Released 12/2014
Now you can define a pattern and search for it on multiple pages. The Control Panel now includes a Pattern Search control that shows all the patterns for the current project and any searches in progress or awaiting review.
You can queue up searches for multiple drawings and let them run in the background. When they are complete (or at your convenience) you can review them and generate the takeoffs.
If you pause the mouse over a pattern, you can see the actual pattern.
You can select individual points within a measurement in the following ways:
Once you have selected the desired points, you can act on them:
Existing users will need to go to the “Points” tab of the User Preferences Window and check the “Use advanced point editing” box.
When creating measurements, you occasionally need to follow a circuitous line around numerous turns. While you can do this by digitizing closely spaced points along the line, eTakeoff now allows you to digitize three points then “crawl” the line to generate the intermediate points automatically.
To crawl a line, first digitize two points up to and including the start of line you want to crawl. The two points are used to determine which direction to crawl. Next, digitize the end point of the crawl.
To crawl the line, right-click and select “Crawl the line to the last point” from the context menu. Or simply press the “K” shortcut key. While doing a single measurement, you can use as many crawls as you would like. Just click the end point and press “K” again.
You can now have up to four control panels visible. These can be docked on the sides of the main window or floated – even on another monitor.
When entering numeric values in the quantity list, it’s sometimes useful to copy a quantity from an existing measurement or dimension annotation; or to quickly digitize a few points and use the count, length, perimeter or area from those points.
To copy a quantity from an existing measurement or dimension annotation, right-click on the description for the numeric input variable and select “Get quantity from existing measurement” from the context menu. The numeric variable will display a blank yellow background to indicate a copy is in progress. Then click on the desired measurement or dimension annotation.
To do a quick takeoff, right-click on the description for the numeric input variable and select “Quick takeoff” from the context menu. Then select “Point Count”, “Length”, “Perimeter” or “Area” from the sub-menu.
Then digitize the points for the quick takeoff measurement. As you do, the numeric input variable will be updated with the selected quantity for the measurement.
In the control panel measurement summary, if the quantity column is too narrow to display the complete quantity, pound signs will be displayed instead of a partial value.
You can now drag any of the quantities in the Control Panel Quantity List to Excel. Be sure to click down in the quantity description. The type of drop done (quantity vs. formula link) will be the option selected in the measurement list toolbar.
If you change the project folder after you install eTakeoff, the desktop link to the folder will be incorrect. You can now see the folder in the eTakeoff About Window.