One thing to remember is that an area markup has a length component consisting of the perimeter length. If you click and drag the area of a rectangular room, the length will reflect the base quantity.

Like a friend once told me, sometimes the best tool in your toolbox is a checkbook. This kind of fits the bill here. For an accurate estimate, give the plane to a supplier, that’s what they do. For a budget I’ve found the best is to do what Vince said and #/CY concrete and the steel supplier’s cut list will get you started.

It took Grok 2 minutes to do what can be done within Revu in about 10 seconds. What amazed me is the ability of AI to interpret a simple sentence and make a logical connection to the data presented.

I tried an experiment with Grok3. I uploaded a .csv file with markups and asked for it to be sorted and totaled. Not only did it get it right, it explained every step it took to come up with the answer.

One idea that makes things a little easier for me is bringing the line length into a custom column titled Markup (MU) Length with the formula “Length” so that I can see all of the variables on the Properties panel. I do the same with Area and Count since those three things are in reality the only thing that Revu graphically measures. I keep…

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One Million Dolla!

Well, I played around with the issue and it only happens with a two segment inside corner. I create my room spaces after using a double line style for the room perimeter and having the space follow the outside line. When I create a two segment inside corner I can shorten one segment enough that if it formed a triangle, the entirety of…

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An annoying little glitch has popped up. I usually sort my take-offs by spaces, more specifically rooms. I use polyline tools to quantify wall finishes and lately when there is an inside corner, the polyline will not be included in the designated space even though visually it is totally confined within the space. If I break the polyline at…

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Yes, definitely a lot of functionality with Excel. The point was to accomplish all of the number manipulation up to a summary csv export. That is the point where the pricing is applied.

What I really would like to see is to have the ability to assign some sort of designator to a polyline or area markup. Let’s call it “PolylineA”, “PolylineB” and “PolylineC” which would translate into “LengthA”, “LengthB” and “LengthC” which you could use in your formulas so a custom column with a formula that referenced “LengthA” would generate…

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I hear you. I’m pushing 80 custom columns on one profile for painting take-offs. I use the technique quite a bit and on a lot of the Y_N columns I add in a D with a (-)1 assigned. I use it to deduct length of baseboard and wall area when taking off an interior door. I like not having to manipulating the numbers much in a spreadsheet.

It’s a simple fix. For example, for your concrete takeoff custom column, add another custom column ahead of the formula column with a choice Yes or No. Assign a value of 1 to the Yes and 0 to the No. Name the column “Continuous Footing Y-N” and add to your formula the modifier ” * [Continuous Footing Y-N] “

If you choose “Y” the column…

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I use Spaces to to sort the markup list and noticed that when I used the order function, the markup up or down in the markup list within the sorted space group. I don’t know if this has any usefulness other than just tidying things up a bit.

Well, I was trying to grab a markup on the screen and had to bring it forward with the “order” function. I saw something flicker over on the other screen on the markup list. The markup I was manipulating with the order function moved up in the list. I had thought that it only manipulated the ability select a markup on screen only. Now I…

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I’ve found that at times the measurement variable works in a formula when the length doesn’t. I think it has to do with the units assigned to a length whereas the measurement is strictly a value. An interesting side note, I use an area measurement and the associated length measurement in room take-offs ( floor area, ceiling area, wall area,…

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Will take a look, thanks.

This is a minor issue for most, I’m sure. While checking some custom column formulas that calculate area and perimeter of an ellipse, I created an ellipse and used dynamic fill to get an area measurement. I then compared that to the formula generated area and dynamic fill area was consistently lower (only slightly) every time. What I found is…

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Yep, I bailed on QL a couple of years ago. I sort everything by space, mostly by room number and name and am able to use filters to organize the data. Export totals via CSV file where unit prices are applied. I use plan view almost exclusively so I can create a space per room, but sometimes there are items that can’t be measured on plan view so…

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Just curious, are you take-offs limited to lf and type of base, crown, casing, jamb extension, picture rail, chair rail, ect. and door count, type and size? Area of wood ceilings, wall paneling, wainscot, ect?

If so, I’ve found that Revu by itself can give you those quantities with relatively few clicks if you utilize the custom column and…

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I know what you are talking about, I just wanted to express that the tools in the tool box have all of those attributes you are talking about already assigned. As an example, in the painting profile I have a polyline tool for the sf of painting area associated with an interior 8″ x 12″ ceiling beam. The tool already has the layer…

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Isn’t that the point of the tool box? I have, on the Painting profile, probably a hundred tools with layers and custom column attributes/values assigned.

You may be right, however I watched part of the instructional video and it kind of gave me the willies. I’m retired and do this for fun and to help out a few subcontractors that I used to contract with as a GC, and what’s that about an old dog and new tricks? Anyway, I’ve seen many of your posts and you are very talented to say the least.

