What is in the file
The workbook downloaded by Export Quantities (.xlsx) contains:
- One worksheet per drawing, named after the drawing, in the project's drawing order.
- A
Totalsworksheet at the end, listing every marker group on every drawing in one place.
The per-drawing sheets carry the detail — child rows, per-zone figures, service subtotals. The Totals sheet is the one to hand to a QS: one row per group per drawing, no expanding required.
The header block
Every sheet opens with a small self-contained block, so a sheet still makes sense if it is copied out on its own. Labels sit in column B and values in column C.
| Row | Label | Value |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | blank | |
| 2 | Date: | The project's date |
| 3 | Project: | The project name |
| 4 | File: | The drawing this sheet covers |
| 5 | Client: | The project's client |
| 6 | blank spacer |
The Totals sheet has the same block without the File: row, because it spans every drawing.
Columns on a per-drawing sheet
The header row is row 7. Bold Calibri 11, no fill.
| Column | Header | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| A | (none) | The group's colour as a solid fill. Detection groups instead show a 22 by 22 pixel thumbnail of the symbol. |
| B | Scale | 1:50, 1:100 and so on, for Linear and Area groups. Blank for Detection and Count groups, which do not depend on scale. |
| C | Type | Detection, Unit, Linear or Area. |
| (D) | Service | The Marker Service the group belongs to, or Ungrouped. This column only exists when the drawing uses Marker Services, and every column after it shifts right by one when it does. |
| D or E | Takeoff Description | The group's label, as you named it in the sidebar. |
| E or F | Code | The linked item's code. Blank when the group is unlinked. |
| F or G | Description | The linked item's description. Blank when the group is unlinked. |
| G or H | (none) | Carries the literal text Element Quant: on each group row, as a visual marker for where the figures start. |
| next | (zone names) | One column per zone on this drawing. |
| next | (the Uncategorized label) | Everything that falls in no zone. Only present when the drawing has zones. |
| next | (blank) | Spacer. |
| last | Total Quant (m/m²) | The group's total. Reads Total Quant (ft/ft²) under the Architectural scale system. |
Because the Service column appears only on drawings that use Marker Services, two sheets in the same workbook can have their columns in different positions. If you are writing formulas across sheets, match on the header text rather than the column letter.
Where a drawing has no zones, there is a single hidden column named All in place of the zone columns, and only Total Quant is visible.
Group rows and child rows
There is one row per marker group. Under it, indented and set to Excel outline level 1, sit the child rows — one per individual marker. Use the outline controls in Excel's left margin to collapse them all and read only the group totals, or expand for the detail.
| Group type | Child rows |
|---|---|
| Detection | None. A Detection group is a single row with its total. |
| Count | One per marker, labelled Unit 1, Unit 2 and so on, each with a 1 in the zone it falls in. |
| Linear | One per run, each with its own calibrated length. |
| Area | One per polygon, each with its own calibrated area. |
Group rows are ordered as they appear in the sidebar. Where the drawing uses Marker Services, rows are ordered by service instead, with unassigned groups last under Ungrouped.
How zone figures are worked out
Zone columns are not a filter applied after the fact; each group's total is genuinely divided between them. How that division works depends on the kind of marker.
| Marker type | Rule |
|---|---|
| Detection and Count | The centre of the marker's box decides. A marker whose centre is inside a zone counts 1 there; otherwise it counts under Uncategorized. There are no fractional counts. |
| Linear | The run is clipped at the zone boundary. A run crossing two zones contributes the proportion of its length inside each, with anything outside every zone falling to Uncategorized. |
| Area | The same proportional clipping, applied to area rather than length. |
Two consequences are worth knowing:
- Overlapping zones double-count. A detection whose centre falls inside two overlapping zones is counted in both, so the zone columns can add up to more than Total Quant. Draw zones that do not overlap where the columns need to reconcile.
- A zone over the legend counts the legend. If a zone covers the symbol key, the symbols drawn there are counted like any other. Adjust the zone polygon rather than deleting the detections.
See Zones for drawing and editing them.
The Uncategorized column
The no-zone bucket is headed Uncategorized by default, and the name is set per drawing. Rename it by clicking the Uncategorized section header in the sidebar's Zones view; the workbook uses whatever it has been renamed to. It is always sorted last, whatever it is called. See The Uncategorized zone.
On the Totals sheet the Uncategorized figure is worked out as the group's total less the sum of its zone columns.
The Service totals block
Where a drawing has more than one Marker Service bucket to compare, the sheet ends with an extra block below the group rows:
- A blank row.
- A bold
Service totalsheader row. - One row per service: the service name,
N groups, the total count, the total length and the total area.
Calibration is applied to these subtotals exactly as it is to the rows above, so they reconcile with the detail.
A drawing with a single service, or with every group unassigned, has nothing to compare and gets no block.
The bold row at the bottom
Two blank rows after the last content, every sheet carries a bold row reserved for a grand total. It is currently empty — no summed figure is written into it. Do not read a blank there as a total of zero; sum the Total Quant column yourself if you need a figure.
The Totals sheet
The last worksheet lists every group on every drawing, one row each. Its columns:
| Column | Header | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| A | (none) | Group colour, or the Detection thumbnail. |
| B | File | Which drawing this group is on. |
| C | Scale | As on the per-drawing sheets. |
| D | Type | Detection, Unit, Linear or Area. |
| E | Takeoff Description | The group's label. |
| F | Code | The linked item's code. |
| G | Description | The linked item's description. |
| H | (none) | The Element Quant: marker. |
| next | (zone names) | The union of every zone name across the whole project. |
| next | (the Uncategorized label) | Total less the zone columns. |
| last | Total Quant (…) | The group's total. |
Two differences from the per-drawing sheets matter:
- There is no Service column and no Service totals block. Services are set per drawing, so they are not carried onto the project-wide sheet.
- There are no child rows. One row per group per drawing, and nothing to expand.
Zone columns here are the union of zone names across the project, and identical names share a column. Office 1 on Level 1 and Office 1 on Level 2 roll into one. Where you need them kept apart, name them distinctly — L1 Office 1 and L2 Office 1 — before you export.
If a group appears on three drawings, you get three rows with the same description and different File values. Sort or filter by File, Takeoff Description or Code to read it the way you need.
What is not in the workbook
- Prices. Only codes and descriptions. Costing happens in the estimating software.
- Annotation groups. Text, arrows, custom images and the Live Legend never appear as rows.
- AoIs and legends. They shape detection; they are not quantities.
- Custom-item codes. A group linked to a custom item exports with blank Code and Description. See Group costs and totals.
Next steps
- Exporting to Excel — producing the file and what the units are.
- Preparing a project for export — what to fix before the numbers reach a QS.
- The Uncategorized zone — renaming the no-zone column header.
- Marker Services — what puts the Service column and subtotals on a sheet.