Our estimators like it. I know that much. :-) I believe it works by knowing particular types of work, i.e. it takes x number of minutes for a shop worker to cope the end of a beam and attach a pair of clip angles. It then adds up those connections and all the other quantities of predefined work types to give you a time required and then adds up all the steel for you automatically.
I'm not an estimator so that's about all I know about it. It does seem to be a pretty big time saver for good sized projects. We've done a few 600 tons ish jobs in the last year or so, so you're looking at a thousand beams and assorted parts to go with them. Seems to me it would be a lot to add up by hand. |