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Shapes and building parts

Two different things stand side by side in a room: the item that is measured, and the building part that is counted. A wall has a dimension, a socket has a quantity.

Creating an item

The “Add manually” tile in the room view leads to “New element”. There you enter:

“Create & measure” leads straight into the measuring screen and starts the automatic sequence (chapter “Measuring”); without a connected laser you carry on by hand after “Cancel”. Creating items of every shape and building parts, and measuring them by hand, works on every plan.

If the project has a bill of quantities, the tile “Item from BoQ” stands next to “Add manually”. It creates the item from a BoQ item and fills in the label, the BoQ item and the shape straight away; the quantity comes from measuring, as always. That is the quicker way once a bill of quantities is there — described in the chapter “Bill of quantities”.

The item list

The “Elements” room view shows the tiles “Add manually” and “With the camera” at the top, and after a room scan also “3D view”. Below them is the “Room total” with Area, Running metres and Volume, without the over-measurement rule. Under “Running metres”, the running-metre items, the wall lengths of the wall groups and the perimeters of all other areas are added together.

Each row shows the sketch, the label, the shape with the measuring progress (for example “Rectangle · 1/2 edges”) and the BoQ item, and in a project with a bill of quantities also “BoQ assigned” or “no BoQ assignment”. On the right is the quantity in square metres, running metres or cubic metres — or “open” as long as something is still missing. An item on an approved measurement sheet carries “✓ done” (chapter “Billing”). An item on a submitted or approved sheet also shows a lock with the sheet number; it can then only be viewed, and its actions are limited to “View”, “History” and “Copy to supplementary sheet” (chapter “Billing”, section “Locked items and supplementary sheets”). The building parts of the room follow below.

Order: Items assigned to a BoQ item stand in the order of its item number. If you measure BoQ item 1, then BoQ item 2 and BoQ item 1 again, you see 1, 1, 2; BoQ item 2 comes before BoQ item 10. Items without a BoQ assignment follow afterwards in the order in which they were created — including those that only carry a BoQ item typed in by hand. The building parts are ordered the same way, and the exports keep the same order in every room (chapter “Exporting”).

“⋯” at the end of the row or a long press opens the actions: Rename, Change item (leaving it empty is allowed), Assign BoQ item, Photo documentation …, Clone, Clone to … (chapter “Projects and structure”) and Delete with a confirmation. “Clone” creates a copy in the same room and asks for the name (pre-filled with “(copy)”) and optionally a new BoQ item; dimensions, cutouts and walls are copied along, the BoQ assignment is not.

The area shapes

Shape What is measured
Rectangle Width × height
Triangle Three sides (calculated with Heron’s formula)
Circle Only the radius, even though the short description mentions the diameter — a measured diameter is entered halved
Trapezium Two parallel sides and the height; “Right angle in the trapezium” (left, none, right) determines the perimeter
L-shape Rectangle with a corner cutout
Wall with cutout Rectangle with one inner opening (door or window)
Polygon (free) 3 to 24 edges, any angles — right-angled or oblique
Running metres Open chain of 1 to 99 edges, no area — for skirting boards, joints, edges
Wall group Several walls of the same height — as a table, without a sketch

For the L-shape and the Wall with cutout, the cut-out part must be narrower and lower than the whole rectangle. “+ Add edge” and “− Remove last edge” change the number of edges of running metres and polygons.

First edge and direction

For the Rectangle and the Polygon (free), the “First edge & direction” card sets where edge 1 begins and which way it runs: “Floor / X →”, “Ceiling / X ←”, “Left wall / Y ↑” or “Right wall / Y ↓”. A green arrow in the sketch shows the choice; it can be changed at any time.

Angles in the polygon

A new polygon starts as a rectangle with four 90° corners. Below each edge, “Turn after this edge” opens the “Turn angle” dialog:

Then choose the direction “↰ Left” or “↱ Right” and confirm with “Apply”. Whether the shape closes and what “✓ Close shape” does is in the chapter “Measuring” under “Checks while measuring”.

Drawing a polygon

After the label and “Polygon (free)”, “Draw shape” opens a drawing area. Each stroke starts at the end of the previous one. The “✎ Draw” and “✥ Pan” toggles stop a swipe from placing an edge by accident; two fingers zoom, and “Reset view” brings back the initial view. If the last stroke leads back to the starting point, the app closes the shape. “Undo” removes the last stroke, “Discard” everything; “Apply shape” works from three up to 24 edges.

The drawing is not a measurement. The app provisionally sets the longest edge to 4 m and the others in the same proportion; a closed shape therefore already counts in the room total and the reports. So measure every edge again one at a time via DISTO or Manual — the automatic sequence is not available for this.

If the edges of a polygon cross — as with a drawn figure of eight, for example —, it still counts with the area the app calculates from the corners, and that is then not the drawn one. The app warns about this when you leave the measuring screen (“This shape cannot exist as measured”) and, if the item is assigned to a BoQ item, once more before a document is issued and before the take-off is submitted, each time with the name of the item (chapters “Measuring” and “Billing”).

