Adding items

Creating the lines of the takeoff, and the fields each one carries.

An item is one line of the takeoff: a thing you are measuring, with a unit to report it in. Every drawing on the sheet belongs to exactly one item.

Go to View > Panels > Materials to show the list.

Adding one

Use the add row at the top of the list. You need three things:

1. A name - the readable identity. "6 inch stone base" goes here.
2. A type - Area, Length or Count. This is the only field that decides how the item is drawn, so it is worth getting right first.
3. A unit - offered from that type's catalog. See Units.

Everything else can be filled in later, and most of it can be left alone entirely.

The fields

• Code: the bid item or pay item code from the project's bid schedule. Blank by default. It is not a short name for the material - the coverage badge matches on it.
• Name: the readable identity.
• Type: Area, Length or Count. Fixes which units the item can report in and how it is drawn.
• Unit: the reporting unit.
• Value: the measured quantity. Derived - you never type it.
• Plan Qty: the contract quantity from the bid schedule, to measure your takeoff against.
• Unit Price: for pricing.
• Multiplier: waste, coats, lifts. See the factor formula.
• Colour: the fill and pattern its drawings take on the sheet.

Checking your takeoff against the plans

Where an item has a Code, the list compares what you measured against how often that code is called out on the sheets, and badges the row:

• Match: they agree, or every called-out sheet has a measurement.
• Under: fewer measured than called out, or a called-out sheet has nothing on it. Usually a missed takeoff, and the reason to fill in Code at all.
• Over: more measured than called out. Count items only, and informational.

An item with no Code, or a code on no sheet, has nothing to reconcile and shows no badge.

Notes

• Item IDs must be unique. A project with duplicates refuses to load; importers reassign and loaders repair.
• Hole is not an item type. A hole belongs to a drawing, which is why the type picker only offers Area, Length and Count. See Editing drawings.