Estimator Assistant

The Estimator Assistant is an AI chat that answers questions about your estimates and your catalog. It takes every number from the Estimator: the totals and lines of an estimate, the calculation of a line, and the prices and labor units of the catalog. It can also read a panel schedule that you paste and find the problems in it.

The assistant reads. It does not change an estimate, the catalog or a project.

Menu	Artificial Intelligence > Estimator Assistant
Permission	Query any AI profile, or Query AI profile - estimator-assistant; and the permissions to see the projects and the catalog
Feature	Estimator AI, with the CrestApps AI features

Can't find it?

What you see depends on your role. If the menu, a button or a setting on this page is missing, ask your administrator to give you the permission listed above or to turn on the feature. Only administrators can turn features on and change site settings.

Before you start

An administrator does these steps one time:

1. Configure an AI connection and its deployments for the site. The person who installs the site does this in the site configuration.
2. Go to Tools > Recipes and run Estimator AI assistant. The recipe turns on the features, turns on AI usage tracking, and adds the Estimator Assistant and the Catalog Specialist.
3. Give the users who use the assistant the permission Query AI profile - estimator-assistant, in Access Control > Roles.

Ask about an estimate

The assistant finds an estimate by its identifier. The identifier is the last part of the address of the estimate's workspace page.

1. Go to Artificial Intelligence > Estimator Assistant.
2. Type your question with the identifier of the estimate, for example: "What is the selling price of estimate 4w905ax8nqh1wsg3e7nk6qxh4w, and which line has the most labor hours?"
3. Press Enter.

You can ask about:

• the selling price, the material, the labor hours and the labor of the current revision, and the rows of the recap;
• the alternates and their prices;
• the lines, for example the lines of a category or the lines with the most hours;
• how a line is calculated: each item with its quantity, material, labor hours and the labor factors.

The assistant sees only the projects that you may see. If you may not see the project of an estimate, the assistant tells you that it cannot find the estimate.

Find catalog items

Ask for the items or assemblies that you need, for example: "Find catalog items for a 20 A duplex receptacle and a 2x4 LED troffer." The assistant asks the Catalog Specialist, which searches the catalog. The answer gives the item numbers, the units, today's prices and the labor units.

The search finds the items that have all the words of your question, in any order. If the assistant finds no item, use other words, the item number or the manufacturer's catalog number.

Read a panel schedule

1. Copy the text of one panel schedule from the drawing or its table.
2. Paste it in the chat and ask, for example: "Read this panel schedule and tell me the problems."
3. To charge the AI usage to a project, add the identifier of the project.

The assistant gives the panel (name, voltage, phases, wires, bus and main ratings) and each circuit (number, description, poles, trip rating, load, spare or space). The Estimator then checks the schedule and the assistant tells you the problems, such as:

• two circuits with the same number;
• a circuit that a multi-pole breaker already takes. For example, a 3-pole breaker on circuit 2 takes circuits 2, 4 and 6;
• a breaker with more than 3 poles, or a panel with other than 1 or 3 phases.

Send one panel schedule at a time.

Use the answers with care

• Examine each answer before you use it in a bid. The numbers come from the Estimator, but the assistant writes the text.
• The title of each chat in Chat History is your first question.
• The AI provider charges for each request. The site keeps a record of each request, and of the panel schedules that you read for a project.