HTCH ("hatch")

I'm so stuck.

Our small team built this app and it's pretty powerful. Thing is, now it's so difficult to change anything. How do you decide if it's worth it?

HTCH is built with an older version of nextjs. The backend is a Fastify Node server running a custom graphql endpoint.

ALL of that can be simplified with nextjs server actions now.

Then there's the features directly in the app. One in particular is really tricky. We've got this Collaborative Whiteboard feature that lets you sketch over your 3D models. It works like a sheet of tracing paper that appears over the page and lets you draw.

It works pretty good, but the code is a tangled mess. We have to sync the camera position with the objects in the sketch… and make all that work on different screen sizes.

Now we're hitting bugs and I don't know if I should just throw it all away and start again.

• Will that create any user value?
• Will I just end up with the same tangled mess?

What have you folks done? Wanna hear your stories.

In the AEC world—Architecture, Engineering, and Construction—there's a silent bottleneck that can't keep being ignored: effective collaboration.

Picture this: architects in NY sketching buildings, engineers in London crunching the numbers, and contractors in Dubai ready to make it all happen. Sounds like a dream team, right? Yet, too often, they get caught in an endless loop of emails, misunderstandings, and delayed feedback.

Why does this matter? Because every hiccup along the way doesn’t just slow things down—it drives costs up. In an time where digital tools like Figma and Canva have changed the game for creative collaboration, the AEC sector lags behind. 🐢

With HTCH, our aim is to totally change how an industry collaborates.

I’m Michele, co-founder of HTCH.

Stay tuned and follow HTCH’s journey—exciting updates to come. 🚀✨