Estimating tab

Partly availableSome of what this page describes is in DimSum today and some is still coming. Parts marked Coming are designed but not built yet.

A spreadsheet-style view of every takeoff item in the job, opening into its parts, with live quantity totals, totals of the numbers the parts carry, and every ERROR in one list. It's also where you find anything placed wrong.

Overview

It's the fastest way to review a whole takeoff, and it works for any trade: a framer checks studs and plates per level, a concrete sub checks cubic yards per pour, a low-voltage contractor checks devices and cable per floor.

Every part does carry Cost Each, Markup %, Price Each, Tax Rate and Taxable, but they are blank fields that DimSum never calculates ("No, all blank; I write the formulas."). So there are no built-in price, labor, tax or sell totals and no dollar grand total. The tab adds up quantities and the numbers on parts, whatever you put in them.

Where to find it

• The Estimating tab in the top bar: Takeoff | Estimating. Coming
• The Material list button at the bottom of the Takeoff list.
• The "n need attention" button in the status strip, when something is in ERROR.

How to use it

Review the takeoff

1. Click the Estimating tab.
2. The bar at the top reads 12 items · 31 parts · 3 levels and the Project total in LF, SF and EA.
3. Items are grouped by level, lowest first, then by page. Each group row shows how many items it holds and its subtotals. Groups start open; click the twisty to fold one.
4. Each item row shows its colour, name, Type (Linear / Area / Point), Quantity and Unit, and 3 parts when it has any. An item drawn on several sheets is one row, under its home page, with its total.
5. LF, SF and EA are never added together: a level with walls and floors shows both numbers.

Open an item's parts

1. Click the twisty beside an item's name. Items start closed, because a job has hundreds of parts and the totals are what you read first.
2. The parts appear under it, indented by depth: Name · Type · Qty · Unit · Division · Trade, then the number columns. The Unit is the part's own — see below.
3. A part that is off (Enabled unticked) is greyed and left out of every total, and so is everything under it.
4. Double-click a part to open it: DimSum switches to Takeoff, selects the item and opens the part in the Properties panel.

The Unit column is the part's own unit

Type ea, sheet, box, lf, hr, cy or anything you like; left empty it reads ea.

Nothing changes about what the column shows — it is still the part's unit — only where it comes from. What that buys you is that the unit is genuinely per part: studs in ea, sheathing in sheet, glue in tube and framing labour in hr, all under the same wall.

The unit takes no formula, so a unit in this column is always one you typed, never one that was worked out.

Division and Trade follow the item Coming

a part's Division, SubDivision, Construction Phase and Trade start blank and you fill them in part by part. those four resolve up the tree: the part's own value, then the part above it, then the item, then blank.

• An inherited value shows grey in the Division or Trade column, with "from Ext Wall 2x6" on hover.
• It follows the parent: change the item's Trade and every part under it that has none of its own changes with it.
• Type your own value on the part and that one property stops following. Clear it and it follows again.

Only those four inherit. A part's own Cost Each never comes from the item; everything else on a part still starts blank.

So most parts arrive with their Division and Trade already filled, and the grey tells you which ones you did not type.

Number columns

Every Number or Percentage property that has a value or a formula on at least one part becomes a column, named after the property. That includes the default ones — Cost Each, Markup %, Price Each, Tax Rate, and a part's Length, Width and Depth — and your own (Ext Cost, Labor Hours (hr)). Qty is not repeated: it is already a column. Properties with the same name on different parts share one column. Sliders, Text, Checkboxes and Colors don't get columns.

So the Cost Each column appears as soon as one part has a Cost Each, and goes away when no part has one.

Row	What the column shows
Part row	That part's value, written the way the Properties panel writes it (4.25, 25.00%)
Item row	The total over the item's parts
Page and level rows	The total over their items' parts
Project total (bottom)	The total over the whole job

How the totals work:

• The tab does not multiply by Qty. Put the extended amount in its own property (Ext Cost = {Qty} * {Cost Each}) and read that column's total. The Cost Each column is totalled too, and that total is just the unit costs added up.
• Parts that are off don't count, nor do their children.
• Percentage columns are never totalled. They show on part rows only.
• One unit per column. The column takes the unit of the first part that has it. A part with the same property in another unit (a Labor in minutes under a Labor in hours) is left out of the total, and a ⚠ in the cell says how many and why.
• Only numbers on parts get columns. A property on an item, or a Job property such as Labor Rate, doesn't; parts use those in their formulas instead ({Job > Labor Rate}).
• Numbers show the decimal places of their property, or System Settings → Numbers (2 unless you changed it).

