Welcome to the eTakeoff Newsletter – Issue 1, 2012

In this copy of the newsletter we bring you news an the Advanced version of eTakeoff and Integration with McGraw-Hill Construction and eTakeoff’s new CEO.  There are also tips on copying quantities to other applications and using the extra drawing window.

Product News – Important Notice

eTakeoff Advanced Version

eTakeoff Advanced has been released to replace eTakeoff Pro and ProPlus. Pro and ProPlus will continue to be maintained for existing users. Click here for a chart comparing all eTakeoff versions. Through April 2012, we are offering special prices for upgrades from Basic, Pro and Pro-Plus to Advanced and Premier. Click here to see these offerings.

McGraw-Hill Construction Dodge Integration
MHCDodgeView135x120By special arrangement with McGraw-Hill Construction Dodge, we have added advanced integration with the Dodge planroom. We have also enabled Pro functionality for Basic users when working with files from McGraw-Hill Construction Dodge. With the advanced integration, once you have set up an eTakeoff project from a Dodge project, you can download additional files and even refresh the drawing list without returning to the planroom. Dodge View users may wish to see the eTakeoff/Dodge View Comparison. For long time eTakeoff users who also use Dodge (or are considering Dodge), you may want to watch the Dodge Training Videos.

eTakeoff Releases 3.0 and 3.1
DlgBchPrtStat2Release 3.1 of the eTakeoff Viewer was released on April 2, 2012. Major enhancements include batch printing, multiple quantites in the measurement list, measurement flip and rotate, advanced measurement editing and more. Numerous enhancements were made to the control panel including controls for the drawing tree and for quantity worksheet assignment. Click here to read about these and other enhancements.

eTakeoff’s new CEO

We’re pleased to announce that Curtis Peltz has recently joined the eTakeoff team as CEO. Curtis was the President/CEO of Timberline Software until the sale of Timberline to Sage Software in 2003. Curtis continued with Sage as the General Manager of the Timberline Construction/Real Estate business unit until 2006. Since then he has had his own consulting practice. Curtis is an industry expert in the area of computerized cost estimating. In his tenure at Timberline, he was the creator of Timberline’s first minicomputer estimating system and later led the team that built Precision Estimating in DOS and Windows. Precision Estimating became one of the construction industry’s most successful estimating solutions.

“I’m very excited to join John and his team at eTakeoff. I’m not only impressed by the quality and elegance of eTakeoff as a takeoff solution for estimators of every stripe, I’m impressed by the staff supporting it as well. In fact, I think eTakeoff is one of the industry’s best kept secrets and my goal is to change that!”

Basic Viewer Tips

Copy Quantities to Other Applications
CopyMeasurementCopy MeasurementThe Basic (free) version of eTakeoff does not allow you to save measurements or quantities. However, you can copy measurement quantities and paste the values into any application that supports copy & paste. For example, you can paste data into an Excel spreadsheet. Once you take off a measurement, right click on the measurement, select “Copy Measurement” then click on the quantity that you want to save.

Advanced Viewer Tips

Extra Drawing Window

Extra Drawing Window ButtonThis feature allows you to open multiple, extra windows to display drawings. You can open as many extra drawing windows as necessary. These windows can be moved and displayed on as many monitors as you have connected to your computer. eTakeoff remembers where each window is, the size of the window, what drawing is displayed and the zoom factor on the drawing, and it remembers these setting for each project. eTakeoff will redisplay the memorized windows whenever you open the project.
Watch the video for details. Extra Drawing Windows are included with Pro, Pro-Plus, Advanced and Premier.
Next, switch to the Excel spreadsheet, right click on a cell and Paste the quantity into a cell.