Material Choice Custom Column

  • Material Choice Custom Column

    Posted by Bob Korup on March 23, 2023 at 11:23 am

    I am working on setting up custom columns for my team and I was wondering if there is a way to associate two different materials and their costs with a single area quantity or will I need another area quantity and column for the second material?

    Troy DeGroot replied 1 year ago 5 Members · 8 Replies
  • 8 Replies
  • Doug McLean

    Member
    March 23, 2023 at 11:53 am
    Points: 12,374
    Rank: UC2 Brainery Blue Belt II UC2 Brainery Blue Belt II

    You will need a second area markup, but you won’t need another Column.

    You could do a second custom column, ‘material 1’ ‘material 2’ but I’m not too sure how any value associated with the material would play out in that scenario.

    Run an experiment

    • Doug McLean

      Member
      March 23, 2023 at 3:54 pm
      Points: 12,374
      Rank: UC2 Brainery Blue Belt II UC2 Brainery Blue Belt II

      I just checked this and it worked out fine.
      I set a Material 1 and a Material 2 Custom Column and gave them each a value.
      Then I build a total column with the formula (Measurement*Material 1)+(Measurement*Material 2)

      To save yourself some headaches, I would put your materials and their cost into a csv file for easy import.

      • Bob Korup

        Member
        March 24, 2023 at 3:26 pm
        Points: 179
        Rank: UC2 Brainery Newbie UC2 Brainery Newbie Belt Rank

        Thanks for the information Doug! I have decided to use different areas for each material as this seems to help everyone understand the estimate more clearly. However, I am now running into an issue when calculating the material costs, where the columns that are not part of my equations are calculating costs. As an example I have four material columns and different costs but my material cost columns are all filled in. Is there anyway around this?

        • Doug McLean

          Member
          March 24, 2023 at 7:00 pm
          Points: 12,374
          Rank: UC2 Brainery Blue Belt II UC2 Brainery Blue Belt II

          One of the headaches with the markups list is that there is no if statement available.

          The work around is get the data to Excel or some other estimating software and do the math there.

  • David Cutler

    Member
    March 23, 2023 at 9:20 pm
    Points: 23,128
    Rank: UC2 Brainery Brown Belt III UC2 Brainery Brown Belt III

    Welcome to the Brainery @korup73

    Great question. I’ve considered doing something similar with my next generation of tools, but haven’t got there yet so I’m curious to see where this leads for you.

    The way I handle this type of situation now for paving as an example is to measure the area of the first step in the paving process, finegrade subgrade. Next I find the paving cross section and make a series of “0” SY takeoffs for my 6” stone base, 6” base paving, 3” Binder, Tack and 1.5” Top. (I set the scale on the detail sheet as 1 inch = 1 Foot on this sheet so a small square measures 0 SY)

    Next I export my markups in a .CSV file and “wash” the data in Excel prior to uploading the “clean” items and quantities into our estimating software, B2W. Part of this washing process is copying the original fine grade quantity into the above referenced “0 SY” items.

    I’ve started to streamline the washing process using Power Query (thank you @Doug McLean and @Vince !), but I have a ways to go….

    • Doug McLean

      Member
      March 24, 2023 at 9:23 am
      Points: 12,374
      Rank: UC2 Brainery Blue Belt II UC2 Brainery Blue Belt II

      keep learning David, you’ll get there

  • Don Walke

    Member
    March 24, 2023 at 10:05 pm
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    Rank: UC2 Brainery Orange Belt IIII UC2 Brainery Orange Belt IIII

    Bob, I use an area measurement in painting take-offs to quantify the ceiling area, the wall area (using “length” function of an area markup multiplied by the “depth”), the lf of baseboard and lf of crown. You have to get a little creative with formulas and additional columns to isolate your totals of specific items. though. I wish that Revu had an “if” function, but there are work-arounds. It seems that a polyline is a polyline no matter what you call it in a toolbox be it a lenth of pipe or lf of crown moulding. My workaround if I want to total a particular line item is to create a choice column with Yes = 1 and no = 0. The column that will total a particular tool will be a formula column that multiplies the length by the result of the choice column (1or 0) so that only tools with a pre-selected “Y” will populate the column. This allows me to sort a plan by space and get totals for each selected tool for each space (in my case room numbers)

  • Troy DeGroot

    Organizer
    March 25, 2023 at 9:03 am
    Points: 20,771
    Rank: UC2 Brainery Brown Belt UC2 Brainery Advanced Brown Belt Rank

    I try to get as many materials estimated out of one markup as possible. I’ve built asphalt volume tools that will give me the cubic ton. then I have a custom column where I enter the thickness of the base under the asphalt area, and another column that calculates the volume of the base in cubic yards. I avoid markups on top of markups. Great discussion and ideas/use cases being shared!

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