Part 1 of 2: Sneak Peek of DESTINI Estimator 2017 1.0 Release

To see Part 2 of 2 click here.

The powerful, flexible new DESTINI Estimator 2017 1.0 is coming, with more than 20 fresh features that make construction estimating faster, easier, and more intelligent than ever.

Focused on improvements in core estimating functionality, the new features and streamlined user interface are based on feedback from Beck Technology’s Industry Advisory Board and our clients, whose practical ideas guided our development team at every step.

In this two-part blog series, we’ll detail the features and benefits as covered during our two preview webinars, led by Beck Technology’s Chief Technology Officer Michael Boren.

During the part one preview webinar for the new version, Michael walked through the following key features, including:

• A prepopulated template, plus the ability for users to create and save their own templates on the fly. Templates can be accessed and shared from a central template library, saving countless hours of rework.

• A fully customizable list of properties that carries through the entire takeoff process. Assemblies, line items, pricing, and descriptions can be renamed or changed on the fly to suit a given project, without editing the cost database. Exact pricing values can be specified for each price category, such as labor or materials, as can WBS properties for each line item.

• Fully customizable prompting questions to guide estimators through the estimating process. For example, as users answer “What is the area of the slab in square feet?” and “What is the perimeter of the slab in linear feet?,” line items appear below, with quantities and pricing, in the order the user specifies.

• Faster takeoffs, thanks to a new interface that shows the takeoff window changing as users add costs to the estimate. There’s no more need to find each assembly line item and it takeoff individually, as the takeoff is now updated in real-time.

• Identical line items can now be rolled up automatically. With a single click, users eliminate duplicate line items and gain the ability to make changes to all line items in a group at once, rather than individually.

• Ability to reset the window view to “default” with one click, making it easier to organize and keep track of multiple windows across multiple monitors.

• Icons that note where WBS properties come from, so users will know if they are database properties or custom to a specific estimate. Users can now specify which WBS properties to show when doing assembly takeoff, so they can change values on the fly and specify default values.

• Ability to create new formulas for WBS properties, calculating their value based on other WBS properties’ values inside the estimate. For example, users can create a new formula for “total labor cost” that multiplies the labor cost of an item by the quantity of that item. Users can also modify a line item’s cost to be a formula instead of a fixed number, so they can change pricing easily based on factors such as building size or even ZIP code.

• DESTINI Data Manager, the data manager application for all DESTINI products’ SQL database of cost data, is now easier to use, more streamlined, and more integrated than ever. With a simple, familiar, uncluttered user interface, users can now view only data relevant to as specific DESTINI product with a simple click. Line items within assemblies can now be easily ordered for easy viewing. Line items can also be bulk modified and sorted by multiple criteria, so finding specific items and making changes is fast and easy. Data are fully portable between Data Manager and other applications, such as Excel, with simple cut-and-paste importing and exporting.

If you’d like to dig deeper and discuss how technology can improve your preconstruction estimating, please request a demo.

We invite you to see the features in action and watch our first preview webinar. Next week we’ll share additional features and the webinar archive from part two of our sneak peek.

Related Posts

DESTINI Estimator 2017.1.0 Elevates Preconstruction Technology Crowd-sourced input from Beck Technology’s Industry Advisory Group creates an estimating platform with today’s demands in mind while focusing on the …
Read more
Part 2 of 2: Sneak Peek of DESTINI Estimator 2017 1.0 Release To see Part 1 of 2 click here.
Read more
Sneak Peek at DESTINI Estimator 2019.1.0 You aren't going to want to hit "pause" on this month's webinar. Mike Boren, Chief Technology Officer at Beck Technology, and Jon Bowser, Head of …
Read more