On every plan, including Free
A room for NDT consultants, shared across firms.
A forum organised by topic, a directory of the people in it, and a way to ask a more experienced member to mentor you — shared by the staff of every consultancy on TRACE. It is the one part of TRACE that is deliberately not walled off to your firm, and none of your records ever appear in it.
Who it's forThe consultant who is the only Level III in the building, and would like somebody to ask who has seen the problem before.
What it does
Community, in detail.
A forum, by topic
Threads sit under topics — methods and techniques, codes and standards, certification and training, running a consultancy, general discussion, and feedback on TRACE itself — with the replies in order under the question they answer. You can edit what you wrote, and it is marked as edited, or delete it; nobody else can rewrite your words.
A directory you choose to be in
Nothing about you appears until you fill in a short profile — your name, a headline, a few lines about yourself, your region, years in the work, your methods and a summary of your certifications. Until then you can read but not post. Once you join, other members can find you by name or method; hide your profile from the directory whenever you like from your profile page.
Ask someone to mentor you
A member can say on their profile that they are open to mentoring, and on which topics, and the directory can be narrowed to just those people. Ask one and they accept or decline; either of you can end it later. Requests and answers arrive on the notification bell in TRACE, not by email.
Moderated, with a way to say something
Report a post and it goes to a moderator queue rather than into a void. TRACE staff can pin a thread to the top of its topic, lock it so no more replies land, or remove a post that breaks the rules — remove, never edit.
Technicians only where you let them
A technician login sees nothing here until you open it for them from their record, and then only the topics you pick — never the directory, never mentoring. What they post in those topics is read the way yours is, by staff at every firm on TRACE.
Your records stay out
Nothing from your account — companies, technicians, certifications, documents — is ever visible in Community; only what someone typed into it. Client portal logins have no access at all, and the demo workspace can read but not post.
How it works
Day to day.
- 1
Fill in your profile
Open Community from the sidebar and answer the short questionnaire. That is the door: it is what lets you post, reply and ask for a mentor.
- 2
Read first, then ask
Browse the topics, and start a thread when your question isn't already there. Replies land under it in order.
- 3
Find the person who has done it
Search the directory by method, or narrow it to members open to mentoring, and ask.
- 4
Let a technician in, if you want to
From a technician's record, choose the topics they may read and post in. It is off until you do.
Shared across firms on purpose — so write accordingly
Community is the one place in TRACE that is not walled off to your consultancy. What you post, and what your profile says, can be read by the staff of every other consultancy on TRACE and by any technician another firm has let into that topic. Hiding your profile takes you out of the directory; it does not take your name off what you have already posted, and if your account is deleted your posts stay under that name so a conversation keeps its answers. It is no place for client names, job details or anything under an NDA. TRACE does not vet what members say: a reply is one practitioner's view, not a ruling on a code, and your written practice still governs. Community comes with every TRACE plan, Free included, but not with the single-product standalone accounts. And it is new — it is as useful as the people in it, and we would rather you saw how many there are from the inside than read a number from us here.
Want to see it on your own program?
Tell us how your NDT program runs today and we'll show you how this fits it.