Autodesk QTO – The Best Little Program You Aren’t Using! Generally on any building project there software can cut the amount of time spent is a fine line that is drawn when it comes to doing a count and takeoff by more than 60 technology. On one end of the spectrum you percent, and the accuracy factor is dramatihave architects and engineers who rely on cally increased as well. technology to get their work done. On the What you will notice first about QTO is other end you have subcontractors and trade that it doesn’t require any additional equipspecialists who use years of experience, ment to use. Some of the more popular oncommon-sense, and good judgment to turn screen takeoff programs come bundled with a set of plans into a living breathing building. digitizer pads or require the purchase of inWhat has always been interesting to me teractive touch screen pen displays similar is that while those on the design portion to the Waacom Cintique tablets. of the equation have been so dependent on With QTO all you need is a monitor and technology to get their work done, those a mouse. QTO is built on Autodesk proprion the construction side of the equation etary DWF technology. This technology seemingly have very little use for advanced was originally aimed at keeping Autodesk technology of any type. When you walk the customers from having to purchase software halls of a dry wall or flooring contractor you from Adobe Systems (Acrobat) in order to invariably see construction plans rolled up communicate with each other. Personally I in corners or spread out on drafting tables. like the DWF format—if it did nothing more And usually there is a person huddled over for us than to push Adobe to pay better atthem wearing glasses and manually calculat- tention to the needs of the engineering and ing material quantities to determine what it design community, it has done enough. is going to cost them to do this job. This is a But DWF also gives us the ability to tough group to reach out to because they are communicate using precise vector lines or not traditionally CAD users. lightweight 3D models seeded with object Now that we are living property data. That may in a world where IPD is When I received QTO, be the reason that a lot a reality, all parties need which I had heard of but of people shy away from to take advantage of the it. Some of the files never used, I decided using situation and leverage the generated look a lot like technology available to to load it up and take it AutoCAD DWG files make each job more prof- for a spin. What I found and there could be conitable. So now comes the was a pleasant surprise. cerns about file security. question: “Why aren’t Some of those concerns these guys using Autodesk Quantity Takeoff are partially justified by the efforts recently (QTO)?” I mean this piece of software can to create programs that convert 2D DWF make life easier for architects, engineers, and files into usable DWG or DXF files. While subcontractors and almost nobody seems to I am of the opinion that someone may figure be using it. that out eventually, I don’t think the tech is In fact, my own exposure to the product there yet. Most of the programs I have seen was somewhat accidental. Before I went fall short of providing a file that is truly usinto business for myself, I was working for able without requiring a lot of clean up. So an Autodesk reseller when a nondescript while people are still unsure about DWF package arrived in the mail. I had received and the free Autodesk Design Review packthese packages fairly often containing what age, it is this functionality that enables proare referred to as NFR (not for resale) cop- grams like QTO to leverage the DWF file to ies of the software. So when I received make quantity takeoff much easier. QTO, which I had heard of but never used, As you open the program you will notice I decided to load it up and take it for a spin. that it is project based. The startup wizard What I found was a pleasant surprise. This asks you to select a name for your takeoff 12
project. The program will group all necessary drawings together, allowing them to be accessed in the future by simply opening the project to which they pertain. Next you are asked to select your system of measurement, imperial or metric, and the currency you will be using. You see, while the program itself is called Quantity Takeoff, it can be used to do cost estimating as well. After selecting the currency you get an opportunity to select an organizational model for your takeoff project. Several popular formats are preloaded into the system including CSI 16, 48, and Uniformat systems. You can select one of these at this point or select none if you intend to apply your own organizational structure or if you will make the decision about which to use later in the project. On the next panel you are given the opportunity to select the drawing files that will be part of your project. QTO is based on DWF technology, but you can select drawings that are in just about any commonly used format. Directly supported files formats include DWF, DWFx, DWG, PDF, and Image file types such as BMP, JPEG, GIF, and CAL. You can choose any one or a combination of several images to combine in the same takeoff project. While most other takeoff programs give you that capability, what makes QTO unique is that it allows you to load not only sheet-based documents but also model files generated from programs such as Autodesk Revit. Though the RVT isn’t supported for direct import, if you export an RVT model as a 3D Dwfx file, it can be loaded into your project while retaining the original object properties. It is primarily in this way that this program is uniquely valuable. No other takeoff program on the market today so seamlessly supports both a 2D and 3D workflow. Once the individual drawing files have been loaded to create your takeoff project, it’s time to get to work. If you don’t have access to a 3D model of the project, you will probably be working from raster file formats, pdf, or dwf files. While it doesn’t matter which file you are working with, I believe that you get better drawing fidelity w w w. A U G I . c o m