Just a exciting update about progress on the .cto file type that several Senior Research Fellows are helping push!

When a bathroom pod leaves a factory in New Hampshire and ends up installed in a building in Boston, a lot can go wrong along the way. Who owns it during transport? Whose insurance responds if it's damaged on the crane? When does it stop being a manufactured good and become real property?

Until now, construction had no standard way to answer those questions in a machine-readable file. Version 0.1.4 of the CTO file format changes that.

Every product in a CTO-formatted design now carries a complete record of the parties responsible for it (i.e. the manufacturer, logistics company, general contractor, hoisting company, and installers) along with their insurers, policy numbers, and coverage types. Combined with the format's existing chain-of-custody framework, this means the legal and financial story of every building component is encoded directly in the design file from day one.

The spec also introduces a three-layer geometry standard. This separates the lightweight spatial envelope used for design coordination from the richer 3D model used for visualization and the 2D drawings used for permitting and construction documentation.

We continue to follow a simple principle with this work: the .CTO file is a chain-of-custody and coordination tool, not a financial disclosure document. It identifies who the parties are and confirms their insurance is in place. This way, the terms of their agreements remain private.