Keeping discussion and status in Xenmark means your team has one timeline to look at instead of reconstructing progress from emails and meeting notes.
Replies
Any project member can add replies to a comment. Participants (the engineering firm) typically use replies to acknowledge comments or describe how they intend to address them.
Replies are threaded under the comment they belong to, visible in the Review Panel and on the drawing. They are included in the activity log that records what happened during the review.
Statuses
Statuses show where each comment stands in the review cycle:
- Open — newly raised, not yet addressed.
- In progress — set automatically as the review progresses. Reflects activity on the item.
- Closed — the item is complete and requires no further action.
Project Managers and Editors can move comments between Open and Closed. The In progress status reflects automatic progression and cannot be manually set.
When to reply vs. when to change status
Use a reply to add information — an explanation, a clarification, a reference to a revised drawing, or a question.
Use a status change when the standing of the item changes — marking a comment Closed when the issue is confirmed addressed, or reopening it to Open if further action is required.
Changing a status without adding a reply is fine for routine progress updates. For contested items or significant changes, combine a reply with the status change to leave a clear record.
Avoiding ambiguity
Be deliberate about what a status means in your team’s workflow. If your team uses Xenmark as the record of what was reviewed and addressed, make sure everyone understands what Closed means in your context.
Status changes in Xenmark are coordination records, not formal contractual approvals or certifications. If your project requires formal approval records, those should be managed through a dedicated process outside Xenmark.