Take-off software recommendations.
Take-off software recommendations.
(OP)
Hi, I was hired by a friend to do grading and material take-offs. The company does ~$20,000,000 a year in grading, paving and concrete work. I use Agtek with Sitework 98. I was trained by someone, who was trained by someone, who was trained by someone that may have known what there doing. I've have been doing the take-offs for over a year and constantly finding I have been doing them wrong(too slow and not accurate). We do not have the instruction manual( I know it only costs~$25.00) and no technical support(~500.00 a year). I do up to 8 take-offs a week with jobs ranging from 5 to 100+ acres. I am almost always behind. All take-offs are with a GTCO digitizer. I do not know if our system is capable of useing CAD files.
We have been looking into updating our software. An AGTEK sales rep. has come out and gave an impressive demonstration. The department heads were too busy to be there and realy wanted to see a head to head comparison of the old to the new product on paper. The sales rep was unable to provide that. Our area has been going through record growth and we can't even do all the jobs that are offered. This makes the high price tag of AGTEK a harder sell. My friend(head of estimating) wants better estimating software and is interested in GPS tools for estimating and work varification.
My questions are:
What percentage of the plans you get for bidding are available with CAD files?
If you have CAD files how much faster can you get Earthwork and Quantity take-offs done? (Say a 20 acre job)
If you use GPS how has it helped?
All reviews of modern software would be very helpful and appriciated.
Thank you, Todd
We have been looking into updating our software. An AGTEK sales rep. has come out and gave an impressive demonstration. The department heads were too busy to be there and realy wanted to see a head to head comparison of the old to the new product on paper. The sales rep was unable to provide that. Our area has been going through record growth and we can't even do all the jobs that are offered. This makes the high price tag of AGTEK a harder sell. My friend(head of estimating) wants better estimating software and is interested in GPS tools for estimating and work varification.
My questions are:
What percentage of the plans you get for bidding are available with CAD files?
If you have CAD files how much faster can you get Earthwork and Quantity take-offs done? (Say a 20 acre job)
If you use GPS how has it helped?
All reviews of modern software would be very helpful and appriciated.
Thank you, Todd





RE: Take-off software recommendations.
Earthworks 3D
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material 3d
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as for the GPS we use the trimble system, to shoot points then bring them back into earthworks 3d. before we would use
trimble geomatics to import points then open in autocad and connect all the points then import into agtek. We've done a compare w/ the quanitys we get from using just agtek and using just autocad. and there was a differance of a couple cy. which was good enough for our estimators.
RE: Take-off software recommendations.
Has your company ever considered outsourcing to a consultant?
I have 25 Years Estimating Experience and have used Agtek, Paydirt and Insite.
I just started this business a little over a year ago and could always use new customers.
Chuck Redman
Siteworx Estimating Services
RE: Take-off software recommendations.
I have convinced my company to buy new software and we also hope to hire help with takeoffs. As I have written, I have had demos from Agtek and Carlson. I have also recieved brouchures/demo cd's from Insite, Trakware and others. I believe all these products will pay for themselves several times over. Because I'm not paying for the software, cost is not an issue, I just want to produce the best takeoff with the time allowed. We are going to take a second look at Agtek. So far my experience with them has been negative.
Does anyone have a second source for Agtek? Are there any trade shows for civil takeoff software? Besides this site are there any other websites for non-bias (or less than any sales site) help? Thanks for reading and your help.
RE: Take-off software recommendations.
RE: Take-off software recommendations.
RE: Take-off software recommendations.
RE: Take-off software recommendations.
I can barely read the website. I dont know if it is my eyes or the background. Thought that you would want to know.
RE: Take-off software recommendations.
RE: Take-off software recommendations.
RE: Take-off software recommendations.
Hi,regarding the Agtek im using this for 4 years i dont have any complain on take off but sometime it gonna freeze ur computer, the only disadvantage is when you trying to elevated Cadd files to 3D it take times. Also the Carlson take off we had that one too (3 programs ) pretty much for 3D modelling for downloading our GPS (TopCon & Trimble) it is friendly user. We had a project here Socal 150 Acres using Agtek for quantity take off compare to Carlson is almost same result not much difference.
RE: Take-off software recommendations.
RE: Take-off software recommendations.
How does it take more time?
We found that our work has gotten so much faster than the old take a plan apart, tape it down then scale and trace every line. On a grading job w/ 5 million yards is not fun when you have to tape and trace. Ive been in both worlds, and the importing and elevating of lines is so much faster and very easy. I have 4 employee's who would agree with me.
again this IMO.
RE: Take-off software recommendations.
RE: Take-off software recommendations.
Are you fimiliar w/ the F8 function when entering
consecutive line info? ie. contours.
If not ill attempt to lead you in the right direction.
IMO THIS IS A REAL TIME SAVER. NO NEED TO PUNCH IN EVERY VALUE FOR EVERY CONTOUR
i turn on my plus marks so i can see where the points are in the contours & always click on a point NOT THE LINES BETWEEN POINTS.
start by changing two consecutive contour lines to entered lines. ie. 250 & 252 (if working intervals of 2 ft) then deselect all lines by pressing ESC. place your mouse over the 1st entered contour. ie.250 then click F8 this will hilight that line, next move the mouse arrow over the next entered contour. ie 252. and hit F8 this will hilight that line, now move the mouse over the next contour and click F8, not only will this hilight it but wil change from ANNO to Entered and give it a value of 254, move mouse over next contour and click F8 gives you a countour Entered @ 256 value. you continue this till you have all contours done.
Hope this helps if you dont know already.
RE: Take-off software recommendations.
RE: Take-off software recommendations.
I am an agtek fan.
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RE: Take-off software recommendations.
the 2nd is Carlson Takeoff for 9000.00
the former is simple to use and is accurate and quick
the later is cad based and requires some intelligence...but has seemless integration to gps and field work.
Andy Portale
sitework.org
RE: Take-off software recommendations.
RE: Take-off software recommendations.
11 Apr 07 13:59
DO NOT USE AGTEK....It is the shadiest program of all time. But if you are going to use any Agtek program you HAVE to pay for the support. I know what I'm doing in Agtek, yet I end up contacting support constantly due to the inadaquices of the program.
Can you let me know what makes it shady? what sort of problem have you contacting support constantly? thanks, just wonder what other users go through.
RE: Take-off software recommendations.
as far as gps, it is not usually very reliable for elevation unless you invest in very expensive systems. however, for rough figures, usgs does provide 3d elevation data just about anywhere. currently, the 1/3 arc data is accurate to 10' if i'm not mistaken. 1/9 arc data is currently in progress which is good to 3' but it is very limited. go to www.usgs.gov and go to the bottom left, scroll down, and click on seamless data. i suggest you read the faq section since most computer setting will mess up accessing the data. the data can be downloaded and manipulated (even pulled out to generate a topo map and put in to you gps).
for quantities, i generally use spreadsheet and area squares. plug in the cut/fill depths and it will approximate pretty well. basically, grid the site, pull the exising elevations at some point, plug in the finish elevation and calculate the quantities based on that. use smaller areas for better approximations. this may not really be practical for very large sites but it might be quicker than what it takes to get cad files and if there are errors, it would at least be a good check. this method has saved one of my clients 20,000 cy of extra blast rock pay since the blaster used a swanky 3d program and ended up with twice as much rock as i did on the first blast. my method was correct (and simple).
RE: Take-off software recommendations.
Shoot me an email when you get a chance.
Bart Saucier
Bart@bricconstructors.com