Feature Requests
john Takeoffs On Overlays Instead of Pages
It would be useful if takeoffs were independent of the blueprint pages altogether, such that takeoffs are performed on transparent "overlays" that can show any combination of underlying blueprint pages...or other overlays. Additionally, you would no longer have to navigate between pages; instead, you could turn them on/off like anything else on the screen (or change their color or opacity). There are numerous advantages to this method:
1. When a plan is revised you could swap out the underlying plan and adjust the takeoffs without having to use copy/paste or move takeoffs to another page.
2. Similarly, options on plans could more easily be accounted for.
3. Multiple overlays could be used for takeoffs over drawings with different scales that occur on the same page.
4. When tracing a point load down from the roof, for example, you could simply mark where you intend to post down and follow it down through the pages to the foundation.
5. Together with elevations as properties of the overlays, overlays over other overlays could allow snapping to points from different levels. Therefore, drops in piping or wiring could easily be calculated without manual adjustment. Stairs could also be figured this way. Perhaps even rafters could be figured without manually entering slope information. In short, this means that vertical takeoffs may be possible as connections between horizontal layers.
6. This method also leaves the blueprint intact. There would be no need for cropping drawings from pages or duplicating pages.
The idea that takeoffs should be independent of pages makes sense. If the blueprint is of a house, then the goal is to build that house and not merely to create a copy of the blueprint with more data--especially when the blueprint is wrong. The blueprint and the takeoff are both representations of the house to be built. Unfortunately, we had to learn about the house from the blueprint.
To put it simply, this is like doing your takeoffs on a transparent blank page “overlaying” your blueprint.
(Bumping this since it may address recent requests.)
If you had dozens of levels with the same layout or similar layouts you could simply copy the entire overlay and takeoffs to different levels. Then you could edit anything that might be different.
On an overlay (which functions as a folder of sorts) you could have a folder for takeoffs and a folder for markups/notes. You could then easily hide all markups via the right click method.
Thanks for the input John. We will discuss further internally 🙂
Here is a brief concept video of me tracing down some point loads to the foundation. This would work just as well if I was making revisions with a revised plan. Notice also that this shows takeoffs on multiple floors on a single overlay because I wanted to experiment with having points from lower levels to snap to…not because I think it should be implemented this way.
Wow. This is an interesting concept. I definitely have had that kind of implementation where I had to multiply everything manually via excel, but never copied down using an overlay. I've always used overlays in OST for changes in drawing sets (i.e. going from 50%DD to 100%DD and change orders).
From a commercial standpoint this may prove to be useful on Multi Family units ? Is that also a consideration?
Mark,
This was definitely a consideration in my thinking!