Block.Buster.Takeoff ™, © MENU BAR

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Block.Buster.Takeoff™© is a powerful masonry estimator, a "Smart.Solution™, ©", which produces a finished completed proposal. A material and labor takeoff including: 8x8x16 CMU, rebar, CY of grout, steel lintels, masonry lintels, and misc. hardware. All items are accurately estimated and takenoff by Block.Buster.Takeoff™ © . 90 walls at any height; and 90 openings, doors or windows may be entered in one session. Door/window shoring lumber may be estimated, and a door/window schedule is also produced. In addition the amount of scaffold required is estimated and priced, and labor hours and costs based on crew production and crew size. Complete data, with the project name, overhead, and profit is calculated with a final takeoff of materials and labor. The materials takeoff may be printed separately for pricing. Materials, labor and profit/overhead may be edited and rewritten into Block.Buster.Takeoff™©.

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LICENSE AGREEMENT Sonoran Software, LLC licenses the use of this software to the Licensee or End User under the following five (5) terms: 1. One Hard Drive and one backup copy may be made. 2. Additional Licenses ofBlock.Buster.Takeoff™©  must be purchased from Sonoran Software, LLC should more be required. 3. Sonoran Software, LLC makes no warranty except the replacement of damaged disks. Sonoran Software, LLC shall not be liable for the end use of Block.Buster.Takeoff™©. The LICENSEE shall bear all liabilities which may come from the end use of the calculations and Database of Block.Buster.Takeoff™©. 4. THE LICENSEE HAS READ THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT. BY CHOOSING 'I AGREE' (when at the "LICENSE AGREEMENT" dialog box, upon opening the program) OR OTHERWISE RUNNING THIS PROGRAM, THE LICENSEE/END USER, (hereafter called "User") AGREES TO THE ABOVE TERMS. *Note the User should read the following CAUTION: *WARNING - THE USER MUST DETERMINE THE LOADS CONCENTRATED ON ALL CMU, VERTICAL GROUTED CELLS, OPENING BOND BEAMS AND LINTELS. THE USER MUST DETERMINE FOR HIM OR HERSELF THAT THE MATERIAL BEING ESTIMATED IS APPROPRIATLY SIZED AND SPACED FOR THE DESIGN LOADS OF THE PROJECT BEING BUILT. BECAUSE OF THE WIDE RANGE OF POSSIBLE DESIGN LOADING, SONORAN SOFTWARE, LLC TAKES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE END USE OF THE MATERIALS GENERATED BY Block.Buster.Takeoff™©. THE USE OF Block.Buster.Takeoff™© BINDS THE USER TO THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE AGREEMNENT. PLEASE READ THIS AGREEMENT NOW. READ THE "LICENSE AGREEMENT" DIALOG BOX UPON OPENING Block.Buster.Takeoff™©.

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Use the Menu Bar:

Block.Buster.Takeoff™©

1] HELP - This document is "Help." Help provides an explanation of "Block.Buster.Takeoff™" by a description of the menu choices above, i.e. the "Block.Buster.Takeoff™" menu bar. Scroll down through all the menu bar choices to get a description of each menu choice and an explanation of the results.

2] SAVE -This menu choice saves the open/active document.

3] CLEAR ALL - This menu choice clears all documents, i.e. worksheets and macrosheets which contain any and all data which the user is able to enter into "Block.Buster.Takeoff™." Each time "Block.Buster.Takeoff™" opens a message box appears giving the user a choice to clear all entries from a previous project takeoff. This clears all data entries allowing the user to begin with fresh worksheets.

4] PRINT - This menu choice prints the open/active document. The "Project Data" menu and "Analysis/Takeoff" menu choices also, offer the opportunity to print the open document with a message box.

5] QUIT - This menu choice saves all work and data entered into "Block.Buster.Takeoff™" and quits Microsoft Excel®.

