Workflow

After you finish measuring everything on your plans in OST, you need to figure out what it will cost to build. This topic explains the process in detail.

Identify the takeoff objects in OST that need to be estimated

Look at the plans and the list of conditions in OST.
In the sample project below, notice the slab on grade condition is named 4" SOG:

Next, look at the WinEst OST Integrator spreadsheet and find the 4" SOG condition:

Tip: You can sort by a column in the spreadsheet by clicking the column heading. And you can group items by dragging the column header to the above left of the OST Project spreadsheet.

Find the relevant cost items and/or assemblies in the WinEst cost database

Click Add Items in the WinEst group on the ribbon:

In the WinEst database browser, add the items and assemblies that the OST condition represents:

This Slab on Grade assembly asks you to select choices for each specification variable:

Click Finish when you are done with the specifications:

Quantify the items and/or assemblies by linking dimensional values from OST

After you select specifications and bring the assembly into the estimate, the next thing is to enter the dimensional values to calculate the quantities.

Here you see the assembly in the estimate, ready to enter the dimensions in the Takeoff Calculator. The WinEst OST Integrator allows you to link quantities from OST into the dimensional variables in WinEst:

Now switch back to the Integrator, and you will see the same dimensional variables in the bottom half of the Integrator in the WinEst Takeoff spreadsheet:

For each cell in the Pass column of the integrator's WinEst takeoff sheet, if its value can be specified by a value in the OST spreadsheet, link the two cells: Click on each of the two cells to be linked, then click Link on the ribbon, or right click either cell and select Link from the right-click menu.

In this example, we will link the 4" SOG condition's Qty1 value to the Area of Slab variable and the condition's Thick value with the Depth of Concrete variable in the Integrator's WinEst Takeoff spreadsheet. Click on each of the cells you would like to link, then click Link and the cell colors will change to green.

Notice too that we have added a number of items and/or assemblies from WinEst. The details on the right side in the WinEst Takeoff Spreadsheet correspond to the highlighted Assembly in bold on the left side.

Enter additional dimensions that cannot be specified by the OST project

For each cell in the Pass column of the Integrator's WinEst Takeoff spreadsheet that cannot be specified by a value in the OST spreadsheet, enter the appropriate value.

The Depth of Base Course and remaining variables are not specified in OST, so we need to enter these values manually:

Click Save Changes to Estimate when you are done filling in the variable values. This will save the takeoff spreadsheet, and calculate and update the assembly quantities and costs back in the WinEst estimate:

The History of the assembly is also saved in WinEst: