OpenCADIrrigation Open the app

Storage, privacy and network access

  • Autosave in the browser's database (IndexedDB; the localStorage of earlier versions is the fallback, and their copies move over at start-up), 3 seconds after the last edit, when the page is hidden and, as an emergency copy, when it closes; recent projects (the last 8) in File → Recent projects; versions (the last 10 saves of every project) in File → Version history; recovery on start-up, item by item, of the projects edited and not saved (a file only opened is not copied until it is edited). Projects above 256 KB of JSON are stored compressed; a project takes up to about 64 MB after compression (about 3.5 MB where only localStorage is there). When even that does not fit, the embedded images are left out of the automatic copy, and the app says so once per project (or that the project cannot be kept there: save it to a file). A full storage first makes room with the oldest versions of the same project, then the versions of the other projects, then the other projects already saved to a file, never with work not saved to a file; when nothing fits, the warning stays in the status bar (and on the phone) until a copy fits. The automatic copy is made in the background: the browser compresses it beside the app, so a large project does not hold the window after a design or while editing. A browser warning appears when closing the tab with unsaved changes. File → Browser storage… says where the copies are, how much the site uses, whether the browser keeps them when space runs short (Ask to keep it), lists them and downloads them all in a ZIP; these copies are not a backup: clearing the site data erases them, and Safari does so after 7 days without the site unless the app is installed on the home screen. A project open in another window of this browser is left out of its recovery, and a shared link, a gallery example or a second window of the same project opens as a copy with a new uid.
  • Files: Save writes the .oci.json file (the same file again where the browser lets the app write to it, a download otherwise), Save as… chooses another and Save as copy… keeps a copy with a uid of its own; Open reads from disk. Nothing is sent to any server.
  • Share by link (File → Share by link…): the whole project, compressed, travels inside the address after the #, which browsers send to no server; whoever opens the link gets a copy in a new tab. Images, the photos of comments, the logo of the title block and results are left out (the receiver designs again); a link longer than about 60 000 characters may be cut by mail and chat apps, a project too large for a link is sent as a file, and a link that carries a large project asks before it opens.
  • Offline: once the app has run in a browser, its service worker keeps a copy of the app (about 20 MB, once per version, plus the language pack and the PDF fonts a start uses) and the next start, of the installed app or of the site, works without a network. Base maps, online elevation and climate, catalogues loaded by URL and the AI assistant still need one. A new version downloads in the background; the app then offers to reload into it (unsaved work goes to the autosave), or it is used from the next start. The tiles and points of the online elevation and the climate series downloaded are kept on the device (IndexedDB in the browser, files on the desktop), up to 200 MB with the oldest going first, so making the terrain or the climate again needs no network; File → Saved downloaded data… shows them by kind and clears them.
  • Internet access, for what you ask: online elevation (Terrain Tiles on AWS, Open-Meteo, OpenTopoData in the desktop builds), site climate (NASA POWER by default, Open-Meteo historical weather), base maps (OpenStreetMap or the street map server you set, OpenTopoMap, CARTO, Esri, Google Maps with your own key, or a custom XYZ or WMS URL; the satellite tiles also for Trace on the image), catalogues loaded by URL and the AI assistant. Elevation and climate requests carry the coordinates of the site, nothing of the project. The Google Maps API key is kept in the browser's storage, which any script of the site could read, and sent to Google only (restrict it to the site in the Google Cloud console); where a tile server has no imagery at the current zoom the app scales the nearest coarser tile instead of showing a "no data" placeholder. The fonts of every script and symbol (Chinese, Japanese, Arabic and Indian scripts, emoji, arrows) come from the site itself, never from a font service (see Languages and site).
  • AI assistant (optional, AI assistant): the one feature that sends project data to a third party, and only on your action. Nothing goes out until you send a message; then the requests go only to the company of the model you chose, Anthropic (api.anthropic.com) or OpenAI (api.openai.com, with store: false), with your key for it: your message, the files you attached, the project data you ticked (a compact text built from the report tables and the design messages, with the site position rounded to about a kilometre; the Data sent view shows the exact text of the next message), the earlier messages of the conversation and, while the model works, the results of the tools it calls: tables, items and pictures of the drawing over the base map, satellite imagery included (the terms of the imagery provider, Esri or Google, apply to what goes out; the pictures download their tiles as the screen does, without asking). A site search by address sends the address to OpenStreetMap's Nominatim (nominatim.openstreetmap.org), on your approval unless changes apply automatically. Each key stays in memory while the page is open; with Remember the key on this device it is kept in the browser storage, which any script of the site could read, the visit statistics one (Google Analytics) included. The keys never enter the project file, the autosave, share links or exports, and each goes only to its own company. Voice dictation sends the sound of your voice to the browser's speech service (Chrome uses Google's servers, Edge Microsoft's and Safari Apple's), which returns the text; the app neither records nor keeps the audio, and the text reaches the AI only when you send it. A photo pinned with add_photo_comment keeps a small copy (about 480 pixels) in the project file, left out of share links; the model reads only its size. The AI notes are part of the project file, so they travel with it and with share links. Conversations are kept in this browser's storage (IndexedDB) by project, with their pictures and small attached files but never the keys, so a reload or the project opened again brings them back; the 24 most recently saved are kept (a project may keep several), and Keep conversations in this browser in the assistant's settings turns this off and deletes them. A conversation exported to a file leaves the key and the photos you attached out. The notice when the app is in the background blinks the title of the tab and, if you allow them, shows system notifications; nothing of it leaves the page. What each company does with the requests is governed by your agreement with it.
  • Visit statistics: every page of opencadirrigation.com and the app load Google Analytics 4 in Consent Mode v2: advertising is always denied and, until the visitor accepts, the statistics set no cookie and send Google notices without cookies (each page viewed, and an app_start event when the app starts), so the number of visitors and users can be known. The pages ask once whether the statistics may use cookies; Accept turns on the cookies _ga and _ga_<id>, and Decline, also later with Cookie settings at the foot of the pages, deletes them. The notice is not shown over the app. Like any script of the site, the statistics script runs in the page that holds the projects and the remembered keys. The measurement id is set when the pages are generated (OCI_ANALYTICS_ID, empty for none). The privacy policy (/privacy/) and the terms of use (/terms/) are generated with the pages, and Help → About links them in the interface language.
  • Language and preferences (chosen language, theme, interface size and contrast, the drawing and snap settings, default catalogue, the defaults of new projects and of the title block, where the tutorial stopped, the assistant's settings) are kept in the browser preferences.