* PROJECT DATA

1] MASONRY PROJECT DATA - This menu's choices describe the project at hand. "Masonry Project Data" brings to the screen a Project Data (linked) dialog box, to which the (A). job number, (B). livable/under roof square footage, (C). client name and phone, street address, city, state, zip/country, (D). vertical reinforcement layout in. O.C., (E). horizontal reinforcement layout in. O.C., (F). crew production: blocks/day, (G). shoring / bucks, and (H). lintel type. See further expanations below. (A). The job number must be a 5 digit (or less) number. When a takeoff has been completed and the user chooses "TAKEOFF" under the "Analysis/Takeoff" menu "Block.Buster.Takeoff™" compiles the data, calculates the formulae and saves the estimate as the project number with the suffix: ".XLS" . Because PC file names may contain a limited number of characters, "Block.Buster.Takeoff™" limits the project number to five (5) characters, i.e. whole numbers. A message box appears on the screen reminding the user of this requirement each time data is entered from the "Project Data" dialog box. (B). Livable/under roof square footage, describes the project's area. When "Block.Buster.Takeoff™" is combined with other Sonoran Software™ modules, this data is linked to other worksheets. (C). The client name and phone, street address, city, state, zip/country are printed on the final estimate. This data is useful in identifying the name and location of the project. (D). The vertical reinforcement layout in. O.C. edit box is an important numerical entry. Vertical steel and grouted cells are calculated with this data. This entry is combined with the length and height of walls, which is entered under the "Structure" menu, "CMU Walls." (E). The horizontal reinforcement layout in. O.C., edit box is also an important numerical entry. Horizontal steel and grouted bond beams are calculated with this data. This entry is combined with the length and height of walls, which is entered under the "Structure" menu, "CMU Walls." (F). The crew production: blocks/day, edit box must contain an entry if the cost of crew labor is to be calculated with the estimate. If material only costs/estimates are the only considerations this edit box need not contain an entry. The user may edit the crew and their wages under this, "Project Data" menu choice, by choosing "$ Edit Crew/Wages" and "Rewrite Crew/Wages." (G). Opening (doors, windows, and masonry lintels) wood shoring may be calculated with this check box.  Or, should the project specify wood jamb doors and windows, which might be installed in this estimate, buck material may also be estimated. It is important to note that two 2X legs and a 2X header are estimated for door openings, and two 2X legs, a 2X header and a 2X sill are estimated for windows. Long spanned masonry lintels will need special attention for calculation of shoring material. Generally 2X material is not used for shoring heavy loads. This check box calculates only two vertical supports, useful for shoring only short spanned lintels. Warning: any and all shoring choices made by "Block.Buster.Takeoff™" should be calculated and specified by a registered structural engineer. "Block.Buster.Takeoff™" has been written for the purpose of estimating materials not for the purpose of desiging shoring or structures. (H). The lintel type, i.e. "Masonry (steel = default)" check box determines which type of lintel is calculated. If the box is left unchecked, "Block.Buster.Takeoff™" takes the opening length, and giving 8" of bearing on both ends, chooses a steel lintel designed for "normal residential loads." This steel lintel is choosen from the material database. This version of "Block.Buster.Takeoff™" will not edit the database. If the lintel check box is checked, masonry lintels are calculated. The configuration, e.g. no. of #4 or #5 bars per course and courses of lintel block are taken from common details for "normal residential loading." Warning: any and all lintel choices made by "Block.Buster.Takeoff™" should be calculated and specified by a registered structural engineer. "Block.Buster.Takeoff™" has been written for the purpose of estimating materials not for the purpose of desiging structures.

2] $OVERHEAD/PROFIT - This menu choice brings up an array of 20 possible percentage entries for overhead and profit. Each item is named and an integer number of percent is entered by the user. If an overhead/profit item represents three percent of the total estimate the integer 3 is entered. If an item is five and a quarter percent of the total estimate the number 5.25 is entered. "Block.Buster.Takeoff™" adds the total of overhead/profit percentages and converts the number to a decimal (percentage of 100) constant. This number multiplied times the estimate subtotal is then added to the subtotal, to produce a net estimate amount. Note: masonry crew burden of labor need not be entered into this array. The burden of crew labor may be adjusted under the "$ Edit Crew/Wages" menu choice.

3] $REWRITE OVERHEAD/PROFIT - This menu choice rewrites the above edited "$ Overhead/Profit" worksheet, permanently into "Block.Buster.Takeoff™." "$ Overhead/Profit" may be continuously edited and re-edited.

4] $EDIT PRICING CMU - This menu choice brings up the materials database. Only the pricing of the items in the database may be edited.

