PRECAST PANEL TAKE OFF

ukulele

Hi All,

I currently do precast panel shop drawings and i'm now using bricscad to take off jobs for quote. I am just looking for ideas that can help me make the process easier/ more repeatable

Right now I import pdfs and scale them. I check the scale on the other axis and generally I get a couple of mm out which is fine for a take off.
I draw each panel as a rectangle, we don't do factories so we don't have many repeats
I draw a mtext with fields linked to each rectangle/panel so I can see each panels area and perimeter, generally, we ignore doors and windows.
I put these on a layer, once all the panels are there i turn off the other layers and highlight all the rectangles for a given elevation and floor. This gives me the square metres and also the perimeter of the panels which i use to calculate concrete volume, steel reinforcement etc. I have to divide the panels into panel types as some might be single mesh, others double, different thickness etc.

I have toyed with the idea of using blocks with attributes but I'm not sure if this would work for me because almost all panels are unique.

I do use blocks where I need to count stuff like cast in plates and nowadays dowel bars are getting bigger and bigger we have to take them into account.

From here I go elevation to elevation floor for floor and put it into a spreadsheet. Once I have the whole job I have total sqm, total cubic metres, weights and I estimate number of trucks, how many lifts the job would take etc.

ALANH

No one answered surprised a couple of options is hatch the panel and get area x thickness = volume.

Make into solids and use Massprops it has the advantage of providing centroid handy to work out lift points as centroid can be in an opening.

Can get all hatches and x thickness produce a csv file for excel or advanced is write direct to excel. Use a lisp very easy.

There are a few basic shapes so can automate the creation of the shapes by just enter values and panel is drawn.