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The Materials support extension to SmartPlan uses an expanded ADF file to create a viewing, interpreting, and calculation of quantities element to SmartPlan. It coincides with the release of a new desktop program, Materials X.
A materials takeoff is about quantifying amounts typically of hardscape. For example, if a parking lot is built you walk on the asphalt but below that there's other materials brought in like base rock or sometimes concrete that it rests upon. A typical workflow process is a contractor moves the dirt into the rough shape (rough grading), it gets compacted and then they come in with a motor grader and move the small amount of remaining dirt to a fine grade into the bottom of the parking lot otherwise known as subgrade. From there rock is brought in, spread and compacted to create a firm surface that can be quite thick. The asphalt paver then comes in and lays down the asphalt that's driven on.
Now the materials used to take the subgrade up to the finished product are fairly expensive both in direct cost and in the labor involved so the contractor needs to know quantities both for bidding and for ordering and time estimates. This is where a Materials takeoff comes in.
A Materials takeoff for most cases is probably a 2.5D instead being truly 3D. The user specifies the geometric area or length that we refer to as a structure. The depth associated with that area is based on thicknesses (section) of the differing types of materials that add up to create a total thickness of the structure. For example Light duty paving we've specified as an area called “LD paving” made up of .58 feet of AB (aggregate base rock) and .25 feet of AB (asphalt). To make it even a little more complex we have to buy the material in tons so there's a factor called a multiplier used to make that conversion. From there the estimator can calculated the cost of materials, amounts to order, and to a certain degree the cost of labor/time.
The math works like this. I have 881.66 square feet of LD Paving. For the the rock we take the section .5833 and multiply it against our area (881.66 x .5833 = 514.2722). We then multiply it against the multiplier usually based on the weight per cubic foot. In this case (it varies) we're
