Q & A
Jason Ramsey Linked Item Cost Tables
I know zzTakeoff's primary purpose is the calculation of actual takeoff quantites. I was wondering what upcoming short term plans you had for enhancing the cost & bid areas of the program? It would be nice to have linked tables that automatically update Template cost properties.
For example, I use an Item folder for Labor Assemblies. An item within there could have the labor cost of an individual operator. And when I create a template I choose that operator to makeup part of the assembly for that takeoff. Let's say rates change the following year and I need to update my operator cost in my items. It would be nice to simply change the Item List cost once and it automatically alter any Template that uses that Item. Right now, I would have to go through all of my templates, and change each one individually as the Templates are not dependent upon the Items.
This would be great for updating material cost databases as well.
Template updates are on our roadmap, there are several feature requests from the community wanting an easier way to update templates. I'd love to see a bulk update script do this when scripting is released for zzTakeoff!
Yeah absolutely, even if it had to be done outside of the program (in excel or similar) and then re-imported, I think it would be a huge time saver in lieu of going through each template individually. I think the easiest thing would be to update Items and then have the Templates just be dependent on your Item table.