Material Quantities

Function

The Material Quantities flyout shown here offers many options for quantity reporting including the option for user defined attributes. Entities with attributes can be drawn, edited, and identified. Standard and custom report options are also available.

Material Quantities are counted from the entities in the drawing. Several entity properties can be reported including entity count, length, area and volume. Also user-defined attributes can be assigned to the entities and reported. The type of material for each entity is determined by the layer for the entity. In the Define Layer Target/Material/Subgrade, you can assign the material types by layer.


Standard Report

Use this command to display all or a selected set of material quantities and user-defined information with the standard Carlson Takeoff report format shown here.



Prerequisite: Defined materials
Keyboard Command: materials_report2

Custom Report

Use this command to customize or "user define" the reporting options. This command first prompts whether to report quantities for all the entities in the drawing or selected entities. Then if the drawing contains Areas Of Interest polylines, there is an option report quantities by these areas which adds the area name to the available report fields to allow sorting and grouping by area name. The Report Formatter Options dialog box shown here offers a variety of output options. You can choose the fields to report from the Available list and put them in report order under the Used list.



Selecting the Display option shows the report in the standard Carlson Takeoff report viewer. Reports can be exported to an Excel spreadsheet as well.

Prerequisite: Defined materials
Keyboard Command: materials_report

Define Materials Library

Define Materials Library allows you to Add, Remove, Load, Save, and Report a list of material costs. Costs can be set per area, count, volume, ton, or length by using the Edit function at the bottom of the dialog. The left side of the dialog can be used to set categories for different material costs.




Prerequisite: pricing for materials
Keyboard Command: define_tk_materials

Edit-Assign Block Materials

This command scans the current drawing to find and report block/symbol names and their count. For example, when the drawing contains different symbols for different types of utilities, this command identifies each type of symbol and the number. From this command, you can set the Description and Cost of the block by using the Edit buttom. You can also set the Description and Cost by predefined Materials by using the Set By Library button. When a block name is highlighted from the list, the drawing is zoomed to the location of one of those blocks so that you can see what it looks like. To Report these materials as part of the Standard Report, check on  Include  Materials  Quantities  Report in the Edit Materials dialog of the block layer found in the Define Layer Target/Material/Subgrade command. You can also just click on the Report button for a simple report.



Prerequisite:   Blocks
Keyboard Command: edit_all_blocks

Define Material Attributes

Use this command to define all the material attributes that will be assigned to objects in the drawing for reporting purposes. The Define Attribute dialog box shown here allows the user to "Add", "Edit", or "Remove" attributes and save the definitions for later use. Simply "Load" a saved attribute definition file with the "tkd" extension for future use.



Selecting the Add or Edit options produce the edit attribute dialog box shown here. Use this command to define the Data name and the layer the objects currently reside on and the layer that future objects will be drawn on. Two entity types can be used, polyline data or point data. If the symbol option is selected the user has the option of which symbol will represent the object. Attribute fields must be defined for material reporting.



Selecting the Add or Edit button on the Edit Attribute dialog box brings up the Edit Field dialog box shown here. Use this dialog to define the field name and type. If the Value option is selected, only numeric values will be allowed when prompted. If the String option is selected, the user will have the ability to type in a text message when prompted.



Prerequisite: attributes
Keyboard Command: define_tk_data

Draw Materials Entities

Use this command to apply attribute data to objects as you draw or digitize them. Select the predefined attribute type to draw from the list available in the Select Attribute to Draw dialog box shown here.



The command line will prompt the user to pick the points of the desired location of the object and allow the attribute data fields to be filled out upon completion or each "enter".

Prerequisite: defined attributes
Keyboard Command: draw_tk_data

Input-Edit Material Attributes

Use this command to assign predefined attribute information to an object already existing in the drawing. The command line prompt will require the user to select the object that attribute information is to be applied, and offer the Input-Edit Attribute dialog box shown here. This dialog box will display all predefined fields for that particular attribute type.



Prerequisite: predefined attribute information
Keyboard Command: edit_tk_data

Identify Materials Entities

Use this command to display all the objects that have attribute data assignments. The user will have the options of selecting the objects by picking them individually or by searching the entire drawing database. The objects that have attribute information assignments will "highlight" on the screen and the command line will display the attribute information.

Prerequisite: attributes
Keyboard Command: id_tk_data