What the workbook is
Export Quantities (.xlsx) produces one Excel workbook covering the whole project: a worksheet per drawing, and a Totals worksheet at the end listing every marker group on every drawing. Lengths and areas are written as numbers with the scale and calibration already applied, so the sheet can be summed, sorted and pivoted the moment it opens.
The workbook is built in your browser and downloads straight to your usual downloads folder. Nothing is uploaded and no server is involved.
Where the command is
There are two routes to the same command, depending on which mode you are in.
In Review mode the header shrinks to a single button:
- 1
Click Export in the header.
- 2
Choose Export Quantities (.xlsx) .
In Takeoff mode it sits one level deeper:
- 1
Open Actions in the header.
- 2
Hover Export .
- 3
Choose Export Quantities (.xlsx) .
Both menus hold the same items: Export Quantities (.xlsx), Export Job , Export Image (.png) and Export Image (.pdf) .
There is no progress bar and no confirmation message for the quantities export. On a large project the browser takes a few seconds to build the workbook, then the download appears. If nothing seems to have happened, check your browser's downloads before pressing the button again.
The file name
The workbook is named:
{Project name} - quantities-export.xlsx
The characters \, /, ?, *, [, ] and : are replaced with underscores in the project name, because Windows will not accept them in a file name. A project with no name produces quantities-export.xlsx on its own.
What is included
The export always covers the whole project, not just the drawing you have open. There is no option to export one drawing.
| Included | Notes |
|---|---|
| Detection groups | One row each, with the group's thumbnail in the first column. |
| Count groups | One row each, plus a child row per marker. |
| Linear groups | One row each, plus a child row per run with its own length. |
| Area groups | One row each, plus a child row per polygon with its own area. |
| Zones | As columns, not rows. Each drawing's zones become columns on its own sheet. |
| Linked item codes | In the Code and Description columns. |
| Not included | Why |
|---|---|
| Annotation groups | Text, arrows, ellipses, custom images and the Live Legend are visual notes. They never appear as rows. Use Export Image if you need them. |
| AoIs and legends | They constrain detection; they are not a quantity. |
| Prices | The workbook carries codes and descriptions, never rates. Costing happens in the estimating software. |
Drawings with no marker groups still get a sheet, with the header block and column headers and nothing under them.
Where each sheet's numbers come from
- The drawing you have open is built from live state, including everything you have changed in this session and every child row.
- Every other drawing is built from the cross-drawing summary, at group level, with a zone breakdown where one is available.
If a drawing's figures look stale, go to Review mode, select that drawing's tab, click Refresh summaries, and export again. See The cross-drawing summary.
Sheet order
Worksheet tabs follow the drawing order in the project, and the Totals sheet is always last. Rearranging the drawings on the project page before exporting is the way to control the order the reader sees. See Reordering drawings.
Sheet names come from the drawing file names, with Excel's illegal characters replaced, long names truncated to 31 characters, and a numeric suffix added where two drawings would otherwise collide.
The Service column and the subtotal rows
If a drawing uses Marker Services, its sheet changes in two ways:
- A Service column is inserted after Type, and every row carries the name of the service it belongs to. Groups with no service read Ungrouped.
- Rows are ordered by service rather than by sidebar order alone, with the unassigned rows last.
- Below the group rows, a Service totals block lists each service on its own line with its group count, total count, total length and total area.
None of this appears on a drawing that has no services, so the sheet is unchanged for anyone not using them. The subtotal block only appears where there is more than one bucket to total — a drawing with a single service, or with every group unassigned, has nothing to compare and gets no block.
See Marker Services for assigning groups.
The units
Lengths and areas are written as numbers, not text, so Excel can work with them.
| Scale system | Length unit | Area unit |
|---|---|---|
| Metric | metres | square metres |
| Both | metres | square metres |
| Architectural | decimal feet | square feet |
The Total Quant column header names the unit it is using — Total Quant (m/m²) or Total Quant (ft/ft²) — so a reader can tell at a glance which system the drawing was worked in.
Under the Architectural system the workbook writes decimal feet, for example 12.33, not the 12' 4" you see on screen. That is deliberate: feet-and-inches is text, and text cannot be summed, sorted or pivoted. Check the column header names the unit your reader expects before sending the file on.
Counts are written as whole numbers. Calibration is applied to every length and area figure, including the Service totals rows.
Before you export
The workbook reflects the project exactly as it stands when you press the button. Work through Preparing a project for export first — it covers naming groups, linking items, checking scales and tidying duplicates. The two mistakes that cost the most are a drawing left at scale None, which exports its lengths and areas as zeroes, and groups still called Group 3, which tell the reader nothing.
Common issues
Lengths and areas are all zero
That drawing has no scale set. Open it, set the scale in the header, and answer Yes, Update All when ZeroCount asks whether to update the existing groups. See Setting the scale.
The Code and Description columns are empty on a group I linked
Custom-item links are not written into those columns in the current build. Link the group to a component, Contractors Choice item or assembly if the code has to appear in the workbook. See Group costs and totals.
A drawing's sheet is empty but I know it has markers
Its summary has not been cached. Open the drawing once, or select its tab in Review mode and click Refresh summaries, then export again.
I only want one drawing
The export always covers the project. Delete the sheets you do not want after opening the workbook, or filter the Totals sheet by its File column.
Next steps
- Understanding the workbook — every column, the header block and how zone figures are worked out.
- Preparing a project for export — the checklist to run first.
- Exporting drawing images — marked-up PNGs and PDFs of the drawings themselves.
- The scale system — Metric, Architectural and Both, and what each does to the units.