5] $REWRITE PRICING CMU - This menu choice rewrites the above edited "$ Pricing CMU" worksheet, permanently into "Block.Buster.Takeoff™." "$ Pricing CMU" may be continuously edited and re-edited.

6] $ Edit Crew/Wages - This menu choice brings up an array of 24 possible crew member entries. Each crew member is given a wage entry by the user. The crew member wages are totaled and multiplied times 8 hours, for a daily crew wage. Masonry crew burden of labor may also be edited. It is entered at the bottom of the "$ Edit Crew/Wages" worksheet. This number is edited as a wholenumber 1 and the burden percentage as a decimal. If the burden of labor is 30% the decimal .30 is added to the multiplier factor 1 to give the integer 1.3. This results in the total crew wage rate plus the burden of labor for the totsl crew wage rate.

7] $ Rewrite Crew/Wages - This menu choice rewrites the above edited "$ Edit Crew/Wages" worksheet, permanently into "Block.Buster.Takeoff™." "$ Edit Crew/Wages" may continuously edit and re-edit the crew makeup and their wages. The total crew wage with burden of labor amount is then multiplied times the number of days the crew has been estimated to work. This number of days is calculated by dividing the total number of block by the crew production rate, i.e. "block/day" which was previously entered in the "Project Data (linked)" dialog box, (see above).

* STRUCTURE

1] CMU WALLS - This menu choice contains the actual material estimating dialog boxes. The method by which materials are estimated by "Block.Buster,Takeoff™" is wall by wall. Typically the estimator will number each wall on the plan and determine the walls length and height. If at the end of the wall a corner is formed this corner should be noted. If no corner exists, or is entered 1/2 block are estimated. The user takes the estimator's list of the project's wall lengths, heights and corner data and begins entering this data into the "8x8x16 CMU Wall Estimator" dialog box, 5 at a time. The "...Walls..." dialog box is preceeded by a message box asking the user if more walls are to be entered. If "Yes" is choosen the "...Walls..." dialog box reappears. A total of 90 walls may be entered per estimate. Although a set of 90 walls should be sufficient for the largest of residential projects, if a project is larger than this limit the plans should be broken into organized managed units. Or the wall list may be numbered in sets of up to 90 each. When the length and height data is entered into the "...Walls..." dialog box the gross area of each wall should be calculated. This may be done automatically by "Block.Buster Takeoff™" by clicking the "calculate area" check box and choosing "Enter." If a particular wall is irregular, a polygram, i.e. a rake wall the area may be calculated manually then entered manually. "Block.Buster.Takeoff™" estimates block by area of wall. Another method of more accurately estimating an irregular wall would be to take an average the walls height, for a rake wall, and enter this average as the height. Once the user has entered all walls openings are entered. The user may go directly to openings by choosing the "Opening" button in the "...Walls..." dialog box, or choosing "Openings" from the "Structure" menu, (see next item below). Once all data has been entered and the area calculated the "Calculate Area" check box should be clicked off. Then "Enter" choosen to calculate this round of walls.

2] CMU WALL OPENINGS - Door, window and lintel openings are estimated by "Block.Buster,Takeoff™" by subtracting their area. Typically the estimator will number each opening on the plan and determine the opening width and height. Doors are distinguished from windows by entering either a "D" or "W." Doors & windows should be noted. The user takes the estimator's list of the project's opening data and begins entering this data into the "Wall Opening..." dialog box, 5 at a time. The "Wall Opening..." dialog box is preceeded by a message box asking the user if more openings are to be entered. If "Yes" is choosen the "Wall Opening..." dialog box reappears. A total of 90 openings may be entered per estimate. Although a set of 90 openings should be sufficient for the largest of residential projects, if a project is larger than this limit the plans should be broken into organized managed units. Or the opening list may be numbered in sets of up to 90 each. When the width and height data is entered into the "Wall Opening..." dialog box the gross area of each opening should be calculated. This may be done automatically by "Block.Buster Takeoff™" by clicking the "calculate area" check box and choosing "Enter." If a particular opening is irregular, a polygram, i.e. a diagonal opening, the area may be calculated manually then entered manually. "Block.Buster.Takeoff™" estimates block by subtracting the area of the opening. If the steel lintel choice (default) has been taken in the "Masonry Project Data" dialog box, "Block.Buster.Takeoff™" chooses the closest "nominal" steel lintel for the span. If the lintel check box is checked, masonry lintels are calculated. The configuration, e.g. no. of #4 or #5 bars per course and courses of lintel block are taken from common details for "normal residential loading." Warning: any and all lintel choices made by "Block.Buster.Takeoff™" should be calculated and specified by a registered structural engineer. "Block.Buster.Takeoff™" has been written for the purpose of estimating materials not for the purpose of desiging structures. Another method of more accurately estimating an irregular opening would be to take an average the opening's width, for a diagonal opening, and enter this average as the width. Once the user has entered all openings, hardware is entered. The user may go directly to hardware by choosing the "Hdwr" button in the "Wall Opening..." dialog box, or choosing "Hdwr" from the "Structure" menu, (see next item below). Once all data has been entered and the area calculated the "Calculate Area" check box should be clicked off. Then "Enter" choosen to calculate this round of openings.

