10.06.00 Typical Areas

A Typical Area is something that repeats within a project multiple such as apartment units, hotel suites, townhouses, lobby areas, common rest room areas, etc.  The Typical Area function allows an estimator to assign a count for each "typical unit" and Quick Bid automatically calculates total values.  When properly configured, Quick Bid can then break out reports for each typical unit, floor, building, etc. or report a grand total for the project.

Because a Condition Detail is restricted to just one height, it is best if each Typical Areas Condition Names includes reference to that Typical Area's height.  Examples: "Apt. 2B – 8' 6” ", "Apt. 2B – 10' 0” ".  Be mindful of these different heights when assigning Condition Quantities to Typical Areas.

• To set up an estimate using Typical Areas, set up Bid Areas first.  Multiple Typical Areas can be assigned to any given Bid Area and Typical Areas values can be allocated to different Bid Areas.

To create Typical Areas,

• Click Bid > Show Typical Areas or click the Typical Areas button on the Cover Sheet - the Typical Areas dialog displays

• Click New and assign a name to the typical area in the Typical Area dialog - the Typical Area displays in a column next to the Bid Area column
• Enter the number of times each Typical Area occurs in each Bid Area - in the example above, there are five Unit A - 8'  'units' in Floors 1 through 4, and one "Lobby" assigned to each floor (for each Building).  There are also five Unit A - 10' on the 5th floor of each building.

Once the Typical Areas matrix is filled out, the Multi-Area dialog displays the total number of repeats in parentheses next to the name of each Typical Area (at the top of the grid).

• Now, enter in quantities for ONE OCCURRENCE of the Typical Area in Quantity 1, 2, and 3 in line with the Typical Area name

In the example above,

For Unit A-8' and Unit A-10' there are 50 of Qty 1 and 5 of Qty 2 (for each instance of the typical unit).  

EACH Lobby requires 15 of Qty 1, and 1 of Qty 2

It is also possible to assign Condition Quantity to an Area in this screen, not just Typical Areas.  These Quantities display in the "Unassigned" row and below.  This is where you can account for common values such as common walls between two Typical Areas.

The Condition Quantities are then calculated based on these values (as you can see Qty 1=2650, Qty 2=260).  Notice that the Condition Quantity fields cannot be edited - you must use the Multi/Typical Area dialog box to adjust Quantity values.

• When setting up and using Typical Areas, do not assign common quantities (demising or common walls for example) to a Typical Area.  These quantities should be accounted for individually to avoid duplication.

Other Options in the Typical Areas Dialog

• The Fill Down and Fill Right buttons are used to repeat counts down columns and across rows
• The Areas button opens the Bid Areas dialog

The Copy button copies the information from the Typical Area grid so it can be pasted it into a spreadsheet or other document.  Click the Copy button and all columns are copied (highlighted in blue).

• Open the destination program (Excel in the example below)
• Select Edit > Paste

• The Print button open the Print Preview dialog where the Typical Area Report may be printed or exported

   

  

That covers creating and building out Conditions, Bid Areas, and Typical Areas, now it is time to start looking at ways to adjust a Bid.  We already covered setting up and adjusting Markups, now let's look at adjusting two of a project's biggest expenses... Production (Labor) and Material costs.

Adjusting Item-Level Production