Take-off Assemblies

What is an Assembly?

Emjay Systems Total Mechanical Estimating Software is a system that tries to address all the problems that you might encounter on a mechanical estimate for a project.  The picture to the left shows a "typical" piping and duct set-up for a heating and cooling unit.  If you encounter 10 of these on a project, you can handle this in a number of ways.

Firstly, you could take-off the items as they are encountered, and end up taking off this item 10 different times.  You could also keep tract of this item and the sizing, and then take if off with the stated quantities at the end.  Or, our suggestion, you could set-up a Custom Assembly for the project and as you encounter it, with one click, ALL the items are taken off every time you do it!

Setting up Assemblies

Assemblies can be in other companies systems a pain, and the consequence of this is they do not get set-up or used!  This seems to be a common theme.  When we have asked our users why they didn't use Assemblies with their other system, the answer was it was too complicated!

Things have to make sense and they need to be easy, otherwise it becomes too big of an effort and it never gets accomplished.

At Emjay Systems Mechanical Estimating is and has become simple or we don't do it!  Yes, our system too has some things that need to be learned and that is exactly why we offer customer training and have great documentation!

All you need to do really is select a new Assembly and a screen pops up for you to name the Assembly, choose a few options and select Save.

Once this is done your take-off screen is now in Assembly mode and all the items you takeoff from then on will go into the listed Assembly.  There will be a list showing all the items and you can edit those items too during this process.

After this is complete, you save the Assembly, and it is ready to use in your project.  Sound simple?  Well you will understand much better once we've had you do this a couple of times!

How do Assemblies Work?

All projects have take-off repetition, and all Assembly set-up is trying to do is utilize the fact that we all understand that if we can economize on our repetitive tasks, the take-off will go much faster and more accurately.

Let's say you have, using a previous example, 200 VAV Boxes that have pipe valves and fittings, ductwork, Equipment, Specials and hanger components.  One way, as discussed previously is to take-off each unit as they are encountered and this will take a while but it is possible.

Another way is to arrive at the cost of a given unit and set-up a Special or an Equipment item.  This actually works pretty good for budgeting, but for a quantitative take-off it leaves you with a lump sum item without a material list.

The best way is to set-up an Assembly with all the items needed to put his piece of Equipment together including all the parts and pieces AND the Equipment and Specials if you want to see it that way.

Once this is set-up, all you need to do is either take it off times 200 OR take-it off as encountered in the bid.  All of the included items get put into the take-off and when it comes time to create the material list every 90, tee, thermometer, flex connector, adapters, control valves and equipment are listed and ready to be purchased.  That is the way to do this work!

Can They Be Saved?

Assemblies are, at times, time consuming and worthwhile on larger projects where it will save you countless hours and will lead to increased accuracy.

There is a catch and we will get into mechanical estimating Assemblies and take-offs, if you want to save an Assembly for use on other jobs, then ALL the items inside the Assembly MUST be available for the Assembly to use them.

No big deal, but it needs to be understood.  If you are going to create an item to be used later, our naming conventions should be more generic.  For example, if you use a name of VAV-264-103 as listed on that project's equipment schedule, you might want to choose a name like VAV1, VAV2, VAV3, etc. so they can be used on every job.  Make sense?

Also if you created a Special or a piece of Equipment inside this Assembly, you won't be allowed to delete it.  In other words if you created a 9" Thermometer and used it in an Assembly then it will need to be one of your "saved" Specials.

Other than that, you will WANT to save Assemblies, Specials AND Equipment items to use in  your future mechanical estimating projects.  This will save you time and effort as you progress and you will be glad you did!  Don't worry we will help you with this in training.

How Does This Work?

Let's say you has a Chiller that you wanted to crate an Assembly that could be used on this and future projects.  You will need to first determine all the parts and pieces needed to pipe up the Chiller in a typical way.  So, things like fittings, 90's, TOL's and a footage of pipe would be required too.  Also you will have some Specialties like a control valve, a couple thermometers, a couple control points, a pressure gauge or two, drains points, valves and flex connectors.  This then becomes a typical Chiller piping scheme and every time you encounter a Chiller all you have to do is select it from the Assemblies list and the size, and the piping parts are added to the take-off automatically!

The Sizes Are Different

Assemblies are a bit complicated when it comes to size differences and making these work for whatever size you choose.  Fortunately for you, we have solved those problems for you, and all you need to do is pick the right choices as we have laid out for you and use the system, it works!

The Advanced Estimating Course is where we get into creating and maintaining Assemblies.  It does require some additional knowledge and an awareness of estimating and our system training to be completely successful.

Don't worry, it's not brain surgery and we can teach you everything you need to know to make is work every time!

The essence of the Assembly set-up as it relates to the size difference is as follows to try and state it simply.  Let's say you had a VAV with a thermometer, a tee for the thermometer, a 90, an adapter and a flex connector.

When you set-up the Assembly, some items will change it the VAV piping is 1-1/2" instead of 1", right?  You will enter the items recognizing this and the program will make these changes for you. 

On one system it will require a 1"x3/4" tee for the thermometer, and the other will require an 1-1/2"x3/4" tee.  It's easier than it sounds we promise, it's magical!

Specials & Equipment

Specials and Equipment as we discussed previously can be created for just one project estimate or for this project and future projects!  Remember?

The reason for this is why keep creating the same things every time, right?  Yes, if you have thermometers on every project estimate, why not have the set-up and available for take-off right from the start?

This then becomes a bit of a database that will possess you Specialties and Equipment lists that are common to several projects for take-off. 

Again, we will help you with your strategies and set-up of your system, but this is key as I relates to Assemblies.  Assemblies need to have items that exist to be saved and used later, for example, as we discussed earlier, if you use a Special, like a thermometer, and you want to save the Assembly to be used on another project estimate, the Assembly needs to be saved AND everything in it.

Also we would not typically include the piece of Equipment in the assembly since this can change from job to job and the piping components may very well remain the same.

It is your system to do with as you choose, and we will help you in your implementation, so those choices are all yours to use as you wish.  If it helps you do your job easier our job is done!

Saved Time?

Why should any of this matter to you?  You have been estimating the long way for years, and so has everyone else, and quite successfully right?

Yes, we all used to do this in pads of paper and with calculators, adding machines, pencils, 4 column financial paper and we were successful.

We also had larger staffs, more estimators and didn't have to bid hundreds of millions of dollars per year to get to our desired volume of work!

We also had a lot more margin to work with once we did get a job, remember those days?

Now we have to bid jobs ina couple of days, instead of a couple of weeks, and anything that can save us time is needed because we are also running projects too at the same time!  Sound familiar?

Our Total Mechanical Estimating System WILL save you time and effort, and you will recognize immediately whether you are figuring change orders or doing an multi-million dollar project that with Emjay Systems you can do a lot more work more effectively!

The cost of this system will repay you in the first couple of months of the year with just time savings, not counting anything for the mistakes it will help you save you as well.

It's our job to make you as effective as possible!

Major Equipment

If you get good at Assemblies, you could feasibly set-up this systems to do mechanical room estimating using assemblies that would help you to generate budgets and even take-off estimates like you would never imagine.

You could literally do a mechanical room or a major equipment installation in a matter of minutes.  This system works and is very reliable, we are very proud of our estimating system software and you will be glad you purchased it as well!