Summarize comments

rfijen · Post by **rfijen** » Wed Jul 06, 2022 1:49 pm

Hello Forum and Tracker Support Team,

I work in the construction industry. One thing I miss about this software is making quantity take-offs from PDF-Xchange. I've read that quantity take-offs from layers wouldn't be possible in the future on some other topic. Is there any way you could have some more filters on the Summarize comments tool? For instance add a filter to group my color? It would also be very handy to only export measurements, would this be possible with a filter?

If there is another way for a quantity takeoff, without moving layers to other documents, please explain to me how I can manage it.

Thank you in advance,
Robin

Post by **Paul - Tracker Supp** » Wed Jul 06, 2022 6:12 pm

Hi Robin,

thanks for the post and excellent questions.

We are definitely interested in hearing from you more about what filters would help you do your take offs. We are not an engineering company and we do not employ construction engineers, so while we really are good at writing software (

) it is important to understand that which one is creating. Since we do not have in house an in depth understanding of the task at hand (performing take offs) we would be guessing at best...

So. Your timing is impeccable. We have already identified the need to overhaul the Comments Pane and Summary, this is already assigned a developer, however he has a number of higher priority tasks to complete first. This gives us the opportunity to discuss here what could be included to help you with your Take Offs. I would be keen to hear more on what would make this easier in the PDF-XChange Editor.

For example, did you know that you can already export the measurement comments to CSV? With a measurement object selected, look to the "Format" tab/ribbon for the "Export to CSV tool:

Even with only one measurement selected, the export should include all measurement types:

rfijen · Post by **rfijen** » Thu Jul 07, 2022 11:20 am

Hi Paul,

To make good quantity take-offs (for example for calculations) it is important to get the quantity take-offs from the layers. When we put our measurements into PDF, we would like to work with as few different documents as possible. Layers are a very nice way to present to parties and show them the work you've done. The first printscreen below shows a tiny part of the document with all layers on. As you can see in the drawing, everything is mixed together (Perimeter, Area, Textboxes, but also walls, floors, ceilings etc.). We draw every wall, floor, ceiling (finish) in a different color. In the second printscreen I filtered only the wall types to be shown, but when making a quantity take-off I would only like the perimeter of these walls that are shown and not my floors, ceilings etc. aswell.

The best solution for us would be to make quantity take-offs of the filters that are made (the possibilty to only export the quantity of the layers that are on), with the name of the filter exported to the CSV. For example look at the printscreen below: if the filter couldn't be exported to CSV I have to fill in the information of that wall into "Subject" and "Author" to get the information that I need into the quantity take-off. Because there are really a lot of measurement and perimeter lines, this will take a lot of time, while the filter already has the information with it.

If exporting filter names wouldn't be possible I have another suggestion on how to make propper quantity take-offs. With layers we could filter everything we don't want to see in the drawing. With the tool select comments select the whole document (only the layers visible will be selected) and take a quantity take-off of the selected measurements.

: image(1)(1)(1)(1).png (2.13 KiB) Viewed 494 times

I don't know what's possible developwise, but I think this would be the best ways from my point of view.

Another suggestion is about measurements. It would be helpful to have an extra measurement tool making area's using rectangles. Right now Area is only freeshape, I suggest to make an extra tool for area's from rectangles which gives the area, the length and the width of the rectangle as output.

I have another suggestion about the layers. Because I work with layers and sublayers, when I select all layers and I toggle them to hide them, all my sublayers are still shown (as shown below, the sublayers lights are still on). Wouldn't it be easier that the sublayers is connected to the main layer? So when I hide the main layer (Wall type 1), all the sublayers (1.04 Bar, 1.05 Pantry etc.) will be hidden aswell. Same when you show a layer, the sublayers will be shown aswell, but you could choose to show or hide the sublayers individually.

Post by **Paul - Tracker Supp** » Fri Jul 08, 2022 6:00 pm

This is really great stuff Robin, I really appreciate it.

I am going to be away until early next week, when I plan on setting up a few examples to "play with" and get a feel for the task. From what I am reading it's all about the filters and collecting just the right content from what is already there.

I hope that time line is acceptable given that we are talking about something that is still more than one build away.

cheers

rfijen · Post by **rfijen** » Mon Jul 11, 2022 8:05 am

Thank you Paul. I understand this won't be built overnight. Having a good thought about it is always better than rushing into a solution. For me important that the solution works and it will spare me a lot of time in the future. You are right, with the filters all information is already there, so it would be really helpfull if a quantity take-off could be linked to the filter somehow. If you have any questions while building, please ask. I've put notifications on, on this topic.

Post by **Tracker Supp-Stefan** » Mon Jul 11, 2022 2:00 pm

rfijen · Post by **rfijen** » Thu Mar 21, 2024 2:03 pm

Is there an update on this post? Will there be an update with these items implemented soon?

Looking forward to hear from you.

Post by **Paul - Tracker Supp** » Thu Mar 21, 2024 8:20 pm

Hi, rfijen

thanks for touching base here. There are a few things here now that might help you. If you use "Layers" and "subject" to organize your comments you can then limit what is summarized by turning off unwanted layers and grouping the summary by "Subject".

Here is an example of what I mean:

I start by creating a layer for the base content, and other layers for material types. Then using the "Content" pane, select everything then move it to that layer:

I add Perimeter annotations for the material. I use a unique colour for each material, and also label them with a "Subject" so as to be able to use these for grouping later on. You could for example do all pipe blue, then have subjects 1 inch, 2 inch, 4 inch etc. You can show/hide all pipe and group it by size. Indeed any arbitrary "Subject".

So I mark up different materials, each on their own layer which can them be hidden from view as well as the comments summary.

The subject is included in the CSV export so you can easily group the results in a spreadsheet:

While not specifically a "take Off tool" I wonder whether organizing the comments this way helps any?