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Author Topic: How do you guys do your takeoff?  (Read 4467 times)

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Offline JackTopic starter

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How do you guys do your takeoff?
« on: Sep 18, 2007, 15:25:57 PM »
My company is considering switching from Autobid Sheetmetal and Mechanical to the TSI EST products to match our recently purchased TSI CAD/CAM software.  We have used the graphical interface in Quickpen for several years and are very comfortable with the auto generated fittings, etc.  I'm looking for something somewhat equivalent in EST, and design line appears to be it (but it's grayed out for some reason, quess I'll have to call support for that).  I did see an interesting statement in the EST-MECH forum about Ian saying that not many people are using design line for taking off ductwork.  I'm having trouble finding anything in TSI that allows the same takeoff speed that the graphical interface in Quickpen has.  Any thoughts?
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Offline pikey

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How do you guys do your takeoff?
« Reply #1 on: Sep 18, 2007, 17:17:15 PM »
I have the design line working for the pipe takeoff system and it is certainly fast. You can get a lot of speed out of design line (for either trade) but you need to be set up properly (call TSI). Design line is greyed out because you need dongle codes to run it.
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Offline JackTopic starter

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How do you guys do your takeoff?
« Reply #2 on: Sep 20, 2007, 19:25:52 PM »
Anybody use a digitizer?  Our instructor recommeded against it, but seems to be the only way we could ever get the speed we would need to match Autobid.
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Offline VirtualPilot

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How do you guys do your takeoff?
« Reply #3 on: Sep 21, 2007, 17:43:55 PM »
Against digitizer?....weird....I use the digitizer only on large jobs and manual input on smaller ones...
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Santos Cedeno
Pre-Production Mgr - DIXIE Metal Products

Offline scg

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How do you guys do your takeoff?
« Reply #4 on: Sep 25, 2007, 15:48:41 PM »
We are using the digitizer for all our takeoff right now.
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Offline JackTopic starter

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How do you guys do your takeoff?
« Reply #5 on: Sep 25, 2007, 16:32:32 PM »
Quote from: VirtualPilot
Against digitizer?....weird....I use the digitizer only on large jobs and manual input on smaller ones...

I think instructors get hung up on their small demo takeoffs and give their advice based on that.  Our instructor was a proponent of design line, but that takeoff just seems real cumbersome to me, especially on a large drawing.  Design line might work fine on a small drawing or sketch.
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Offline VirtualPilot

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How do you guys do your takeoff?
« Reply #6 on: Sep 26, 2007, 20:39:24 PM »
Quote from: Jack
Quote from: VirtualPilot
Against digitizer?....weird....I use the digitizer only on large jobs and manual input on smaller ones...

I think instructors get hung up on their small demo takeoffs and give their advice based on that.  Our instructor was a proponent of design line, but that takeoff just seems real cumbersome to me, especially on a large drawing.  Design line might work fine on a small drawing or sketch.

Yeah, after sitting in Las Vegas thru some of the Design Line classes, I still do not see how that can be use for quickly estimating a job, If I'm going to go thru that much work in estimating, I think drawing the darn job would be quicker :D

I see Design Line more useful for Design Build projects or engineers designing a job....
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Santos Cedeno
Pre-Production Mgr - DIXIE Metal Products
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