Projects and structure
Aufmasstool structures things by what really stands on the site — from the building down to the individual measured item.
The six levels
Building › Stairwell › Floor › Unit › Room › Item| Level | What it is there for |
|---|---|
| Building | The topmost level with name, customer and address. In some places the app also says “project”. |
| Stairwell | A stair core with an address of its own — for example several house numbers under one roof. |
| Floor | A storey, with a floor number if you wish, which may be negative (-1 for the basement). The number cannot be changed after creating the floor. |
| Unit | An occupancy unit, e.g. “Unit 5”. |
| Room | Kitchen, bathroom, hallway. |
| Item | The individual thing measured: a wall, a ceiling, a floor covering, a wall group. In the room the list stands under “Elements”. |
Stairwell, floor and unit may be skipped. In a detached house the rooms hang directly off the building, and a unit needs neither a stairwell nor a floor. There is no mandatory sequence, only an order of rank. Only what is possible below the current level is ever offered:
| You are standing in … | What can be created is … |
|---|---|
| Building | Stairwell · Floor · Unit · Room |
| Stairwell | Floor · Unit · Room |
| Floor | Unit · Room |
| Unit | Room |
| Room | Items (chapter “Shapes and building parts”) |
Building parts — pieces that are counted, such as doors, windows or sockets — hang off every level: the unit door off the unit, the stairwell window off the stairwell.
The start page
“+ New building” opens a dialog with “Project name”, “Customer (optional)” and the address; “Create building” only works once a name has been entered. Two further ways create a building: “Import BoQ (GAEB)” from a bill of quantities, from the Pro plan (chapter “Bill of quantities”), and “Import project” from a project file, from the Pro plan (chapter “Working together”).
The “Buildings” list shows name, customer and a date, the most recent at the top. The date moves forward when a level, a room or a building part is created in the building or when the details of the building change; measuring on its own does not move it. If something is in the recycle bin, the row “Recycle bin (…)” stands above the list (see “Deleting and the recycle bin”). At the top right are the gear for Settings, the profile and the language picker.
A tap opens the building. “⋯” at the end of the row or a long press opens its actions, “⇩” goes straight to choosing the export format. In a wide window — a large tablet in landscape, a wide browser window — the card of the selected building with the same actions stands to the right of the list; a tap then only selects, and you open the building via the card or “›”.
The actions for a building: Bill of quantities (chapter “Bill of quantities”), Billing (chapter “Billing”), Participants (chapter “Working together”), Photo documentation …, Choose export format from Basic (chapter “Exporting”), Export project as a file from Pro, Rename, Customer, Recycle bin of this building, Clone building … and Delete.
Every building row says who the building belongs to: “Team” or “Private”. With the role “Read-only”, the team’s buildings lack the actions that change something (chapter “Working together”).
Deleting and the recycle bin
Deleted things stay in the recycle bin for 30 days and can be restored from there — a building, a level, a room, an item or building part, a photo, a BoQ item, a measurement sheet, a participant or a draft document. Deleting takes everything hanging below with it; for a building that means levels, rooms, items, building parts, the bill of quantities, measurement sheets, draft documents, participants and photo documentation. The question before deleting names what goes with it (“This also deletes: …”) and the time limit. With the cloud, what has been deleted also disappears from the other devices at the next sync.
The recycle bin is opened by the row “Recycle bin (…)” on the start page, inside an open building by the row “Recycle bin of this building (…)” at the very bottom — both only appear when something is in it — and by the action “Recycle bin of this building”. It shows the deletions sorted by building, with the date, the days left until they are deleted permanently and, where known, whether they were “deleted on this device” or “deleted on another device”:
- “Restore” brings back everything that was deleted in this one step — not what was deleted individually before or after. If the item it belongs to is itself in the recycle bin, that is restored first. Whatever has already been shared with the team is restored by the app via the server and therefore only with a connection; without one, it stays in the recycle bin and can still be restored later, up to the end of the time limit. If an item would then lie on a submitted measurement sheet, it can only be restored once the sheet is back to draft via “Status”; on an approved sheet not at all — additional quantities then go on a supplementary sheet. The same applies to a BoQ item that was linked to an item on such a sheet.
- “Delete permanently” deletes ahead of time; after that nothing can be restored.
- After 30 days things are deleted permanently by themselves.
A building with issued documents cannot be deleted. Issued quotations and invoices have to be kept (§ 147 AO, German Fiscal Code); “Delete” is then blocked and names the reason. Stairwells, floors, units and rooms in it, as well as draft documents, can still be deleted one by one. Drafts do not block the building; they go into the recycle bin together with it.
