Ask ZI

Two ways to ask

ZI (ZEROBiE Intelligence) opens from the floating button at the bottom right. In guide mode, ask how to use the application: for example, how to upload a file, read a finding or restore a revision. The answer quotes this guide and shows its source passages.

In Settings › AI (ZI), Use project data switches to a limited project snapshot. That choice is off by default. It lets you ask about the stored counts, model summaries and workflow information supplied for that project. Guide instructions and project evidence are separate modes; turn the choice off to return to guide questions.

What project mode can read

Project mode sends Anthropic the question, recent conversation context and a limited authorized snapshot. This includes model names and summaries, stored analysis counts and your permitted workflow queue. On an element-history page it also includes that Object ID, recorded name and identity, finding counts and a sample of up to five current findings.

Counts describe the timestamp and scope printed in the answer. A sample is not the complete list. With model search enabled and a model selected, the assistant can search recorded classes, indexed properties and exact element names. A selected object's evidence can include a limited listing of recorded and governed property values. It does not parse raw IFC or send geometry to Anthropic. If the supplied evidence does not answer your question, it says so.

Find an element by name

With a model selected and Use project data enabled in AI settings, ask `Find elements named "Plant room door"` or `How many elements are named "Plant room door"?`. This requires model search to be enabled. Use double quotes and the complete recorded name, up to 160 characters.

The name must match exactly, including capitals, spaces and Unicode spelling. This is not a search for similar names or part of a name. The answer counts all matching recorded elements in that model and shows at most eight examples that have Object IDs in your project. It states the model, read time and sample limit. Missing identities and ambiguous geometry do not gain viewer links.

Read the source before acting

Expand a source beneath an answer to read the passage it came from. Guide citations can open the matching documentation section. A project citation describes an authorized snapshot, not a public documentation page.

For a selected object with a viewable recorded version, View object version opens that exact model and element in the viewer. The number is the object's recorded version. Missing or measured shapeless elements have no viewer action. An alias is not silently replaced by a different object.

When model search is available, a matching-element source can include a count and a limited sample. Expand the source to see each sampled element's history link. A View object version action appears beside an element only when its identity and geometry are verified in the selected model. The count itself has no element link.

What an answer does not do

An answer does not edit a model, write an IDS requirement, change a finding or approve a revision. It cannot accept a parcel return or merge a master model. Those decisions stay in their own review and permission workflows.

The assistant returns verified source passages, but it can still select a passage that does not answer the question well. Read the source and its scope. Do not treat a summary, score or AI answer as evidence that a building meets a regulation or that a project has completed its information-management obligations.

Privacy and starting again

On first use, ZI asks whether to use project data and save conversations. Both start off. Continue records your choices with the notice version and time. ZI asks again if that notice changes. Settings › AI (ZI) holds these choices, including an override for the current project. Switching project, model or object clears the active conversation and applies your saved choice for that project. New conversation starts fresh without deleting saved history.

Where saved history is available, Save conversations in AI settings is a separate account choice, off by default. It saves future questions and final responses; earlier turns are not added. Turning it off prevents future saving. History lets you search conversation titles, reopen, rename and delete conversations. AI settings can delete all saved conversations. These are personal records, not findings, approvals or changes to a model.

A saved conversation becomes unavailable 30 days after it is created. Adding questions does not extend that time. Expired records are removed by maintenance. Opening history does not send a question to Anthropic. To continue a saved project conversation, allow project data in AI settings for that project; current access to that project context is required. Saved answers describe the snapshot used at the time, not the current project state. Changes to project permissions, task-team membership or current file holdings can make a saved project conversation unavailable. You can still delete your saved conversation.

If a guide question is explicitly identified as missing from the guide, it may be saved to improve the documentation and is retained for 90 days. Project questions do not enter that guide worklist. An unavailable assistant or an answer that cannot be verified does not become a documented fact.