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OST - 07.01 How to Use Bid Areas to Separate Takeoff Quantities by Rooms, Floors, Buildings, etc.

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Bid Areas are defined locations within a single project such as buildings, floors, levels, wings, phases, or zones. Bid Area names generally refer to the contract drawings (Building 1, Floor 2, for example) or page number (S101, ARCH201).

Note

Zones are covered in Related Articles and are another way to sort/group portions of takeoff.

On-Screen Takeoff uses Bid Areas to allocate takeoff quantities associated with these specific locations and then you can group the Takeoff Tab by Areas to see exactly where your takeoff quantities are coming from. Bid Areas usually transfer to your estimating program so your final estimate can be broken down by Area as well.

Bid Areas are the first step in logically allocating takeoff quantities to different phases or cost centers of a project and are required for using Typical Areas and recommended for Typical Groups and Repeating Pages.

Instructions on how to assign (allocate) takeoff to a specific Bid Area (or Typical Area) are detailed in Related Articles.

You can add up to three levels (or tiers) of Bid Areas (for example, Building > Floor > Room).

Note

Typical Areas are explained in Related Articles, for now, we are just going to define Bid Areas. Although, if you are going to use Typical takeoff, you start by creating Bid Areas so keep reading.

Reminders about Bid Areas:

Takeoff is assigned to Bid Areas, Conditions are not (Conditions are assigned to specific Layers and Types, not Areas).
A takeoff object can be assigned to one and only one Bid Area or Typical Area. A single piece of takeoff cannot be split between two areas - it is all or nothing. You can, however, 'split' takeoff, using a Zone.
Typical Areas can be allocated between multiple Areas (in fact, they usually are), this is done in the Typical Areas setup grid.
Each Typical Group Marker can be assigned to a single Bid Area (it does not matter where the Typical Group Frame or the takeoff inside that Frame is assigned, only the Marker's Bid Area assignment matters).
Virtual Pages' Area assignments are relative to Area assignments on the Typical Page - this is covered in Related Articles, it's fairly advanced stuff.

Please review related articles for more information on using Typical Takeoff to save time and get your bids done faster and more accurately than ever.

Learning Goal

By the end of this section, you'll understand how to set up Bid Areas, allocate to them, and to color/mute takeoff assigned to various Bid Areas.

Entering Condition Quantities Directly on the Worksheet Tab

Adding/Setting Up Bid Areas