CADPower

BOM-BOQ and Quantity takeoff Capability

Generating BOM (in the manufacturing context) or quantity takeoffs / BOQ (typical in AEC industry lingo) is one of the single most time-consuming aspects of CAD design and drafting activity.

In addition to quantities, time (4D) and cost (5D) information also is necessary to be shown, so that quick commercial quotations can be generated.

CADPower offers comprehensive tools to achieve a solution for this challenging task. It is challenging because there is no one-solution-fits-all scenario here. We need to extract common threads, workflows and build solutions which align with the most likely scenario as what you would like to do with these data, and the outcomes you expect to generate.

The matter is complicated because the incoming data is highly unpredictable and the final expected result varies from user to user.

To overcome this, we have created several workflows in CADPower which address a bunch of typical problem scenarios.

The following workflows are supported:

• Producing a quantity & cost estimate by counting blocks
• Producing a tabulated listing of attributes and export the same to Excel.
• Layout out XY panels in multiple ways and producing a quantity & cost estimate by blocks based on scale factor.
• Producing a quantity, cost table based on linear length information (duct-work, cables, wires, reinforcement etc.).

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Excel <-> CAD <-> Excel

It is a known fact that, after design is completed in CAD, the action shifts to Excel, where users prepare estimates, quantities, proposals, cost calculations and so on.

There are many tools in CADPower that export data as CSV files, which can be consumed in Excel.

This is one of the most dominant and natural functions in CADPower. The ability to extract DWG data and present it easily in Excel makes it easy to exchange information between CAD and Excel.

For example, the CP_CALCAREA tool (Area computation of polygons), the CP_CSVEXPORT tool (exporting columns of text into CSV), the CP_BOM tool (various BOM0BOQ workflows), the CP_LAYERAREA tool (layer-wise area computation), the CP_HOLETABLE tool (manufacturing industry tool to export hole charts) are all examples of how CADPower exports data to Excel with ease.

The above list is only a small representation of tools that export data to Excel. There are many other tools that export data as CSV, which makes it easy to consume the data in spreadsheets and other supported applications.

Meaurements, Annotations, Blocks & attributes and more....

CADPower offers annotation and labeling tools which can be used for polyline segment and vertex annotation in many ways. Angle labeling tools are also available to label the interior and exterior angles of a closed polyline, or the inter-segment angles on the left and right of an open polyline.

A complete implementation of the construction levels annotation tool CP_LEVELIT also is provided, which also supports custom level blocks and also comes shipped with pre-existing blocks.

A multiple MEASURE tool allows flexible ways to measure distance along curves. This is a handy and useful tool to create staked out measurements along a linear curve. There is an option to create blocks also along the curve and have them aligned as per the curve direction also.

A complete collection of tools for all blocks and attribute management tools are available in CADPower. Some of the useful tools in this category involve the ability to move/rotate block attributes independent of the graphics, transfer of text to block attributes, search and filtering of attributes, smart insertion of blocks with automatic alignment, multiple-option attribute editor (INI-controlled) etc.