Tutorials TakeoffCraft help Walkthroughs
Assemblies and formulas
Add components to an item and let formulas turn its length, area or count into studs, plates, sheets of board, concrete and hardware, with a worked wall example.
Written for TakeoffCraft 0.3. The same help is inside the app: press F1.
An item's assembly is a list of components, each with a quantity formula and its own waste and rates. The formula uses the item's measured totals, so one takeoff of a wall gives you studs, plates and board at once, and they update as you measure.
Variables you can use
| Item type | Variables |
|---|---|
| Linear | L length, H height, A wall area (L × H), N number of runs |
| Area | A area, P perimeter (outline + cut-outs), H depth or thickness, N number of areas |
| Count | N count |
Values are in the item's own units: feet and square feet for LF and SF items, meters and square meters for m and m² items. For an SY item, A is in square yards while P and H stay in feet.
Formulas use + - * / (or × ÷), parentheses, numbers, and the functions ceil, floor, round, min, max and abs. The full rules are in Formula language.
Worked example: an interior wall
Say you have taken off Interior wall type A as a linear item: 4 runs totaling 120 LF, with Height set to 9'-0". Its Measured values read L = 120, N = 4, A = 1,080 (SF of wall, one face).
- Select the item under Items.
- In Assembly, choose Add component. A component called "Component" appears, with the formula
Land its result below. - Type
Studs 16 in o.c.in Name andEAin Unit. - In Quantity formula, type
ceil(L * 12 / 16) + N. The result updates as you type: "= 94 EA". That is one stud every 16 inches along 120 feet (90), plus one extra to close each of the 4 runs. - Choose Add component again for the plates: name
Plates, top and bottom, unitLF, formulaL * 2. Result: 240 LF. - Add the board: name
Gypsum board 4x8, both sides, unitsheets, formulaceil(A * 2 / 32). Result: 68 sheets (2,160 SF of board ÷ 32 SF per sheet = 67.5, rounded up). - Fill in each component's Waste %, Material $ and Labor $. Each component gets its own row under the item in Quantities, priced like an item, and the Job total includes it.
If the wall cost is all in the components, leave the item's own material and labor rates at 0, or it is counted twice.
More formulas
| What | Item | Formula |
|---|---|---|
| Studs at 24 in on center | Linear | ceil(L / 2) + N |
| Insulation batts, SF | Linear with height | A |
| Paint, both sides, gallons at 350 SF | Linear with height | ceil(A * 2 / 350) |
| Tile cartons at 15 SF, 10% extra | Area | ceil(A * 1.1 / 15) |
| Base or edge trim, LF | Area | P |
| Concrete, cubic yards | Area with depth | A * H / 27 |
| Concrete rounded up to a quarter yard | Area with depth | ceil(A * H / 27 * 4) / 4 |
| Hinges, three per door | Count | N * 3 |
| At least one box, one per 12 | Count | max(1, ceil(N / 12)) |
When a formula is wrong
The line under the formula turns into an error message, for example "X" is not a measured value here. Use L, H, A, N. or A ")" is missing. The component then has no amounts, its row in Quantities shows "Formula error: …", and the header says "Incomplete: 1 formula error (not in the totals)". Fix the formula and the totals update.
A formula that divides by zero is an error too ("The formula divides by zero."), for example A / H on an item with no depth.
Limits
- Formulas run on the item's totals, not run by run.
ceil(L * 12 / 16) + Nadds one stud per run; there is no per-run rounding yet. - A formula can only use its own item's variables, not another item's.
- Up to 50 components per item, 500 characters per formula.
Remove a component
Choose Remove component under it. You can undo it with ⌘ZCtrl+Z.