In a team, deleting depends on the role (chapter “Working together”): “Read-only” deletes nothing and restores nothing. If quotations, invoices or BoQ items are included, only owners and admins may do either. The “Measuring” role does not delete whole buildings: it does not see any documents and therefore cannot check whether some have to be kept. It can still delete stairwells, floors, units and rooms one by one.
Without a connection, the role last read applies. Once the app has read your own role in the team from the server, it stores it on this device, per account and team, and applies its rights when deleting and in the recycle bin even without a connection, as long as the cloud stays switched on. If the server reports a different role, that one applies from then on; the device only learns of a change made while it had no connection once it is connected again.
Things are only blocked if the app does not know the role: then whole buildings cannot be deleted, and deletions that include quotations, invoices or BoQ items can neither be restored nor deleted permanently in the recycle bin — for owners and admins as well. The role is unknown
- while the app is still reading it after opening; if one is stored, the app waits at most about five seconds for the server,
- as long as none is stored on this device yet and the server does not respond,
- if the server reports no role for the account in this team that this version of the app knows,
- with the cloud switched off, as long as buildings of a team are still on the device.
This also applies to an account that works alone in its own team with the cloud — it is the owner there. As long as the role is unknown or comes from what was stored, the app asks the server again every 30 seconds while the list of buildings, the recycle bin or the BoQ catalogue is open. Without the cloud and without buildings of a team on the device, no role restricts anything.
Inside a level
An open building, stairwell, floor or unit shows from top to bottom: the header with the camera symbol for the photo documentation and the “Billing” button, for a building or stairwell the “Address (optional)” card, the buttons for creating such as “+ Floor” or “+ Room”, the existing sub-levels in sections of their own, and finally the building parts with “+ Building part”.
The entries appear in the order in which they were created, so floors are not sorted by their floor number. A camera symbol with a number on a row shows existing recordings.
When you create something, a dialog asks for the name, for a floor also for the floor number, for a stairwell for the address. An address (“Street + no.”, “Postcode”, “Town”) is optional everywhere; a tap on the “Address (optional)” card changes it later.
Renaming, cloning, deleting
“⋯” or a long press on a stairwell, floor, unit or room offers Rename, Photo documentation …, Clone to … and Delete. Deleting here, too, takes everything below with it and puts it in the recycle bin. A whole building is cloned with “Clone building …” (see below). The actions for items and building parts are in the chapter “Shapes and building parts”.
“Clone to …” copies a branch together with everything below it to another place, into another building as well — the quick way to the second unit with the same layout. In the target picker, navigate from “Buildings” to the target level and choose “↓ Clone here”; an item or a building part can also be placed directly on a room in the list. The copy carries the same name.
- Copied along are names, dimensions, cutouts, notes, the item reference entered and the building parts.
- Not copied are the assignment to a BoQ item and measurement sheet, the measurement history, the photo documentation and a room scan. Copied items are therefore assigned again for billing.
- Allowed targets: an item only into a room, a building part into any level, everything else by the order of rank above — a floor fits under a building or stairwell, not under a unit. Where it is not possible, the target picker names the reason.
There is no moving. If you want to hang a branch somewhere else, clone it to the new place and then delete the original — with the limitations above.
Cloning a whole building
“Clone building …” in the actions for a building creates an identical building in one go — for example for the second block of the same design. You are asked for the “Name of the new building” (pre-filled with “Copy of …”) and for two switches:
- “Copy dimensions” (on by default) — all measured values are copied and are marked as pre-filled and not measured until they are re-measured on site or confirmed in billing. When it is off, only the structure, items and building parts with their shape are copied; all dimensions and quantities are empty.
- “Copy BoQ items and participants” (off by default) — when it is on, the items together with their prices and the participants are copied, and the items of the building hang off the copied BoQ items. When it is off, the items keep the text of their BoQ item but no link to it.
Never copied are quotations and invoices, measurement sheets, photos and other media, the measurement history, 3D room scans, the contract type and the acceptance. The over-measurement rule and the decimal places for quantities are taken over from the original. If cloning fails, nothing is created; otherwise the new building opens afterwards.
The path
In the item list, when choosing a shape and when measuring, a path bar below the header shows where you are, for example “North Estate › Stair A › Ground floor › Unit 1 › Hallway”; skipped levels are left out. It cannot be tapped — you go back with “‹” on the left of the header, one level at a time.
What deliberately does not appear here
- A floor plan. The structure is a tree, not a drawing; the geometry sits in the items.
- Permissions per level. If you can see a building, you see all of it.