Take-off

The take-off measures what the model is made of: how many square metres of plaster, cubic metres of concrete, metres of beam. Give a material a rate and the take-off prices it. Like a schedule, it is read live from the model, so it changes as you draw.

What it measures

Walls, slabs, roofs, ceilings, columns, beams and footings each give one line for each material they are built of:

• an element with an assembly gives a line for each layer (an air gap with no material is left out), as thick as the layer;
• anything else gives one line for its own material.

Walls and strip footings are measured on their joined outline, so a corner where two walls meet is counted once, and a wall stopping at another's face isn't counted into it.

The take-off also lists, each under its own category: doors and windows (one piece each, with their size as area), objects (one piece each), stairs (the run as length, its plan area, and the concrete as a builder estimates it), railings (their length) and masses (their volume as modelled, modifiers and scale included).

Quantities are in metres, square metres and cubic metres.

Rates

A rate is a price for each square metre, cubic metre, metre or piece of a material, in whatever currency you price the project in. Set it:

• in the Materials window: Rate, a number and what it is per; Clear takes it away;
• or in the Take-off table itself, in the Rate and Per columns.

A material without a rate is measured but left out of the priced total.

The Take-off table

File › New schedule › Take-off (or Create › Schedule › Take-off). It opens like a schedule, with a row for each material: the elements it is in, its area, volume and length, its rate, and what it costs. The total cost is at the bottom.

• Tick Group by level in its Properties to list each level's materials under a heading with the level's totals.
• Click a material's name to select everything made of it.
• Place it on a sheet like any schedule. See Sheets.

To Excel

File › Export › Schedules to Excel (.xlsx), or Export Excel on any schedule, writes a workbook: a Summary, a sheet for each schedule, then Take-off (totals by material and by level, priced) and Take-off lines (every element's materials, layer by layer, with a filter on each column). Numbers go in as numbers, so the spreadsheet can sum and sort them.