A Typical Page is plan page that repeats (exactly) in a Bid several times. Repeating Pages (also called Virtual Pages) are copies of the Typical Page. Virtual Pages are not accessible on the Image Tab in Takeoff mode (using On-Screen Takeoff) - only the Typical Pages exist. It's when a Bid is 'flipped' into DPC Mode, that the Virtual Pages are 'exploded' so the foreman can see takeoff on each virtual page and do percenting on them.

Example

We are taking off a 10 story building, floors 2 - 6 are identical (in fact, you may only have one Plan and it's named "Floors 2-6". Taking off these identical floors five times separately is unnecessary and inefficient. Even though you could copy and paste the takeoff five times, what if you have have to make an update to that takeoff? You'd have to do it five times... that's definitely not very efficient.

In this example, the page titled "Floors 2 - 6" would be the Typical Page and is set to have five Repeating Pages (Floors 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6). All Takeoff is performed on the "Typical Page" and you'd use the "Virtual Areas Assignment" dialog box to allocate this takeoff to the appropriate Bid Areas (covered in the next article).

The takeoff on the Typical Page (in our example, the page titled "Floors 2 - 6") is not counted in the project Takeoff Totals (on the Takeoff or Worksheet Tabs) - only the Repeating pages are counted, as explained below.

Repeating Pages can be used with Typical Groups but not with Typical Areas.

How Bid Areas and Typical Groups Work Together

Setting up Repeating Pages