Is anyone here a commercial contractor?

[Silverstix]

Hey gang,

Is anyone here in the commercial construction business?  Specifically, someone involved with estimating and takeoffs?  I am my company's chief estimator and I have been tasked with researching digital on-screen takeoff software options for our company to look into.  We do all of our takeoffs by hand now, but the industry is sort of forcing us to looking into going digital.  If anyone out there is involved with this type of stuff and has some input they can share, it would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks!

Tom

[prodigy]

I just graduated. Bluebeam is the way of the future and the current most used program in the industry.

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[prodigy]

A close second would be onscreen take off

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[Corylax18]

I've been out of school for about 8 years now, but "On Screen Take Off" was all we used at that point. I have heard a lot about Bluebeam, but I am not personally familiar with it. I'm lucky, my current company has its own in house engineering and CAD Departments, and we spec 90% of our own patented materials, so my "Estimating" work load is very light. 

[Silverstix]

I use Bluebeam mainly as a PDF reader and for marking up PDF's with notes/callouts, that type of thing.  I know that Bluebeam has a lot more capabilities than we use it for right now.  I'll give "onscreen take off" a look for sure, thanks guys.  Some of the other programs I found so far that look promising are FASTpipe, Trimble, McCormick, and Wendes.  But I'm really in the beginning stages of researching this.  I'll have to give Bluebeam a closer look too since we already have it on our machines

[prodigy]

I use Bluebeam mainly as a PDF reader and for marking up PDF's with notes/callouts, that type of thing.  I know that Bluebeam has a lot more capabilities than we use it for right now.  I'll give "onscreen take off" a look for sure, thanks guys.  Some of the other programs I found so far that look promising are FASTpipe, Trimble, McCormick, and Wendes.  But I'm really in the beginning stages of researching this.  I'll have to give Bluebeam a closer look too since we already have it on our machines

Bluebeam will also send out a rep to do training. Not sure if it's free or not, but they are glad to help. Give them a call and tell them what exactly you want to be able to do and they will train your team.

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[n2advnture]

22 hours ago, Silverstix said:

I use Bluebeam mainly as a PDF reader and for marking up PDF's with notes/callouts, that type of thing.  I know that Bluebeam has a lot more capabilities than we use it for right now.  I'll give "onscreen take off" a look for sure, thanks guys.  Some of the other programs I found so far that look promising are FASTpipe, Trimble, McCormick, and Wendes.  But I'm really in the beginning stages of researching this.  I'll have to give Bluebeam a closer look too since we already have it on our machines

This is all my company uses it for (commercial electrical).  The CAD/Coord department uses it mostly.

We've looked at many and we still take off by hand.  It seems every job has too many specific items to use a program.  Maybe it's because of our industry.

So, I would say if your estimates are constantly priced items then a program would be better.

We use Accubid Change Order for change orders and they have a bid program I believe.  I think they are owned by Trimble now.

FYI - Stay away from Sage Timberline products.  Horrible company 

Added link to the Trimble estimating software

https://mep.trimble.com/products/estimating

[scap99]

I do all my takeoffs by hand, but it's only because there's no rhyme or reason to how the air distribution side of HVAC is laid out.

I mark up the PDFs with Adobe Acrobat, and then transfer my count to a piece of paper.  I also use Adobe to scale my drawings for any linear slots that may be shown.  It's more accurate than I trust myself to be with a scale.

[mdinius]

@Silverstix I’ve worked for a Top 150 General Contractor for 10+ years now as their BIM Manager and Technology Manager. We’ve worked very closely with our estimating teams throughout the years. One thing no ones asked yet is the size of your average projects. We range from $20M to $150M for at risk construction but have a couple mega projects at $2B+. On-Screen Takeoff (OST) was the market leader for digital takeoff tools until Bluebeam recently. The market is more split now as OST is just takeoffs versus Bluebeam provides more tool sets then just takeoffs. If you’re dealing with larger projects, OST handles larger data sets easier. If you’re dealing with smaller projects, then Bluebeam works great. Bluebeam is more affordable then OST as well and provides more support/training then OST, whose parent company is On Center Software. 

As for estimating and pricing tools, Excel is still widely used. Timberline is one of the most powerful estimating tools on the market but requires built out databases and management of those databases to be used effectively. Our company recently (within the last couple years) had an estimating industry summit at our office to explore estimating packages for GCs of similar size from different regions. PM me if you’re interested in our final evaluation sheet rating and ranking the packages we explored. 

You really can’t go wrong with either OST or Bluebeam and cost will likely swing you to one or the other. What industry leading GCs are really into now are using 3D design models to quickly capture quantities from the model and estimate off those quantities, but that’s an entirely differ4nt conversation