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Steel Estimator's Guide to Staying Competitive

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4 Accuracy of Estimates CHALLENGE: Lack of information causes guesswork If your estimates are based on 2D, it's likely they're also requiring you to do some amount of guesswork. 2D drawings often don't provide everything an estimator needs to create accurate takeo‡s at the pace required to bid competitively. When you base material quantications on 2D for structures that will come to life in 3D, the risk for human error increases signicantly because it's diŠcult to quantify every detail of a project when you can't see it from every angle. This means you can't catch potential constructibility issues early, and those can turn into expensive challenges during construction that risk project protability. Even more challenging, 2D doesn't provide access to the cost information you need to generate an accurate bill of materials. SOLUTION: Often times, the ability to analyze a project's constructibility can provide the edge it takes to win a bid. Having this information in 3D improves accuracy and makes it easy to see if something is missing. With the condence that quantities are accurate, complete and up- to-date, estimators can be better prepared to face the challenge of ensuring the data quality and generate the required information for the estimates within oŠce hours. Using a strategic estimating tool also enables you to include actual purchase costs into the nal bid, as opposed to just 'adding a percentage of drop' to allow for waste. You'll be able to generate precise estimates and exact quantities that translate into competitive bids and more protable projects. By combining and pricing all materials and generating a nal number that includes actual drop costs, your workow will gain a competitive advantage to estimators just going with an educated guess.

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