Clear "Needs attention"

1. Anything in ERROR (a broken formula) or with a unit warning, on any item or part, is listed in the Needs attention (n) strip at the top of the tab, with n ERRORS · n warnings. It starts open; click the heading to fold it.
2. Each row reads ERROR (or Warning) · where (Ext Wall 2x6 › Plates) · which property · why, e.g. There is no property called "Hieght" on Ext Wall 2x6.
3. Click a row: DimSum switches to Takeoff, selects the item, shows its sheet and opens the part in the Properties panel.
4. The same count shows in the status strip (3 need attention); clicking it opens this tab.

An item whose parts are in ERROR shows ERROR beside its name (hover: 2 of its parts are in ERROR). A value on a sheet with no scale shows —, not ERROR.

Advanced Parts: List Matching is now the Advanced Part. An Advanced Part with no matching row is listed here as a Warning — where it is (Ext Wall › Studs), the property Material match, and the part's own sentence: No material matches these conditions — Stock Length equals Height left nothing. It counts among the warnings, and its values stay as they last were. An Advanced Part whose material folder isn't on this machine is not listed: it keeps its values and says so on the part. is not in it.

Scale regions: a shape that crosses a scale region's edge is listed here as a Warning, one per shape — the item's name, the property Scale region, and which scale it was measured at, e.g. *Crosses a scale region's edge. It counts among the warnings. The shape is still measured, whole, at its first point's scale. The item's Properties has a link to it — 1 shape crosses a region's edge — see Needs attention — that opens this tab at the shape's line.

Find it on the plan

Double-click an item row. DimSum switches to Takeoff and shows that item's page. (A single click selects the item.)

Coming a right-click Show on plan that also zooms to the item's shapes.

Diagnose a mistake (example workflow)

1. The Studs line shows 410 on the Main Level, which feels high.
2. On the Estimating tab, open the Main Level, then each item's parts, and look down the Quantity column. One Int Wall 2x4 reads 2,140 LF.
3. Double-click it: its page was scaled at 1/8" = 1'-0" when the sheet is drawn at 1/4".
4. Fix the scale. The row, the parts, the canvas and every total update immediately, with no restart.

An item on a page with no scale is flagged with a ⚠ beside its name instead: its quantity can't be trusted until the page is scaled.

Coming

Add items that aren't drawn

Dumpsters, permits and delivery fees go in a manual count Point item (Typed count = 1) with parts under it. It shows here like any other item (see Takeoff tools).

Edit values here

Coming The tab is read-only Change values in the Properties panel (double-click a part to get there).

Choose grouping and columns, and save a view

1. Columns ⚙ to tick any properties (Qty, Unit, Division, Trade, Cost Each, your own numbers…).
2. Group by (level, page, tool, assembly, material, Division, Trade, Type, any property; several levels deep) and a sort order.
3. Save view, name it ("Material only", "Labor review", "All 2x10 across the job"), and Set as my default. Each user picks their own default.

The planned shipped default view is Level → Tool → Shapes → Parts. A second common view drops Level and groups by material instead, so every 2x10 on the job lands in one group.

Get a project-wide number

the Project total (quantities) and the bottom row of each number column. Coming Combine view, which merges identical items across pages ("Ext Wall 2x6: all levels") without changing the data.

Export — not from here

There is no export on this tab.

Everything leaves DimSum through the Report Designer — CSV,, PDF and Export Profiles for POS/ERP uploads Coming. that is the Reports tab's Print, Export PDF and Export CSV. Its Test Report leaves out turned-off parts by this tab's rule, and adds up Qty per unit, as this tab does. An export from a grid is an export nobody can fix; a report that comes out wrong is edited once and re-run forever. That is also where your Cost and Labor numbers will be pulled into a quote.

