Assemblies

An assembly is a reusable bill of items, such as a 20 A duplex receptacle in the wall with its box, mud ring, plate, wire connectors and cable. You take off one count of the assembly, and it gives every item with its quantity, material and labor.

Menu	Estimator > Assemblies
Permission	View the catalog and prices, to see and test assemblies. Manage assemblies, to add, change and delete them
Feature	Estimator Catalog

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.

The Estimator sample catalog recipe adds five sample assemblies: two receptacles, an EMT run, an office group and a panelboard.

Find an assembly

The list is in code order. Each row shows the code and name, the category and parameters, and how many components and variants the assembly has. Type in the search box to find assemblies by code or name.

Add or change an assembly

1. Click Add assembly, or Edit on the row of an assembly.
2. Fill in the fields, the parameters and the components.
3. Click Save. The site checks the assembly, then opens its test page.

Each save makes a new version of the assembly. The edit page tells you which assemblies use it.

Field	What to enter
Code	Unique in the catalog, such as REC-20A.
Name, Description	What the assembly is.
Unit	What one assembly is: EA for a device, FT for a run of conduit.
Category, Industry	How you group the assembly, such as Devices and Electrical.
Status	Active, or Discontinued when you no longer use it.

Parameters

A parameter is a value the formulas read, such as the length of cable for each device. Click Add parameter, then enter:

• the Name that formulas use, such as CableLength: a letter, then letters, digits or underscores, without spaces;
• the Label you see on the test page, such as Cable per device;
• the Default value, and its Unit, such as 25 and ft.

Components

Each component is an Item of the catalog or another Assembly. Click Add component, pick the kind, and start typing the item number or the assembly code: the matching items or assemblies are offered.

Give each component one of these:

Field	Use it when	Example
Per unit	The quantity is the same for each assembly.	1 box per receptacle
Formula	The quantity depends on the assembly quantity or a parameter.	[Quantity] * [CableLength]

A formula reads the assembly quantity as [Quantity] and each parameter by its name in brackets, such as [CableLength]. Names must be written with the same capital letters. You can use arithmetic and functions, such as CEILING([Quantity] / 8) for a strap every 8 feet, or IF([Surface] = 1, 2, 0).

A Condition leaves the component out when its value is 0, such as [Sensor] = 1 to add an occupancy sensor only when the Sensor parameter is 1.

Waste (%) replaces the waste of the item for this component, such as 10% for cable. Leave it empty to use the waste of the item.

An assembly can contain other assemblies, at any depth. It cannot contain itself, directly or through other assemblies.

Variants

A variant is a named set of parameter values, such as Long runs. Write one variant per line: its name, a colon, then the values it sets, separated by commas.

Line	Variant
Short runs: CableLength=15	Short runs, with 15 ft of cable per device
Switch only: Sensor=0, CableLength=30	Switch only, with no sensor and 30 ft of cable

The other parameters keep their defaults.

Labor

Labor	Use it when
Add the labor of the components	The labor units of the items are right for the work. This is the default.
Use the assembly's own labor unit	One labor unit covers the whole assembly, such as setting, terminating and labeling a panelboard. Enter its hours in the three columns. The labor of everything in the assembly is then 0.

Test an assembly

The test page calculates the assembly the way an estimate will.

1. Click Test on the row of an assembly, or save it.
2. Enter the Quantity, pick a Variant, and change the parameter values if you want.
3. Pick the Labor column: Normal, Difficult or Very difficult. An item without hours in that column uses its normal hours.
4. Enter a Labor rate to see the labor cost, or leave it at 0 to see hours only.
5. Click Calculate.

The page shows the material, the labor hours and, with a rate, the labor and the total. The table lists each item with:

• the assembly path that produced it, such as SMP-A-OFFICE/SMP-A-REC20/SMP-BOX-4SQ;
• the Installed quantity, and the quantity To buy, with the waste and rounded up to the package size;
• the material, at the price in effect today, and the labor hours.

No price marks an item without a price in effect, and No labor unit an item without hours. A warning lists the items that are not in the catalog and the assemblies that do not exist.

Delete an assembly

Click Delete on its row and confirm. An assembly that other assemblies use cannot be deleted: remove it from those assemblies first.