The solid shapes

Shape What is measured
Cuboid Width × height × depth
Cylinder / pipe Radius × height
Pyramid Rectangular base × height
Sphere Radius
Bulk pile / volume Base area in square metres × average height — by hand or via “Measure heap volume” (chapter “Measuring”)

The app reports volume and surface area separately; for the bulk pile the “Surface area” row shows the base area. Entering it by hand currently only calculates correctly if metres are set as the length unit (chapter “Settings”).

Cutouts

A cutout is an opening deducted from the area — a window, door or niche — with width × height and a name. Three shapes have them:

Naming cutouts on the rectangle

Each cutout on the rectangle takes up two lines: at the top its name, the “Type” button and the ×, below that width × height.

If cutouts are only half measured, “Something is still open” names them one by one when you leave; if two carry the same name, their position follows in brackets, for example “Opening (3)” (chapter “Measuring”).

Whether a cutout is really deducted is decided by the over-measurement rule of the project. Where it changes the quantity, the item list shows a second, larger quantity below the measured one: “billable …” with the name of the rule. The rule never applies to the missing corner of the L-shape — that is outline, not an opening (chapter “Billing”).

The wall group

The shape for the standard case “one room, four walls, one height” — a table instead of a sketch:

  1. Shared wall height — measured once, applies to every wall in the group.
  2. Walls — via “+ Wall”, at first “Wall 1”, “Wall 2” and so on; for each wall the “Length (lin. m)” is measured.
  3. Cutouts — as many per wall as you like via “+ Cutout”, each with width and height.

A tap on the name renames a wall or cutout, the bin removes a wall. If a deleted wall or cutout carries measured values, the confirmation states how many; they are then kept in the measurement history, and “Undo” in the header brings the wall back together with its cutouts in one step. Each value has only DISTO and Manual; how the automatic sequence measures height and walls is in the chapter “Measuring”.

As soon as the height and length of a wall are measured, “Gross”, “Cutouts” and “Net” in square metres appear below it. At the bottom, the “Totals” block sums up Σ lin. m, Σ gross wall area, Σ cutouts and Σ net wall area. The calculation is the same as on the document: each wall and each cutout rounded on its own to the project’s decimal places, then summed — but always with full deduction. If an over-measurement rule applies in the project, the billable quantity in the item list and in billing differs from it.

The wall group counts before everything is measured: as soon as the height and at least one wall length are in place, it enters all reports with the measured walls. The totals block names the open walls; “Clean up automatically” there removes empty walls and cutouts.

Building parts

A building part is counted, not measured: doors, windows, sockets, switches, radiators. It hangs on every level of the structure and is created with “+ Building part” — in a project with a bill of quantities also with “Item from BoQ” beside it, again on every level. A building part created that way starts at the quantity 0.

Field Note
Type One of the eleven templates (see below) or empty. A chosen type can be changed, but not deselected again.
Name Required. The type enters its name, which you can overwrite, e.g. “Window south”.
Quantity Zero or more, decimals included.
Width · Height · Depth Optional, per piece, in millimetres.
Hand (DIN) Only if a type is chosen that opens.
Note Free text.

The list shows name, hand, dimensions and note, and on the right the quantity (“× 3”). A tap opens “Edit building part” with “Delete” at the bottom; “⋯” or a long press offers Edit, in a project with a bill of quantities Assign BoQ item and — if one is assigned — Remove assignment, then Photo documentation …, Clone to … and Delete with a confirmation (chapter “Bill of quantities”).

History of a building part

When editing, two further buttons stand above “Delete”. “History” shows every earlier quantity and every earlier dimension with the date and the previous value, the dimensions in millimetres. “Undo” takes back the last change to the quantity and dimensions, even if it came from another device; the fields then show the restored state, which is already saved. Name, type, hand and note are not taken back by this button — the undo bar does that (chapter “Measuring”).

Building parts always work in millimetres (“Dimensions in mm (optional, per piece)”), regardless of the length unit set: a door is an “860”, and a mixed-up unit (1010 against 1.010) would only show up when ordering.

The templates

Room door · Unit door · Front door · Balcony door · Window · Window sill · Radiator · Access panel · Socket · Switch · Lighting point — each template pre-fills the name, and some offer dimensions to tap:

Every suggested dimension can be overwritten.

The hand (DIN)

The hand says which way an element opens and is relevant to ordering: a DIN left door does not fit a DIN right frame. Room, unit and front doors offer DIN left, DIN right and Double leaf, window and balcony door additionally Fixed, the access panel only DIN left and DIN right. For the other types and without a type the selection is missing; an empty field means “not recorded”, never “does not exist”. “Remove hand” takes a choice back. Lists and tables show the short forms DIN L, DIN R, 2-leaf and fixed.

The rule stands above the selection: “Seen from the side the element opens towards: hinges on the left = DIN left.” On a door that is the side with the visible hinges, on a window opening inwards the room side.

What is deliberately not said here