Printing is different and still works where it always did. Print puts a page on paper or into a PDF of that page (Marked-up plans, Ctrl+P on the canvas). See

Options & settings

Option	What it does	Status
Grouping	Level → page, fixed
Parts under items	Twisty per item; closed by default
Division and Trade	Beside each part
Division, SubDivision, Construction Phase and Trade follow the item	A part that has none of its own takes the one above it; the inherited value shows grey, with its source on hover	Coming
Number columns	One per Number or Percentage property with a value on at least one part (default or your own), with subtotals
Needs attention	Every ERROR and warning in the job
Group by	Level, page, tool, assembly, material, Division, Trade, Type or any property; multi-level. Default Level → Tool → Shapes → Parts	Coming
Sort	Any property	Coming
Views	Saved grouping + sorting + columns, named, one marked as your default	Coming
Filter	Text search plus property filters	Coming
Columns	Choose any property; saved with a view	Coming
Combine view	Merge identical items across pages	Coming
		*Dropped —
	Coming. Totals are quantities and the numbers on parts	Superseded

Examples

Framing: walls by level, with the Cost fields

The job has a Job property Labor Rate = 65.00. The stud part has Cost Each 4.85 and your own Ext Cost = {Qty} * {Cost Each}; the labor part (unit hr) has your own Labor Cost = {Qty} * {Job > Labor Rate}.

Level / Page / Name        Type    Quantity   Unit  Division        Trade     Cost Each  Ext Cost  Labor Cost
▾ Main Level  1                    142.50 LF                                  4.85       572.30    1,183.00
  ▾ A-101  1                       142.50 LF                                  4.85       572.30    1,183.00
      ▾ Ext Wall 2x6  2 parts      142.50     LF                              4.85       572.30    1,183.00
          Studs 2x6        Part    118.00           06 Wood, …      Framing   4.85       572.30
          Labor – Framing  Part    18.20      HR    06 Wood, …      Framing                        1,183.00
▸ Second Level  1                  128.00 LF                                  …
Project total                      270.50 LF                                  …

Check: 118 × 4.85 = 572.30; 18.2 hr × 65 = 1,183.00. The Cost Each column is totalled too — with one stud part it reads 4.85; with several it is just their unit costs added, which is why the extended amount gets its own property. The stud count comes from your own part formula; DimSum has no built-in stud rule.

Concrete: quantities only

A foundation sub who doesn't price in DimSum simply leaves the Cost fields blank. The tab shows quantities only, with no number columns: Footing 20x10 140.00 LF with a Concrete part of 7.20 CY; Slab 4" 1,200.00 SF with 14.81 CY. Both parts carry Division 03 Concrete.

Low-voltage: labor apart from material

Put labor on its own parts (box install, termination, unit hr) beside the material parts (boxes, jacks, cable). Give the labor parts a Labor Cost property ({Qty} * {Job > Labor Rate}) and the material parts Cost Each and an Ext Cost: each column totals separately, so labor is one number. Division 26 Electrical or 27 Communications and Trade Electrical show on every row.

Tips & shortcuts

• Keep the extended amount in its own property (Ext Cost), so its column total means something.
• Keep rates on the job (Project Settings → Job properties) so they don't become columns you'd have to ignore.
• Fill Division and Trade on your parts: they are the two columns you'll read down to check a trade's lines.
• Double-click a part to jump straight to it in the Properties panel.
• Look for ⚠ beside item names: that page has no scale, so its quantities can't be trusted.
• Use Needs attention before you trust a total: a part in ERROR adds nothing.

Rules, limits & edge cases

• The Estimating tab shows the same data as the canvas; there's no separate estimate copy.
• Read-only
• An item on several sheets is one row, under its home page, with its total. The Project tree is where its per-sheet share shows (Instances & Shapes).
• Deleting the last shape keeps the item: it stays in the list at 0, with its settings, properties and parts intact, until you delete the item itself. Manual-count items show their typed count.
• A part in ERROR contributes nothing to a column total; it shows ERROR in its cell and in Needs attention.
• A Percentage column never totals.
• A default property no part has filled in (a blank Cost Each everywhere) gets no column.
• An inherited Division or Trade counts as filled in Coming: a part showing a grey value it took from the item reads as that value in the column, and will group with it when grouping by Division or Trade arrives. Only the four classification properties work this way; a blank Cost Each stays blank.
• A part's unit is on the part, and takes no formula: there is no Qty Unit property row to put a formula on — the unit is the box beside the Qty. So the Unit column here always shows a unit you typed, never one that was calculated.
• Every part and item property carries the same settings: now means only preloaded and undeletable.

Related features

• Parts
• Instances & Shapes
• Property System
• Project Settings (Job properties)
• Dynamic Lists & the Advanced Part
• Assemblies (layers)
• Settings page (Decimal places)
• Report Designer
• Project Tree