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Estimates on weekends

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Here's some pics from an estimate today
my desk
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I go through the plan and overlay the conditions, which all have their prices entered.  If the condition is slightly different for a job, like say the coping cap is wider than normal, it can always be edited for that particular job in the condition properties.  I have different masters for different roofing systems. After all the conditions are entered/traced/measured what have you I print out reports.  The following is a drawing report of all the things conditions I entered. This particular print had 5 different pages in the print for the roof plans. 
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The individual drawings come with a report on the conditions and quantities. 
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I get a recap report that also has all the quantities, but also the prices, mark ups, mandays.  I didn't take a photo of the whole thing, gotta keep my bids unwraps incase anyone on here is secretly a competitor ;)
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This was a huge job, I can't really say how long it took me because I have a space in the back of the warehouse where I run a t-shirt printer and embroidery machine so I was running back and forth for 3 hours.  I can also do estimates off google earth as long as I have a definite measurement of something to set the scale.  I mentioned we also have an app for field estimates, but that is completely different software.
 
Damm Rawk. That is waaaaaaay beyond the scope of how I do it. But you're company is HUGE. They probably have more $$$ in software than I have in actual mud-churning, diamond cutting, sponge washing, tools! You wanna come measure up and Propose jobs for me on weekends? How different is a shower wall than a roof anyway? hahahaha
 
Scoville DeVille said:
Usually when I call, that is NOT what you are in the middle of. :lol:
Just sayin~
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Just ordered my Mexican chocolate. The hot sauce with it is going to happen. Smoked Jalapenos, toasted cumin seed, what vinegar would you suggest? I assume vinegar is going to work best for the acid component. How about a minimal amount of cherries?

Whaddya think?
 
I estimate this is derailed.
 
Scoville DeVille said:
Damm Rawk. That is waaaaaaay beyond the scope of how I do it. But you're company is HUGE. They probably have more $$$ in software than I have in actual mud-churning, diamond cutting, sponge washing, tools! You wanna come measure up and Propose jobs for me on weekends? How different is a shower wall than a roof anyway? hahahaha
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Actually in terms of employees the company is not that big.  We just go after commercial work, so the jobs are big.  Bigger jobs are usually more tedious roof plans, they take longer, the software speeds all this up.  12 years ago when I was using this same software I was doing residential field estimates and blueprints, so while the jobs weren't very big, we were pulling in multiple smaller shingle/shake/slate roofs estimates a day in addition to subdivision roof plans.  I'd drive anywhere from Milwaukee to central Indiana in a day.  The software was expensive, overpriced in my opinion, as there are so many estimating softwares out there, but I don't pick or pay for the software I just use what is given to me.  Honestly I'm glad they splurged on the software though, it makes my job reallllly easy and fast.  
 
It can do tile estimates, I'd just have to set it up.  We do sheet metal wall paneling and I'm sure with some tweaks that master list would be good to go for tile.  I am wanting to move out of Chicago, and I'm hoping that I can find an estimating job where ever I end up. 
 
Has anyone here in the construction industry ever used BIM tech?  I've been taking some Construction Management classes and we just covered this type of software... pretty neat stuff but seems like it'd be hella expensive.  Something that crazy large scale projects would use. 3-d realistic models for every trade involved, integrates the plans and spec together so you're not flipping through or going back and forth between pdfs, integrates scheduling and shows how complete a project should be by a certain date or where it will be at a future date, quantifies materials, and lets you check for clashes that would have risen while building (i.e a pipe not fitting somewhere or not being able to get a piece of equipment somewhere on site).  Definitely very design heavy, but probably very useful if done correctly and to scale for contractors. 
 
I have ... and I've hated it each and every time it wasn't warranted.
 
It's a 5% use-case ... part of the dog & pony show used to convince clients to use your design/architecture/construction firm ...
 
For 95% of the work it's way overkill and just saddles everything with unnecessary baggage ...
 
But, for the 5% of work that's special or unique, it can really tie the room (or project, if you will) together ...
 
Mostly though, meh ...
 

PS - Pair it up with Plex ( http://www.plex.com/products/manufacturing-operations-management-mom/advanced-planning-production-scheduling-software.html ) for the ultimate in having customers all up in your shit. Ugh ... double-ugh ...
 
It does seem like a lot of work to put into a project and if anything is off in the model then it's all garbage.  The stuff I bid is too small for that to be worthwhile and even when it is a bigger project as a roofing contractor all I really need is a roof plan, elevations and wall details for the most part. I could see it being useful for a GC or developer building something huge, that required multiple phases, LEED stuff, trades, etc. and was on strict schedule (olympic villages and crap). 
 
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