Estimating
Estimating could include material take-offs for simple quantities or complex pricing. Whether you... View more
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Tools for steel column take offs
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Tools for steel column take offs
Looking for a way to do steel column take off. Things that are flat on the document and you can make 2 points for measurements is pretty easy. When you have a steel column that is coming in and out of the page, what is the best way to create a mark up tool for this? I have created custom columns for top and bottom elevations with formulas to subtract the 2 and achieve a length, is there a better simpler way?
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9 Replies
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Points: 23,744Rank: UC2 Brainery Brown Belt III
You could use the volume tool to draw the shape, then use the Depth parameter on the Measurement Panel to provide the height of the column. Workflows are different for everyone, does that seem like it would work?
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Points: 1,248Rank: UC2 Brainery Yellow Belt
Probably about the same as what I am doing now. Just wishful thinking that there might be something better.
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Points: 2,323Rank: UC2 Brainery Yellow Belt IIII
It looks like you’re using the Area tool for this, is there a specific reason for this instead of the Count tool? It would be a small time savings that may add up if you just need to click once to place instead of click and drag to place. The Count tool can take a bit longer to understand because it has the Split and Combine features that the Linear and Area takeoff don’t have.
Besides that, you seem to be doing what I would suggest.
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Points: 1,248Rank: UC2 Brainery Yellow Belt
Had not thought about the count tool, I will experiment with that.
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Points: 15,212Rank: UC2 Brainery Advanced Blue Belt
you can also add measurement attributes to a count too, look into that a bit as well
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Points: 23,744Rank: UC2 Brainery Brown Belt III
I like the idea of a count tool with a “depth”. When I suggested the area tool I was thinking you would keep the original shape as the tool and not have to draw a new one every time. If you use the count tool you can create a better symbol with the shape of the member, or just a circle with WF or HSS inside. I would still use the “Depth” parameter for the height just because other markups have a height & width which are actually the length & width of the markup. I wouldn’t want to have the Height column turned on and confuse everything… Just thinking out loud.
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Points: 26,754Rank: UC2 Brainery Advanced Brown Belt
I haven’t ever performed a steel takeoff , but your approach sounds pretty reasonable to me @ChrisRiley
What type of markup tool are you using?
At this point if you only have to click to apply the tool and add two data points it seems you have a pretty efficient system.
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Points: 816Rank: UC2 Brainery White Belt III
I use a count tool and put the column information in the label.
e.g. Column Count W12x26 @ 32′
I do output markups to an excel file and calculate the weight(s) in excel.
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Points: 816Rank: UC2 Brainery White Belt III
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