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CAD/Drawing Interface Overview

 

 

 

The CAD/Drawing Interface allows you to transfer Item information from a CAD or drawing program into the current Bid.

 

An integrated drawing program will generate estimating interface files which can be read by the drawing interface. Included in these files are lengths, areas, and counts which serve as Quantities for Bid Items, and well as Item Codes, Descriptions, and even the Miscellaneous/Category column. With the new extended drawing-estimating interface, you may also send over memos and, in Level 3, Locations.

 

Using this interface begins with a drawing in your CAD or drawing program, with symbols/blocks/objects in it. These objects will correspond to Items to be estimated. Many CAD/drawing program and symbol library vendors have already assigned estimating information from a particular Price Book to their CAD symbols/blocks/objects. Be sure that you are working in the correct Price Book to work with their symbols. If not, or if you want to make you own objects, you can easily assign estimating information to your objects.

 

There are two ways to associate an estimating Item with a CAD/drawing object. You may either assign an Item Code directly to the object (see your CAD/drawing program documentation for the details), or, if your drawing program uses the new extended estimating-drawing interface, you may look up the CAD object and associated information (called a CAD ID) in the estimating Price Book Items. If an estimating Item has not yet been assigned to the CAD/drawing object, the CAD Item will still be sent over, just without a cost and other Item information. You may enter this information in the estimating program, or assign an appropriate Item there.

 

If your CAD/drawing program uses the new extended interface, you may also associate the CAD objects with estimating Items from inside the estimating system. Using the extended interface the drawing program sends over symbol/block/object names and optional parameters, which form a CAD ID. For instance, an interior door might have the CAD ID Intdoor, which is also the object name in the drawing. You can also send more information with the object, such as whether the door is hollow or solid, as a parameter. Parameters, if any, are separated from the object name by hyphens. For instance, a hollow door might appear as Intdoor-hollow. You can have up to three parameters sent over with the object.

 

If a CAD ID is sent over (remember: not all drawing programs send this information to EasyEst Estimating) and the Item Code is not specified in the object’s attributes, the CAD ID is used to find the Item in the Price Book. Each Price Book Item has a CAD ID. (If your CAD/drawing program uses this feature, the CAD ID will automatically appear in the appropriate windows.) If the imported CAD object’s CAD ID (symbol name followed by parameters) matches a CAD ID in the Price Book Item, that Price Book Item is used to estimate that CAD object. We can also say the CAD object is mapped to the Price Book Item. Note that no two Price Book Items can have the same CAD ID, so there is never an confusion about which Item to use. The CAD ID Parameter attributes should be assigned in the CAD drawing to define all the information necessary to select the appropriate Item from the estimating Price Book.

 

If the CAD ID of an imported CAD object is not found in the Price Book, and no Item Code is assigned to the object in CAD, the Item is still imported, and may be mapped to a specific Price Book Item using the powerful Item Selection window. You may even type in new Item Code and cost and enter a new Item in the Price Book. Because this is most easily done in the Item Selection window, you will probably want to send your imported CAD objects to the Item Selection Worksheet first, and then move them to your Bid Item List.

 

See Also: CAD/Drawing Import Dialog Box, Drawing Interface File Format


 

 

 

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