Count square footage, windows, doors, etc...

Hi everyone. I just started working as an estimator and basically how
it works is like this. We get a set of plans of buildings and we have
to count square footage of siding, count windows, doors, balconies,
etc. We are doing this manually. But, if we had the autocad file, can
autocad do that kind of work, meaning, counting square footage, doors,
windows and it sizes, balconies, etc???? Can someone expand on your
answer??

THANKS

 

No.
Not unless you control the drawing format and protocol, and have made
massive investments in Acad customization.
Stick to the old ways.

 

Yes. It can do areas quite easily, but for things like doors, windows,
siding, etc., it depends a great deal on how well the drawing is set up to
accommodate estimating. There are also other packages (mostly pricey!) that
work with AutoCAD to make the chore easier. A search on Google should give
you a few ideas.
___

 

I would try boxing the general areas with the rectangle command on a
separate layer then filter that layer and make regions out of it you can
then subtract the inner boxes from the outer boxes and get a prety good fix
on the area you have left with out having to do any manual calculations.
Depending on the building it might be a task still though.

Corey

 

I suppose that might be faster than doing it by hand, if you knew what you
were doing with acad.
I assumed the OP was asking for a "push-a-button" solution. Your suggestion
won't count windows
for him however....

 

A detail guy, eh?

 

(Andreex) wrote in

Check out Xactimate
http://www.xactware.com/