Many times, when using the program, you are expected to enter some value into a measurement box (such as indicating the Height of a Takeoff Item, or the length of a piece of takeoff). You need to tell the program some information so it can properly calculate takeoff quantities. For example, when setting up a Linear Takeoff Item, you can tell the program how tall the wall is (its Height) so the program can calculate the wall's Surface Area; you can further specify how thick the wall is (it is Width) to calculate Volume (L x W x H=V).
When entering values into measurement boxes in Takeoff, you do not need to enter in units of measure, the program converts what you entered, based on your System of Measurement.
Imperial (U.S. Standard)
When entering a quantity in any Imperial measurement box, the last two digits typed are interpreted as inches and are always converted to feet and inches.
Examples
- "824" is interpreted as 8 feet, 24 inches and displays 10' 0" (not as 824 inches - only the last two digits are considered "inches")
- "88" is interpreted as 88 inches, which gets converted to feet and inches and displays as 7' 04"
- "800" is 8 feet 0 inches or 8' even, displayed as 8' 00" (not as 800 inches)
- "806" is 8 feet 6 inches, displayed as 8' 06" (not as 806 inches)
- "10" is 10 inches, displayed as 00' 10"
- "12" is 12 inches, displayed as 1' 00"
- "1010" is 10 feet 10 inches, displayed as 10' 10"
Yes, you can use fractions - for example, if you want to specify a Height of 7 feet 10 1/4 inches, you can enter either "94.25" (94.25 inches) or "710.25" (7'10.25"), both are interpreted the same. At this time, you have to enter a decimal for fractions (you cannot enter "1/4", you enter ".25").
System International (Metric)
When entering a quantity in any Metric measurement box, the value is always interpreted as millimeters.
Examples
- To enter 1.2 meters into a measurement box, type 1200 (1200 mm = 1.2 m)
- 10 cm is entered as 100 (100 mm = 10 cm)
You can specify fractions of a millimeter by entering a decimal (which is really, really small).
If you are using Metric and your quantities are not displaying correctly, you may need to adjust your Windows Regional Settings, see Metric Quantities Display Incorrectly
Using Imperial or Metric Units of Measure