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QuickEye Estimator Help Topic:

QuickEye Measuring and Estimating Overview

This topic will discuss how the "Item Creator" dialog functions, as the hub of the take-off process and describe the flexibility of the system and it's accelerators, as well as how they work together.

First off, all the basics discussed in Item Creator, as well as the scale setting process and measurement drawing process, should be well understood before delving into the Quick-Library and Quick-Creator.

QuickEye Estimator is very flexible. It gives you the power to group measurements for like items, so that you can have drawn markups for every room (for example) but a single total of that item for each sheet. On the other hand, if you need or want, to have the item separated on the Item Summary for each individual room, you may do that.

You also have the ability to sum the perimeter of odd shaped areas, rectangle areas and length measurements. Or keep them totally separate.

You may draw the measurements for an item, and then set the color and specify the item, or you may specify the item first. QuickEye fits your way of doing things. As you use the "Create Item" dialog, you have the opportunity to create entries in the Quick-Library. This saves the work done to create an item, including the color, for future use. The Quick-Library, with it's organization and acceleration features, is then used to quickly specify multiple items.

The Quick-Creator acts as a palette to draw measurements for the items on a sheet. Whether the items were created by hand (with "Create Item"), one at a time from the Quick-Library, or all at once from the Quick-Library (if they are single items), the Quick-Creator dialog shows you a list of all the items existing in the volume, and with a single click you are ready to start drawing the measurements for it, or add more measurements to it.

After completing the all the items on a sheet, when you go to the next sheet, which has no measurements or items on it, one click on the item in Quick-Creator will create a Measurement Group, set the color and create the Quantity Items in that group, and turn on measuring mode, with the selected tool set to the last one you used on that item.

With Quick-Creator, you can continue progressing through all the sheets like they were one.

However, just by changing the "Location" field in Quick-Creator at the start each new sheet or wing (for example), you may tag all the Quantity Items in each area separately.

So the process starts by heading to the "Item Creator" dialog. On the way there, if the scale hasn't been set yet for the current sheet, "Measure Scale" will open for that to be done. From "Item Creator", you launch the measurement drawing process. Finally, back at "Item Creator" you specify the color and Quantity Items.

Then, you create a new measurement group and repeat. Once you are comfortable with this process, you can start to build your Quick-Library, also accessed from "Item Creator". It is from here that you also open Quick-Creator as you spread out the bid, across multiple sheets.

At the end of the process, the "Item Summary" dialog shows all the items from all the sheets. You can group together like items, to display a concise list to copy into your costing system.

QuickEye is very flexible to fit the needs of a wide range of trades and a wide range of bidding techniques. One of it's primary advantages is the ability, if you use it and your process supports it, for QuickEye to generate Quantities which are specified to the extent that they can be automatically priced without needing to tweak and copy each item in your costing system. The key to this ability is an effective coding system.

Whenever you use the "Create Item" dialog to create a Quantity Item, you have the opportunity to enter a code which tightly specifies what that quantity represents.

If each code in your coding system is specific enough to pinpoint the material and application process needed, then automatic look-ups are possible, potentially eliminating most of the manual work in the pricing process.

The coding system you use should be considered carefully. If it's too simple, it will be ineffective. Not that it won't help at all, but it won't help nearly as much as it could. If it's too complete, it will be a bear to extend or maintain. The code system doesn't really need to be easily understood or memorized, just effective at specifying what it needs to. And, by saving the entered codes with the Quick-Library entries, they only need to be entered once.