zzTakeoff Data Container

Hey Luis, zzTakeoff currently can't connect directly to your SQL database, but it is something that is on our radar.

What is it about zzTakeoff that doesn't let it connect to an SQL database?

It's mostly that we need to build out the infrastructure to be able to connect to an SQL database and interact with that data in a useful way within zzTakeoff. For your use case, what are you trying to accomplish?

I guess I am trying to understand how zzTakeoff stores, calls and loads its data. I dug into OnScreenTakeoff in the past and understood that it just writes all its data points and values into a .mdb file and then the .exe file reads it and displays it to the user, so you can just automate creating conditions and tie em to one another using conditionIDs and perent IDs and the such. And I have just recently started using Sage Estimating to generate the balance of the estimates and it too runs off a SQL database, so was wondering if zzTakeoff is able to export data packages that matches Sages import to just autopopulate takeoff items, their quantities and unit of measurements.

Would be a nice workflow for Sage x zzTakeoff users if it doesnt exist already

You know what, I am just seeing the Ediphi custom property feature and probably don't fully understand it to use it. Is this similar to what I am describing, if so what would be the best resource to read up on this.

Gotcha. Since we are an online takeoff software, we store our data in the cloud and send it to the users from our servers. The takeoff data is not stored on the user's computer.

In one of our upcoming updates, we are releasing "scripting," which will allow you to import takeoffs from scripts or build custom exports directly from zzTakeoff into a format that Sage expects.

We have some preliminary export features to Ediphi, but it is through a CSV that they import. We are planning to upgrade this in the future, along with adding built-in support for other estimating software such as Sage, Bidbow, etc.