3] CMU LEDGER/HDWR - Additional ledger bolts, 1/2" (#4) & 5/8" (#5) rebar, beam straps, wire ladder reinforcement and nails may be estimated in addition to the nails and 1/2" (#4) rebar already estimated, shown in the number edit box below, '"Totaled". "Block.Buster.Takeoff™" automatically calculates and brings to the "Totaled" 'number edit box, quantities already estimated with previous entries. 'Click' the "calculator" button at any time to up date "Totaled" quantities. An additional quantity of ledger bolts or 'mud sill' anchor bolts may be calculated by choosing the hardware item, entering the total length in feet of the layout, and the spacing inches on center, "O.C.," then choosing the "calculator" button, in the "CMU Ledger/Hdwr" dialog box. The quantity of hardware needed for the particular length of run and spacing on center, "O.C." is automatically calculated and shown in the number edit box "QTY," below the "Totaled" number edit box. The user then chooses "Enter." This quantity of hardware is then entered into the estimate.

ANALYSIS/TAKEOFF

This menu GROUP analyses, by displaying lists of material takenoff, the project estimate. The menu choice "TAKEOFF" calculates and compiles all data entered. This is the final menu choice.

1] LIST TAKEOFF DATA - This menu choice shows all project and analytical estimating data pertinent to the estimate. The (A). total linear feet of wall, (B). gross wall area, (C). total linear feet of openings, (D). total area of openings, (E). total linear feet of wall vertical reinforcement, (F). total linear feet of opening verticals (legs), (G). the net wall area, (H). total linear feet of corners, (I). total linear feet of wall bond beam, (J). total linear feet of opening bond beams, (K). total linear feet of ledger bond beam, (L). total linear feet of masonry lintels, (M). the vertical reinforcement layout O.C., (N). the horizontal reinforcement layout O.C., (0). corner bond beam (lintel) block, (P). the total number of regular 8x8x16 block, (Q). the total number of 1/2 block, 8x4x16, (R). the total number of lintel block, (S). the job number, name, address, phone, city ,state, zip, country, (T). and finally the project estimate, i.e. the subtotal of labor and materials then the amount of profit and overhead, (U). the cells next to the final total analyze the project estimate by unit cost, e.g. unit cost per block, unit cost per linear foot of wall, unit cost per square foot of livable area of the project, and fianlly the unit cost per square foot of wall (net). This analysis proves useful as an overview of the estimate as a competitive bid.

2] LIST DOORS/WINDOWS - "Block.Buster.Takeoff™" makes a list of door and window openings. When doors and windows are entered the user can enter the actual size of the door and window to obtain an accurate list with this menu choice.

3] LIST CMU HARDWARE - "Block.Buster.Takeoff™" makes a list of hardware. This list may be reviewed with this menu choice.

4] TAKEOFF - The final menu choice "TAKEOFF" calculates all the formulae for all materials, labor, overhead and profit and produces a final estimate. "Block.Buster.Takeoff™" saves this worksheet as the job number and ".XLS" and puts it in the "Block.Buster.Takeoff™" folder. The user is asked by a message box if the estimate is to be printed. If "Yes" is choosen the complete estimate and database are printed. Pursuit of another estimate may be immediately undertaken by choosing "Clear All" from the "Block.Buster.Takeoff™" file menu.