06 — Test Files & Feature Walkthroughs¶
Where to get realistic test files (drawings, PDFs, spreadsheets, photos), what each set is for, and where the step-by-step "click here, expect this" guides live.
1. The test-files folder¶
All test files (drawings, PDFs, spreadsheets, photos) live on the Cara Shared Drive:
If you can't open it, ask Marko to add you to the Shared Drive.
These are real HVAC Construction bid documents — treat them as client-confidential. Use them freely inside staging, but don't re-share the folder outside the team.
| Subfolder | What's inside | Use it to test |
|---|---|---|
drawings/ |
PDF + DWG plan sets. Three DWG drawings (1 Battery Park Plaza, Sheetmetal Shop Ground Floor, 390 Park Avenue) with matching reference PDFs, plus E25-1474 ME IFB.pdf — the benchmark takeoff test PDF (see tip below). |
Project Drawings tab (DWG upload + viewer), bid Takeoff viewer (PDF). |
estimates-xlsx/ |
Estimate spreadsheets — one ductwork job (E25-1474), one piping job (E25-1500), plus an HVAC Bids Log. | Estimating flows and spreadsheet imports. |
daily-log-photos/ |
Site photos in phone formats (JPG/HEIC, mixed portrait/landscape). | Daily Log photo uploads. |
docs-pdfs/ |
A purchase order, a subcontract, a recap report. | Documents / attachment uploads anywhere the app accepts a PDF. |
sample-project-A/ |
A complete real bid (E25-1474 — 437 Madison Ave, 3rd floor): IFB plan set, estimate spreadsheet, takeoff drawing, recap, and a Vendor Quotes/ tree with ~70 quote PDFs and Outlook .msg files. |
One end-to-end walkthrough: create bid → upload documents → takeoff → estimate. Also great for stress-testing bulk upload and odd file types (.msg). |
Tips:
- Download files locally first, then drag-drop into the app — that's how real users work.
sample-project-A/is self-contained: everything for one job in one folder. Start there if you want a realistic single-project session.- E25-1474 is our takeoff benchmark project — the correct equipment counts are known. If your takeoff numbers look off, ask me (Claude Code) what the expected counts are before filing a bug.
- The
.msgfiles (Outlook emails) are deliberately included — good for checking how the app handles file types it may not preview.
2. Step-by-step guides: the Walkthroughs section¶
Per-feature, click-by-click test scripts live in Walkthroughs — each page is a narrative test plan (open X, click Y, expect Z) with a Prerequisites section that names the exact test file to download.
Available now — ordered roughly by the charter's testing priority:
| Walkthrough | Covers |
|---|---|
| End-to-End — Preconstruction Lifecycle | Start here. Bid Invite through Award (with the Declined/Lost/No-Bid/Withdrawn exits) — the real business story with the reasoning behind each stage, not just the clicks. |
| Detailed Reference — Sample Project A | One real bid (E25-1474) from creation through documents, takeoff, and estimate — uses the whole sample-project-A/ folder. |
| Login (Cara Vault) | Sign-in, error states, recovery, session expiry, and the dev role switcher you'll use for every per-role check. |
| Takeoff | Bid PDF → takeoff viewer → calibrate → measure → push to Estimate. Uses drawings/E25-1474 ME IFB.pdf. |
| Estimate Sheet | The estimate grid: scope lines, vendor quotes, Budget/Bid/Cost math, alternates, revisions, profit gating. |
| Excel Imports | The two flows that actually parse spreadsheets (takeoff grid import, submittal log). Uses estimates-xlsx/. |
| Proposals | Proposal PDF generation from the active estimate revision — each version freezes a snapshot that never changes afterward, even if the live estimate does. |
| Projects & Project Detail | Projects list, creation paths, the tab-strip scope map, Budget confidentiality, Team, Documents. |
| RFIs | Draft → send (email+PDF) → response → close, exports, AI draft. |
| Submittals | Full lifecycle, engineer decisions, revisions, Smart Upload, Generate Register. |
| Change Orders | The four change-order types — PCO, CO, ICO, and Backcharge — their lifecycles, PCO→CO spawn, profit visibility, exports. |
| Project Drawings | DWG/PDF upload to a project, parse statuses, and the drawing viewer. Uses the DWG+PDF pairs in drawings/. |
| Daily Logs | Field log lifecycle: create, fill sections, photos, complete/reopen, PDF/CSV export. Uses daily-log-photos/. |
| Cara Copilot & Hub | The Cara widget (page-aware), Hub threads, attachments, SOV generation, budget-cap state. |
| Drawing Viewer — Layer Classification | Admin-side layer classification rules and coverage dashboards. |
Known gap: SharePoint Import & Sync (doc 02, Priority 10) shipped after these walkthroughs were written and doesn't have one yet.
If a flow you need to test still has no walkthrough, ask me — I can trace the intended behavior from the code (see 03 — How to Test) and we can turn it into a new walkthrough page.
Next: pick a Walkthrough and start testing — you already know how to file what you find (doc 04).