Sizes, Bends, T-Junctions and Reducers

What a takeoff leaves behind

A sample or an Auto Detect run does not just draw lines on the drawing. It reads the size callouts written beside each run, splits the service into one group per size, and counts every elbow and tee it passed through so the fittings can be priced alongside the pipe.

Everything it creates is an ordinary marker group. You can rename it, recolour it, merge it, delete it and link it to a priced item exactly as you would a hand-drawn measurement.

Size groups

Each detection creates one Linear group per size it could read, named after the size itself:

An Unsized group is normal on a first pass — a run only takes a size when the drawing writes one near it, and plenty of short stubs and drops carry no callout at all. Assign those sizes yourself by dragging a size badge onto the run in mask view. See Pipe size badges.

The Sizes on drawing list

Every size the app read from the drawing is collected in one place. Beside the sidebar search box, click — its tooltip reads Pipe sizes: Ø22mm, Ø28mm…, or Pipe sizes found on the drawing before anything has been read.

The list is headed Sizes on drawing and shows a chip per size. These are the sizes offered as draggable badges on the mask bar.

Adding a size the drawing does not label

1. 1

   Open the Sizes on drawing list.

2. 2

   Click the chip, tooltip Add a size.

3. 3

   Type the diameter in millimetres, between 1 and 999 — for example 15.

4. 4

   Press Enter, or click Add size. Press ESC to cancel.

A size you added carries an to remove it again, tooltip Remove added size (applied run sizes stay) — taking the chip off the list does not change any run you already sized with it.

When nothing has been read yet the list reads No sizes found on the drawing — add one with +. That is common on image drawings whose callouts are too small or too broken to be read reliably.

Bends and T-Junctions

Every detection also creates two Count groups holding the fittings it passed through:

• Sample 1 · Bends — one small marker per elbow.
• Sample 1 · T-Junctions — one small marker per tee.

The groups are split per sample, so each sample's fittings are counted separately rather than pooled into one drawing-wide bucket. They are also split per Service: if you have assigned your groups to Marker Services, each service gets its own Bends and T-Junctions groups rather than sharing one pair across the drawing. See Marker Services.

Expand a fitting group in the sidebar and each marker is listed as Unit 1, Unit 2 and so on, with its size tag in the middle column.

Size tags

A fitting carries the sizes of the pipes it joins, so it can be priced without opening the drawing:

A leg the drawing does not label shows as ?. Hover a fitting row in the sidebar to see the tag in full — the tooltip reads Pipe size: for a single size and Pipe sizes: where there is more than one.

Reducers

A reducer is placed automatically whenever you cut a run in two with the Split chip in mask view. Reducers go into their own Reducers group per service, so the fitting is counted and can be priced like any other. A reducer's tag appears as soon as the two sides differ, and clears again if you make them match. See Splitting and joining runs.

When tags refresh

Changing a run's size updates the tags on the fittings along it:

• Bends update reliably.
• Reducers at either end of the run update.
• T-junctions update where the branch meets the main exactly. On many drawings the branch stops fractionally short of the main, and those tees keep the size they were detected with rather than showing a wrong one.

Renaming a fitting group away from its · Bends, · T-Junctions or · Reducers ending stops it being re-tagged, because the app no longer recognises what kind of fitting it holds.

Where a run is split, and where it is not

A run is one measurement from end to end. It carries on through its bends and through its T-junctions rather than being cut into a separate marker at every branch — on a typical drawing that roughly halves the number of linear markers, and a busy riser that used to come back as ten separate lines comes back as one.

A run is only split where:

• the drawing genuinely calls out a size change, so the two halves belong in different size groups; or
• a rise or drop is marked on it; or
• you split it yourself with the Split chip.

Sizes on image drawings

On image and scanned drawings the size callouts are read by text recognition, which can misread a character. Sizes read that way are checked against a list of standard pipe sizes, so a misread value no longer creates an odd measurement group such as Ø228mm. A callout that cannot be matched to a standard size leaves its run in Unsized, where you can assign the right size by hand.

Common issues

Everything landed in Unsized

The drawing does not label that service, the callouts sit too far from the runs, or the sheet is an image whose text could not be read. Mask the group and drag the right size badge onto each run.

A size group holds runs of two different sizes

The drawing labelled one stretch and not the other, so the whole run took a single size. Split it at the change point with the Split chip, then drop the correct badge on each half.

Next steps

• Pipe size badges — drag a diameter onto a run to file it under that size.
• Splitting and joining runs — cut a run where it changes size and place a reducer.
• Tidying takeoff results — remove junk runs and clear the detection overlay.
• Linking to database items — price a size group or a fitting group.