In addition to the estimating extensions, it is also possible to improve your takeoff using the Estimating Items.

If the estimating extensions make it possible to quickly generate additional pre-defined results for a takeoff group, the estimating items allow, for their part, greater flexibility by offering you the possibility of individually inserting one or more items of your choice to this same takeoff group.

Active Takeoff is delivered, by default, with an inventory of estimating items ready for use in your takeoff projects.This inventory is of course completely configurable according to your particular needs.For more details on this topic, refer to the Database Management help section.

Estimating items are particularly useful for creating Quote reports ready for delivery to potential customers.

To add one or more estimating item(s) to your project, first create your group (Area, Perimeter, Length, Counter) from the ribbon.

Now, go to the "Estimating items" tab and click on the  button.

This will open the "Estimating Items" window in which you will be able to select one or many items. Don't forget that this list is fully customizable from the Database Management section under the Estimating Items tab. 

1) Select the section in which the Estimating Item is located.

2) Click on the sub-section which the Item is located. The items in this sub-section will be listed in the lower section of the window.
 
3) Click on the required item to highlight it then click the "Select" button. 
 
To generate the proper result, (here, a quantity of 20 x 20 x 50 cm regular blocks), a valid and coherent mathematical formula must be associated with the estimating item. This formula will be the link between the takeoff group and the estimating item.

Active Takeoff will try to supply an automatic formula with the estimating item. It is the user's responsibility to validate the formula to get the right results in the quote.
 
In this example, Active Takeoff has detected that [Net Area] was the most appropriate formula to associate in this case.
 
Once the group is configured, click "OK" to start measuring.
 
Depending on the takeoff result (here, an Area), Active Takeoff will generate the quantity of items (here, 20 x 20 x 50 cm regular blocks) required to cover this Area in the Estimating panel.

This item will then be displayed in the Quote:

This operation can be repeated by inserting other items. Formulas are editable for each item. 

Here, we have added two other items to our "Block Wall' group: Work hours and Block Anchors.

Let's see how these two formulas are setup.

For the "Work hours" estimating item, the formula stands for 4 square meters per hour, therefore:

For the "Block anchors" item, the formula is 3 anchors per square meter (the use of the $ceil operator will round the round the result of the formula):

Here are the results in the Quote:

As you can see, the use of the Estimating Items is a must to get accurate and customizable results in the Quote.