Inside Track
Heber Allred zzTakeoffTest the latest on our DEV server
The release is not fully ready, but we have the code to a point that users can play with it on our DEV server to see what's coming.
Request DEV server access here: https://www.zztakeoff.com/request-dev-access
Although the release is not complete, there is a lot that you can play with to see what's coming and to provide us any input or feedback on what is completed so far. Do not use for production. This is development in progress.
Thanks for all your support! ππ»ππ
Here's a basic list of things you can test & play with (we'll provide a lot more detail with screenshots when we do our official release):
- Open Project
- Ability to put projects into folders
- Favorites & Recent
- Search ability in open project popup
- Edit Project - ability to specify additional details such as Lead Estimator, Status, and Address
- Pages
- Crop as new page
- Rotate pages
- New Blank Page
- Ability to multi-select & delete multiple pages at once
- Default Expand Level (in "..." sidebar menu)
- Takeoffs
- Wall Height (with Wall Area)
- Sloped areas, linears, segments - Pitch, Degrees, and Grade %
- Volume calculations
- Convert To⦠(in right click menu)
- Batch Insert - in the + menu in the Takeoff Totals sidebar, Templates sidebar
- When starting a takeoff it will place in the selected folder in the sidebar if a folder is selected
- Custom Fields (in settings)
- Templates, Items, Assemblies
- Ability to create template libraries & copy/paste easily from templates to your takeoff
- Basic infrastructure is in place with ability to calculate formulas for material quantities
- Drag & drop items onto takeoffs on the page
- Layers
- Ability to create new layers and start completely new takeoff (less interference in multi-user), but data still shows in reports
- Right Click Menu
- Show All / Hide All β Annotations / Takeoffs / etc.
- Mini-toolbar at top for tools
- Show Legend
- Image
- AI spinner is by mouse cursor (instead of at bottom of page)
- Smart Select - Toolbar
- Zoom + Pan at the same time
- Layout
- Collapsible Sidebars - F4 Hotkey
- Add Pages Popup
- Drag & drop entire folder / 1 page PDF uses name
- Shift + Select
- Smart Select
- When batch rename pages, allow the user to choose which pages in a popup
- Sidebars
- Drag/Drop indicators for sidebars
- Easier navigation with arrows / keys / delete, etc.
- Takeoffs Sidebar
- Grayed out takeoffs if they have no sections added yet
- Shows blue for active takeoff
- Group by / saved views
- Tools
- Area - with cutouts, now the linear/perimeter will include the perimeter of the cutouts and are separate outputs for "before cutouts"
- Hotkeys
- M - Magnifier
- F2 hotkey to show properties
- F3 for search in sidebars
- T, L, B, R, align objects on the page
- CTRL + G and CTRL + U - Group / Ungroup (1 level grouping, no nesting)
- CTRL + A - select all in sidebars and on the page
- Esc - de-select in sidebars
- F7 - Zoom to Fit
- Annotations
- Callout Annotation
- Notes - added fonts, ability to set no background
- Dimension lines - customizable font, size, color, etc.
- Reports
- Multi-select cells for copy/paste into other apps
- Saved Views
- 4 Levels of Folders
- Settings - Improved Settings Popup
- Permissions
- Ability to invite a user to a specific project without granting them access to all projects in the workspace
- Billing
- Collaborator Version
- Community
- Search and UI improvements
- Note: you can do test posts to community on our DEV server, but it's not actively monitored. It's just for testing new community features. Please post feedback & comments here on the WWW server.
- Speed improvements when copy/pasting lots of items or modifying lots of items in a batch
Some things we have still in progress:
- Items
- When drag/drop items on the page, some responsiveness (light up the takeoff object, etc.)
- Custom fields
- Controlling visibility on takeoffs, items, etc. (where they are available)
- Controlling inheritance from takeoff to sections and line items
- Properties on Takeoff (Materials & Labor)
- Currently you can see the materials and labor as child items of the takeoff in the sidebar, but not on the popup. Still working on this.
- Ability to put variables in formulas such as [# of Plies] and have it prompt for the answer when they apply the item or assembly
- Views
- Proper sorting of grouped by values
- Store unsaved views to local storage
- Reports
- Still working on quantity reports for the line items (you can see values in the right sidebar, but not in reports yet).
- Items
- Cost Each is just a field on the item currently. Doesn't calculate markup yet for price each or price total. Primary focus is formulas and quantities of materails.
- Sharing
- Still working on "Anyone with link can view"
- Layers
- Currently you can view 1 layer at a time. In the future we'll add ability to show/hide specific layers.
Please post any comments or input on the latest as a reply to this post for now.
