Autodesk Build, based on the former PlanGrid, is construction productivity software. It includes tools to collaborate, collect, and manage project information throughout the project’s construction and operations lifespan. It enables document centralization and tracking.
$39
user per month
QuoteSoft
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
QuoteSoft is a construction and estimation software offering from Quote Software.
PlanGrid performs really well in all aspects of construction from the general to the sub/trade. The platform distributes and communicates project documentation in an extremely user-friendly manner. As with most software, it is cheaper the larger the scale of the project. In situations where the project is relatively small, and the trade contracts are also of relatively low dollar value, the product can be cost-prohibitive.
Quotesoft again is very well suited to any estimating department. I recommend a large screen monitor, but it's far more convenient than the old quick pen table or other methods. It's been great for jobs post mortem as well, we'll go back over as builds and make sure we captured and adjust estimates or change orders. It's also great for illustrating changes, and having all be very accurate.
Plangrid is the best SaaS I have seen for ease of uploading construction plans and automated organization of those plans.
For companies that are not using other products for mobile access, the Plangrid mobile apps are perfect to allow people on and off site to share and collaborate in many phases of construction project documentation.
Plangrid has a very responsive technical support team (although it is pretty much email only).
Plangrid's website layout is easy to use and understand and allows new users to jump right in and do basic to moderate tasks without little training.
Once you're over the learning curve, it's fantastic at getting accurate material takeoff. Because one is working off the real PDF prints of the project, it's very easy to get a good material list and takeoff.
Excellent for giving options of transitions and allowing the user to account for the actual 3rd dimension of the project by being able to click and add the sections needed to transition between floors.
The speed in which the user is able to takeoff is so much faster than traditional methods, and more accurate and easier to use than the other options on the market. Prints out great reports showing materials and hours, and lets you color code the systems while estimating so you know you aren't duplicating efforts.
Very flexible as far as how it adjusts for your desired estimate. You can identify per floor, side of the building, system, etc.
Allows for fast on the fly adjustments of sizes, materials and types of transitions with ductwork.
The photo attachment process is a bit complicated. In ProCore (another similar software I've used), you can upload photos directly into RFIs for your reference, or into e-mails. For PlanGrid, you have to first upload the photo into the documents tab, then link them into the RFI. It's not intuitive and can add confusion to the documents tab.
Photos can't be directly uploaded. Between different devices and colleagues, it's possible you'll get an important photo outside of the PlanGrid photo capture feature within its app. Again, it's complicated for users to use.
In their new drawings viewer, the icons for actions do not have icons available. I had to use them all in order to understand what they meant, and I'm fairly tech savvy. I'm not sure if a new person to PlanGrid will pick up on each icon's abilities very easily.
There's no all-in-one solution in CM, but PlanGrid is fairly barebones, and I don't believe it has any ability to connect to other software. There's no ability to take meeting munites; you can hack the field reports feature to accomplish this, but it's clear that was not the intent of the designers.
I'd prefer an 'all in one' as opposed to modules. I believe it's offered in that fashion but it was a touch more expensive. I was able to negotiate a footage takeoff tool for piping, to make it easier and more economical to our specific use, which is 95% dry side hvac estimating.
Would be great if it could be preloaded with Smacna or MCA factors for labor, and also would be great if there was a faster way to update material costs. You do need to stay on top of your material factors and make adjustments per the price of steel and other consumables. The industry has been stable lately, but if for some reason you were lax in updating labor and material factors, you could be off on the estimate. That's true of ANY software or even standard old school estimating approach.
It does require a dongle and a per seat license. The one drawback I don't care for, in a small company with tight cash flow, I do have estimators sharing the seat and scheduling takeoff around each other. Pretty standard though.
We are at the point where we have shown our teams what is possible with this software. We cannot take it away and go back to the way we used to do things. I think that they would push back on us to give them access to something electronic. It is a good program that we will continue to use
Very well thought app, easy to use and provides fast access to the project's plans (your own and your team's), improvements in the annotation posibilities and on-site report generator will be appreciatted. The punch-list report generator and the current/previous plan version compare tools works flawlessly. Haven't used the RFI's nor field report options yet
Online chat during business hours is extremely helpful. The Plangrid staff has gone above and beyond many times to help us. One time they even offered to completely rebuild our 900+ sheet project so I could slip sheet a few old drawing revisions! This undoubtedly would have taken hours on Plangrid's end. They are always responsive and are continually improving, listening to user feedback.
Plangrid, while not serving the external document distribution function, is unrivaled for internal document distribution and sharing in the construction industry. The speed at which documents are navigatable, the ability to download your projects for viewing without an internet connection, and the document mark-up and photo tools place it head and shoulders above the competition.
We were looking at this, as well as quick pen, and other industry standard programs like Wendes. QuoteSoft was far more versatile, user friendly and has proven to be the right choice. No specific equipment outside of a bigger monitor, ease of use, and tech support as well as the online training aspect was fantastic. Felt well supported while we rolled it out.
It helped us "wow" a joint commission survey in 2016 and have a successful survey because he loved how we could access plans on an iPad, check suite sizes, and didn't have to carry around huge, heavy sets of life safety plans.
First positive impact is time saved. We're able with our small team to estimate..ACCURATELY far more projects, thus winning more projects.
Accuracy once we had our factors programmed is fantastic. It's tightened up our material and labor hours and made us more competitive
Definitely has had a great return on investment. Helping to land more projects out of the sheer amount of available time to bid more, as well as being more confident in material costs.
