherwise impossible: What fraction of our known risk surface has been covered by completed work? Which open features carry the highest pre-validated RPN? Which closed bugs improved the overall RPN distribution? The ConstructiVision DFMEA/issue system makes these questions answerable from version-controlled data.

Framework: DFSS CDOV — What Phase We're In

The project follows the Design for Six Sigma CDOV process (Concept → Design → Optimize → Verify) from Creveling, Slutsky & Antis (2003). ConstructiVision 12 shipped on October 1, 2026 after the Verify phase — validating that the designed and optimized build meets all critical-to-function requirements before release — and verification continues on each published build.

C
Concept — product definition, use case analysis, DFMEA initial rows (complete)
D
Design — source archaeology, menu routing reconstruction, deployment architecture
O
Optimize — regression fixes, menu routing, registry hardening, 64-bit and current-AutoCAD compatibility
V
Verify — AutoIT+OCR multi-configuration validation, DFMEA coverage measurement, verification on each published build (ongoing)

Risk & DFMEA → Quality & Validation → Deployment Pipeline →

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