Quick Start Guide

CDIA is built for construction and dispute professionals: project managers, commercial managers, quantity surveyors, claims consultants, contract managers, delay experts, expert witnesses, solicitors and tribunal support teams. It is not limited to delay. Payment, variations, instructions, design, access, quality and general commercial questions are all everyday uses.

This guide gets you working in about fifteen minutes. The full detail is in the CDIA V3 User Manual.

1. Getting started

1. Run the CDIA installer (CDIA_Setup.exe) and follow the prompts. CDIA installs like any normal Windows application, with a Start Menu entry and optional desktop shortcut.
2. Start CDIA. On first launch CDIA asks for the email address you used when you started your trial or subscription on cdia.co.uk, and checks it over the internet. First activation can take up to a minute.
3. Once activated, CDIA remembers your licence. It can then work offline for extended periods; it revalidates online from time to time.

You need an internet connection for the first launch. If you have not started a trial yet, start your free 30-day trial first.

2. Choose Cloud AI or Private AI

The first time you create a project or use an AI feature (for example, asking a question on the example project), CDIA asks which AI you want to use. Both use the same evidence controls and citations; you can change your choice at any time in Tools > AI Settings.

Choice	What it means	Good for
Cloud AI (recommended)	CDIA prepares the evidence on your computer and sends only that prepared material to a leading AI provider using your own account key. Strongest reasoning, drafting and advice.	Best results, fastest setup
Private AI	Everything runs on your own computer using a free local AI runtime. A one-time guided setup downloads the AI model (a large download, several GB). Needs 16 GB of memory and ideally a dedicated graphics card; slow without one.	Working fully on-machine

For Cloud AI, CDIA walks you through creating an API key with the provider (this is separate from a chat subscription such as ChatGPT), testing the connection, and consenting to what is sent. For Private AI, CDIA manages the local runtime setup for you.

3. Create a project and add documents

A project is the container for one matter or job. Everything you add is copied in; your originals are never moved or changed.

1. Choose File > Create Project… and name the project (for example, the scheme or dispute name).
2. CDIA then offers a guided import with three categories. Add what you have; you can add more later with File > Add Documents…:

• Project Records: day-to-day material such as correspondence, emails, site diaries, meeting minutes, instructions, applications, photographs of documents (scanned PDFs are fine).
• Reports: reports, claims, statements and other after-the-event accounts.
• Contract: the contract and its schedules.

The categories matter: CDIA keeps day-to-day records, report opinions and contract wording visibly distinct in its answers, so you can always tell what kind of evidence supports a statement.

4. Prepare the project

Preparation turns your documents into searchable evidence.

1. Choose File > Prepare Project (CDIA also offers this during the guided setup).
2. Wait while CDIA reads each document. Scanned or image-only PDFs are recognised and read automatically using CDIA’s built-in text recognition (OCR). You do not install anything extra.
3. When preparation finishes, a Project Ready summary tells you how many documents are ready, and lists by name, with reasons, any that could not be read. A scanned document that could not be read is always reported; it is never silently ignored.

5. Ask your first question

The Ask CDIA screen is home. Type a question in your own words and click Ask.

Try questions like these (they all work on the example project):

• What variations were instructed, and were any disputed?
• Why did Payment Notice 9 certify less than the contractor applied for?
• What does the contract say about oral instructions?
• What happened with access to the east car park, and what effect did it have?
• What do the emails say about the community kitchen enlargement?

If you only want to investigate particular folders or documents, set that first (see step 6). If you say nothing, CDIA investigates across the prepared project.

6. Choose the evidence you want investigated (optional)

You can point an investigation at exactly the material you choose, for example only the Meeting Minutes folder, or only two named documents. Use the source selection on the Ask screen (the filter control in the toolbar) to tick the folders and documents you want.

Your selection is a firm boundary. If you select only the Meeting Minutes folder, CDIA investigates those minutes. It will not quietly add Contractor’s Reports just because your question mentions them. Instead, the answer tells you what was and was not considered.

7. Review the evidence, then continue

CDIA does not answer blind. When you click Ask, it first gathers the relevant evidence and pauses so you can see what it found.

The review lists what was prepared, for example “Contemporaneous records, 2 documents, 2 extracts”, “Report extracts, 1 item”, “Contract, 1 clause”. You can open Review evidence… to inspect and untick anything you do not want used. When you are content, click Continue and CDIA writes the answer from exactly that reviewed evidence.

8. Read the answer and click the citations

Answers are written in plain English, and factual statements cite their sources, for example (Site_Diary_2022_04.pdf, p. 12). Click a citation and the document opens beside the answer, at the cited page for PDFs.

Below the answer, the Investigation Scope note tells you how much of the selected evidence was considered and whether anything could not be included, so you know what the answer does, and does not, rest on.

CDIA also labels evidence honestly: day-to-day records are presented as what the documents record; report content is presented as opinion or assertion, not established fact; contract text is presented as the wording of the terms.

9. Ask follow-up questions

Just keep typing. CDIA understands follow-ups like “Why did they say that?”, “Show me the evidence”, or “What about the week after?” in the context of the investigation you are in. Click + Next Question for a fresh question within the same project, or Reset Investigation to start clean.

10. Ask about a specific document

You can direct CDIA at one document by naming it, including by description, for example: “What does the contractor’s report dated 31 May 2024 say about commercial matters?” Where CDIA can identify the document confidently it reads that document in depth and answers from it, with page citations. If more than one document could match, CDIA asks which you mean rather than guessing.

11. Get Advice

Ask tells you what the evidence supports. Advice goes further: professional analysis and recommendations reasoned from the evidence, competing interpretations, weaknesses, and what to investigate next. Advice is clearly labelled as AI analysis, cites the evidence it reasons from, and never silently mixes into factual answers. It is not legal advice.

Open the Advice tab on the Ask screen after an investigation, or select evidence first and go straight to Advice without asking a question.

Try: “Advise me on the commercial issues I should prioritise.”

12. Create a Draft

Draft turns the investigated evidence into professional written work product, a factual background, a chronology section, a briefing note, or a response letter, with citations to the reviewed evidence. Open the Draft tab after an investigation, or select evidence and draft directly from it. Review before use: a draft is a working document for your judgement, not a determination of entitlement.

Try: “Draft a response to this letter based on the selected evidence.”

13. Other tools worth knowing

• Chronology Builder: build a dated, cited chronology around a topic, then save items into your investigation set.
• Evidence Q&A: closed questioning of an evidence set you have curated yourself.
• Evidence Listing: exact listing of every place a word or phrase appears, matched on the exact wording. Try: Find every reference to “steelwork”.
• Report Q&A: choose particular reports and question them in depth.
• Contract Search: find contract clauses by their wording.
• Activity Investigation: check programme activities against the project records.

All are on the left-hand navigation or the View menu.

14. Scanned documents

Scanned and image-only PDFs, such as signed contracts, notices and old correspondence, are handled automatically. During preparation CDIA detects pages without readable text and reads them with its built-in OCR. If a scanned document cannot be read, the Project Ready summary says so explicitly, names the file, and explains that its text could not be extracted. You will never silently lose a document’s contents.

15. If something does not work

• AI not ready? Check Tools > AI Settings. It shows which AI is selected and whether it is available, and lets you set up Cloud AI or switch.
• Licence question? Help > Licence… shows your current status, including trial days remaining.
• A document did not prepare? The Project Ready details list each affected file and the reason.
• Anything else: Help > Support & Contact. The Copy Diagnostics button copies everything support needs.

16. The full manual

The CDIA V3 User Manual covers every screen, capability and limitation in detail: Help > User Manual, or cdia.co.uk/manual.