Assemblies

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Clicking Lists Assemblies on the Menu Bar will display a list of all the assemblies you have created. Assemblies are a group of Cost Book items grouped together as a kit that you can add to an estimate at one time. When you add an assembly to an estimate all items that make up the assembly are added to the estimate and the quantities of each item are calculated based on the quantity entered for the assembly.

Assemblies are created from Cost Book items so you must have entered at least some cost book items before you can create assemblies.



You can sort the list by clicking the column heading. Click the column heading again to sort in the opposite direction.

To find an assembly just click a row and start typing. Quick Estimator™ 2005 will move to the nearest match. Keep typing until you find the one you want.

The list is divided into two sections. Assembly Groups are on the left and the Assemblies in each group will be displayed on the right. Clicking on a group will display all the assemblies that belong to that group in the list on the right. Double-click an assembly on the right to open the assembly in the Assemblies screen.

Click the Add New Assembly button to add a new assembly.

Double-click an assembly to open it in the Assemblies screen shown below where you can view or edit the complete details for the assembly.
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Use the Browse drop-down list to browse through your assemblies. You can also search for an item by typing an assembly name in the Browse drop-down list. As you type the list will filter out the closest matches. Keep typing until you find the one you want. Hit the Enter key to move to that assembly.

Click the Options button and select Duplicate Current Assembly to duplicate the current assembly. This is useful when you want to create more than one variation of an assembly. Once duplicated you simply have to make the needed changes.

You can also copy assembly items from an assembly you created previously. This is useful if you have many similar assemblies because it save you from having to manually enter them. To copy assembly items, click the Options button and select Copy Items From Existing Assembly. The Copy Assembly Items screen shown below will open.



Select the assembly you want to copy items from and click the OK button This will copy the items and close the Copy Assembly Items screen.

Click the Cancel button to close the Copy Assembly Items screen without copying the items.

Click the Options button and select Add New Assembly to create a new assembly.

Click the Options button and select Delete Assembly to delete an assembly.

Click the Options button and select Print to print a list of your assemblies and super assemblies. See the Printing Assemblies Topic.

Creating A New Assembly

First enter a name for the assembly in the Assembly field.

You can select an group that this assembly belongs too from the Group drop-down list. This is optional but will help to keep similar assemblies grouped together and make it easier to find an assembly when selecting them to include in an estimate. Click the button to the right of the Group field to view or edit the list.

Select a unit from the Unit drop-down list. You are not restricted to units available on the drop-down list.

Enter notes in the Note field. This is optional. If you check the Add Notes Estimate check box, the notes will automatically be added to the estimate when this assembly is added to the estimate.

Next you need to add all the items that make up the assembly in the Assembly Items area.

First select the category by clicking the appropriate button.

To add a assembly item, click the button on the right of the Item field. This will open the Cost Book Item Selector screen. This screen allows to easily find and choose an item from your cost book and add it to the assembly. See the Cost Book Item Selector topic to learn more about this screen.

Next enter the Link Factor. The Link Factor is the number of units of the item required for each unit of the assembly. For example if you can install 30 SF of pavers in 1 man-hour then the Link Factor for paver installation would be 0.03 or 1 divided by 30. The Link Factor will be used to calculate the quantity of the items based on the quantity of the assembly. So for our paver example if we entered 1000 SF of pavers in an estimate then paver installation would be calculated at 30 man-hours. If you do not want the quantities calculated for you or you do not know the Link Factor or the Link Factor varies too much then you can leave the Link Factor at 0. The items will still be added to your estimate but the quantities will be 0. You simply enter the quantities manually in the estimate.

If the quantity of the item is always the same regardless of the quantity of the assembly then you should enter the quantity in the Link Factor field and check the Fixed Quantity box. When the assembly is added to an estimate the quantity for this item will be what is in the Link Factor field and will not change no matter what the quantity of the assembly is.

In the Round To Nearest column enter the fraction you want the quantities of the items to be rounded to when they are automatically added to an estimate. The default is 1. In this case all quantities would be rounded up to the nearest unit. If you enter 0.05 then they would be rounded up to the nearest half unit. If you want to round down then enter a negative number. If you enter -0.5 then all quantities would be rounded down to the nearest half unit. If you leave the Link Factor at 0 then this value is not used.

Repeat for each item in the assembly.

The Assembly Unit Cost for Category and Assembly Unit Cost will be shown at the bottom of the Assembly Items section for information purposes only and are not used in any way. These unit costs is based on the unit cost of each assembly item and the Link Factor. If some items have a Link Factor of 0 then the Assembly Unit Cost will not include those items. Fixed quantity items would also effect the accuracy of these figures.

To delete an assembly item click the button next to the assembly item you want to delete.

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