Leveraging Beam Tool for Ductile Iron Pipe

This is something I'll actually need to leverage with every type of pipe we sell. Most are 20' lengths...but the mission is the same - get it to round on the total quantity per take off, not by segment.

hi david you can accomplish this quite easily with round up to nearest.

if your item is entered as a cost per ft you would round up to nearest 18

if your item is costed per 18ft length you would round up to nearest 1

keep it simple...yes this works wonderfully. ty

Out of curiosity, as a utility contractor, I am wondering why not round up each segment?

In your scenario above (using 18' sticks), I need two sticks of DIP to install the 33 LF segment, I need three sticks for the 40' segment, and I need two sticks for the 25' segment. The 03' "leftover" section from the first segment gets tossed, I cut the second stick for the 25' run and use the 11' "leftover" as my third stick on the 40' segment. So yes, in this scenario I would only need 108', but in many scenarios I need more than that.

In your scenario above (using 20' sticks), I need two sticks of DIP to install the 33 LF segment, I need two sticks for the 40' segment, and I need two sticks for the 25' segment. That being said, I can cut the second stick of the 33' and bevel the edge of the "left-over" to be used as the 05' stick for the 25' run. So all in, I need 100 LF of pipe for the 98' to be installed.

Has anyone come up with a formula (or use AI) that can take the total segments and work through the logic so that we are only buying what we need, and are never "short" material? We run into this same scenario with all pipe types, and I am looking to Standardize.

@ Justin

Unfortunately (or fortunately?) the Cutting Stock Problem may not be reducible to a simple equation that will work optimally in every scenario. Related to the Knapsack Problem and ultimately the problem of P vs NP we quickly find ourselves at the brink of the unknown. There are of course algorithms that can solve these sorts of problems, but the question is: What amount of computational complexity are we willing to embrace in order to satisfy a particular degree of accuracy?

@John,

The joys of being an estimator..... We can all push the "easy" button and just round up to the nearest stick for each segment or the nearest stick for the total footage. We also could do it the "hard" way and run through scenarios. Each estimator gets to make that decision with the company/team they are working with, and I'd guess that each person has a different answer to the age old problem.