Can't wait to dive in. First thought. Do you have a OST template importer? Here is a picture of ours and I shot it to Derek.
We don't have an OST importer yet, but we'll get one as soon as possible π
Dove in for 30 min and having fun exploring, still got more to learn! Here is my takeoff I was messing with: https://dev.zztakeoff.com/app/takeoff?projectId=oteo4Qcj5kuABGSNc&pageId=PLRuAsFHuunTLuL7L&viewId=FP4SQ9xCtku7MstfZ
The GOOD:
- You can copy paste the takeoff items on the right side, wahoo!
- Now I love copying a item, but then I realize I want to make it a count instead of a area, need ability to change it if no takeoff is drawn. (Low priority)
- You can set custom folders as dropdowns! I went and tried to make my above screenshot in this system and this is exactly what we need! You can sort it by trade>unformat, or pivot it and switch it around the other way. One suggestion to this is please keep that window open till you done selecting, and its confusing what level is first, so if you could put a 1,2,3 so you can see how the grouping will show up when you exit, then a clear button is needed to restart/reset. This is amazing and going to work wonderful to tie to Ediphi or any other estimating tool.
3. Question, what is the property group for when making custom fields in the settings?
4. Need ability to select multiple objects either on the page or multiple objects in the right side panel, then re-assign it to a custom field, layer, or folder. I see this being key when we need to breakout quantities.......or what is you solution for quantity breakouts? We use areas in OST and some users use zones, but areas are more common and perhaps could work well with the custom fields.
5. I get the custom fields are needed per project, but are there "company standard fields" in the works.....for example unformat is a company standards that we don't want folks making their own with our data governance push.
Ideas for better:
- Left pane needs to mirror the right, if you have folders it should mirror on the left as well.
- When you make custom fields with a name and value, only the name shows up on the right pane, need the value to show up please. Screenshot below that I was trying to make in ZZ that go with the 3rd screenshot above.
- I don't see a way to group my takeoff by my custom fields in the REPORTS yet.
- Do you have a template you could add to DEV for us to use?
- I have no clue how to use the layers, if it takes up a drop down space next the question mark on the top right it must be important??
- on the left side, really want ability to hid all pages with out takeoff.
- The count tool is still not smart yet.......cant do volume/area from it yet.
Thanks for testing and sending your feedback Kyle!
On the ability to change takeoff type, if you have no takeoff objects drawn, you can right click on it and go to "Change Type" and you can change the takeoff type. We have recently added the ability to do this on templates (will deploy to DEV soon).
Regarding property groups for custom fields: currently the custom fields are in a panel called "Custom Fields". Eventually, specifying a property group would allow you to control what panel the property shows in. For example, you could Ediphi specific custom fields in a group for "Ediphi" instead of "Custom Fields". Other examples we expect would be "Work Breakdown Structure" for all the fields associated to that, or other groups specific for attaching additional data for integration with other apps.
Good idea on selecting multiple items and ability to re-assign. We'll add that.
Currently "Custom Fields" are across all projects in your workspace. We are also planning specific custom fields for a "template library" which may be needed for a template library to operate.
Regarding breaking out quantities: we anticipate we could attach a Zone (or any other custom field) to specific takeoff objects and let you build reports based on that. We're still in progress adding these Quantity reports and Custom Fields to the reports tab.
Regarding layers: currently when you drop down and choose another layer, it's like a clean slate for the project. In previous discussion we had considered calling these "spaces", but there's a lot of terminology overlap with that word. The idea is that you will be able to create a layer and collaborate with external users on that layer without giving permission to the whole project (per-layer sharing will not be in this release, but coming in the future). It's just a way to isolate takeoff data and annotations into a completely separate bucket for sharing & collaboration. Some competing apps call these "Views", but I think "Layer" is a more accurate word. Currently you can only show 1 layer at a time, but eventually we plan to allow multiple visible at a time. You could create a layer per division for example and this will help reduce overlap of doing takeoff on top of eachother, yet all the data combines when you go to reports.
Good idea on hiding pages without takeoff. That should be a pretty simple filter for us to add.
On the count tool, we'll make it smarter. We could add a height, width & depth to make it calculate volume. We do allow choosing from multiple shapes. I'm assuming if you have a "Circle" shape selected you would want to enter a Radius or Diameter and Depth for volume? Currently all of these have a "Size", but we may have to break that (on the square shape particularly) into "Width" and "Height" so you can draw a rectangle and give a "Depth" to get volume.
We'll keep pushing to get this release out. It took longer than we expected, but we're pushing hard to get it done.
We just posted more updates to DEV. Please test and let us know what you think.
https://www.zztakeoff.com/app/community/inside-track/new-updates-on-dev-server-may-2025