Two things that would be helpful, an “if” function and multiple tools for area, perimeter and polyline. Say, if there were polylines PL001, PL002, PL003 as choices under the measurement properties tab, you could have a custom column that tallies only PL002 and another column that tallies only PL003. Then, a polyline tool that is created with…

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That’s a thought. I worked through that scenario and with my particular work flow, and with most of the additions (doors, windows, casing at exterior doors, wainscot, ect.) and adjustments (add/delete crown, 1/2 beams at perimeter, ect.) the markup is placed on the interior wall finish line, the same line that I calculate room area with. If…

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Area markup from tool chest would be great.

I have a few dozen area tools for anything from flat, sloped (pitches 1 thru 12), barrel and elliptical ceilings, shutter area, wall area (if cant be acquired from plan view) so setting a default area measurement wouldn’t work.

Yes, area measurement before space. I played around with the “area markup from space” but I have so many custom column attributes assigned to my different area tools that it wouldn’t do me any good.

Yes, I do capture all of the quantities from one area measurement. The area gives me the ceiling area and the “Length” gives me the wall area (L x…

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I do a lot of interior room finish take-offs and organize my work by Room # and Room Name using “Spaces.” This usually involves first creating the spaces by outlining each room using the Spaces function, being careful to place the space lines outside the interior finish wall lines but leaving room so I have a place to insert the outline of…

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It’s great how you pick up little tidbits of info here. Tried it out and found that I didn’t need to hold the ctrl/shft at all, just grab the blue dot on any corner and the markup will be scaled with the opposite corner static.

That’s where the “floor” and “ceiling” function come in. Could have called them “roundup” and “rounddown” but looks like they followed “SQL” whatever that is. I just happened to run across the terminology on a web search and noticed the same functions in Revu so tried them out.

That’s kind of where I’m heading with this. I used Vince’s formula and tried it out on a couple dozen random sized rooms and ended with right at 10% waste over actual room areas. Throw in an extra 5% for the pack of tile that the guys spilled coffee on when the new break truck girl pulled up and the bundle of track that got rolled over by…

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That’s great, thanks for the advise. Will give it a try. You are right about orientation, would need multiple tools to address different rooms and rotate drawings for those odd cases.

This one got me thinking about the “round” function. Does anyone know the proper syntax to use and can you round up and round down? If you are taking off quantities of ceiling tile for instance, any measurement over an increment of 4 feet in the long direction would require an additional tile. You could take a measurement, divide by 4,create…

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That’s and interesting one. I’ve thought about this problem a few times, thinking that a standard waste factor would be the solution, but when you think about a millwork project where sticks come in increments of 2 feet and you run across a job where every piece is 10′-2″, you end up with 18-19% waste. If every piece is 4′-2″, the waste…

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This is interesting. I from time to time on my finishes take-off need to calculate wall paper roll counts. With some custom papers going for over $500/roll you don’t want to over buy and with the repeat on some paper being 24″ to 36″ my best solution was to take a snapshot of the paper off of the supplier’s web site, scale it and actually line…

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That will be an interesting discussion. Assuming you are more likely than not referring to veneer direction on plywood. I would personally attack this with appropriate waste factors and let the fab guys work the details.

You could also create a couple of custom columns to calculate the area less the cutouts. First, create a column titled for example “Wall Area Y-N-D” which would be a choice with Yes, No and Deduct as the choice and +1, 0 and -1 as the associated values. Then create a “Total Wall Area” column which would be a formula (Area * “Wall Area Y-N-D”…

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It’s hard to determine exactly what the info provided will be used for, but I assume, from a builder’s perspective the info is used to both organize and estimate the costs of windows, doors and installation.

As mentioned above, a count and an area markup will do the trick if a proper workflow is set up. My take as follows:

Go to the window and…

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Well….grouped an area measurement with a sequence tool, that didn’t work. The area attribute disappeared from the markup after grouping. Next…..

I always keep an unaltered original just in case. Some architects eave up to several hundred layers in their drawings and come to think about it, maybe nest all the originals under a new collapsed “Architect” layer and keep my layers separate. 🤔

Also, If I can isolate the layer that has a hatch showing type of wall for example, I delete the cont of that layer so that if I am trying to select a corner of a room I don’t accidentally select an intersection between a wall line and a hatch line.

I generally delete the architects layers prior to doing my take-off, as I use layers to organize and better view my work. You should get a dialog box confirming the deletion with the option of saving or removing the content of the layer.

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…

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Thanks, will give it a go.

That sounds great. Got any clues on how to set up a macro? Last time I did anything like that was using Lotus 123.

Join the club. I may be off base, but my understanding is that “save to profile” in this instance saves the columns to that particular PDF. Try going to profile/save profile, them profile/manage profiles and export the profile o a directory for safe keeping. I’ve had profiles get corrupted and had to delete them and import a copy.

As far as sorting goes, I use a prefix number on my tool subject names so that when i sort by subject, the markups will be in a specific order and not alphabetical.

This is an interesting topic. The major point I see is that there is a difference between estimating and project buy-out. While in the estimating function, You are most likely bidding against other bidders and need to be careful not to bloat the pricing and lose out on the bid. It needs to be quick and efficient, adjusted for market…

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