Exporting a project to Excel

What gets exported

The Excel export is a single workbook with:

• One sheet per drawing in the project, named after the drawing filename. Each sheet lists every marker group on that drawing with its quantity breakdown.
• A Totals sheet at the end aggregating every group across every drawing.

Each row covers one marker group. Linear and area quantities are already multiplied by the drawing's calibration factor — what you see in Excel is what's on site.

Before you export — pre-flight checklist

The export is only as good as the state you export from. Worth a one-minute sweep before you hit the button:

1. 1

   Every file has been through Stage 2 or 3. Files still sitting in Stage 1 contribute no markers.

2. 2

   Scales are set on every drawing. Without a scale, linear and area quantities will be in raw drawing units. Set scales from the toolbar .

3. 3

   Groups are named. Default labels like Group 1 are unhelpful in a spreadsheet — rename them to the real symbol description.

4. 4

   Database links are in place for any group you want priced. See Linking a group to a database item.

5. 5

   Zones are drawn if you want a per-zone breakdown — see Zones. Without zones, every group rolls up into a single All column.

Full pre-flight detail: Preparing a project for export.

Running the export

1. 1

   Open any file in the project and move to Stage 3 — the Export button only appears in Stage 3.

2. 2

   Click Export at the top-right of the toolbar.

3. 3

   From the dropdown , choose Export Quantities (.xlsx) .

4. 4

   The workbook is generated in the browser and downloads as {Project Name} - quantities-export.xlsx. No upload, no server round-trip — it lands straight in your Downloads folder.

What's in each file's worksheet

The per-file sheets all follow the same layout.

Header block (rows 1–6)

A small metadata block at the top of every sheet:

Column headers (row 7)

Data rows

One row per group, with child rows underneath showing each individual marker.

• Detection rows show the count per zone — the number of detected symbols falling inside that zone's polygon.
• Unit rows behave like Detection rows but for manually-placed unit markers. Each marker gets a child row labelled Unit 1, Unit 2, etc.
• Linear rows show the summed length per zone. Linear markers that cross a zone boundary are split — the portion inside each zone goes into the right column, with any remainder dropping into Uncategorized. Child rows are labelled Linear 1, Linear 2, etc.
• Area rows show the summed area per zone, again clipped to zone boundaries. Calibration is squared for area. Child rows are labelled Area 1, Area 2, etc.

The Totals sheet

The final worksheet, named Totals, sums every group across the whole project.

What's different from the per-file sheets

• An extra File column (column B) showing which drawing each row comes from.
• The zone columns are the union of zones across every drawing. A zone named Ground Floor in one drawing and Ground Floor in another rolls into a single column; differently-named zones get their own columns.
• One row per group per file — so if C-type fitting appears on three drawings, you'll see three rows with the same description and different File values.

This is the sheet to send to a QS or estimator. It's the closest thing to a single answer to "how many of each thing across the whole job?".

Multi-file behaviour

Even though you only have one drawing open when you press Export, ZeroCount pulls totals from every file in the project.

• The active file's sheet uses the live state from the editor — anything you've changed since the last save is included.
• Other files' sheets are built from the cached cross-file summary. If you've recently been editing another file and that summary hasn't refreshed, switch to that file briefly before exporting to force a refresh.
• Files that haven't yet been through detection (still in Stage 1) appear as empty sheets with just the header block.

More on cross-file behaviour: Project marker summary.

Common questions

"My exported quantities look wrong"

Almost always one of three things:

1. Scale not set — linear/area numbers are in raw drawing units. Set the scale and re-export.
2. Calibration missing — if you've set a preset but the drawing was custom-scaled, calibrate against a known dimension. See Calibrating a drawing.
3. Zones overlap the legend — if a zone covers the symbol key area, you'll see counts there. Adjust the zone polygon.

"A file I expected is missing from the workbook"

Files that haven't been opened at least once since the last refresh don't have a cross-file summary cached. Open each file in the project once, return to Stage 3 on any of them, then re-export.

"Can I export only one drawing?"

Not from the Export Quantities (.xlsx) option — it always covers the whole project. If you only want one drawing's worth, delete the rest of the sheets after export, or filter the Totals sheet by the File column.

"Where does the project go from here?"

The estimating side of Ensign.Software accepts the .sqlite from Export Job for direct import. The .xlsx is for human review, pricing checks, and sharing with clients or QSs.

Related

• Understanding the exported workbook
• Preparing a project for export — pre-flight checklist
• Cross-file merging
• Group cost overview