Date | Product Development Description - (Bid4Build Estimating & Digital Takeoff History)

06/25/08

Bid4Build Version 3.5 Released

- Multiple enhancements in many areas of the program including:

- New Menu Navigation System with video help
- New Estimate Maintenance & management features including enhanced copy functions between estimate areas, ability
to merge estimates, multi-area estimate allocation, enhanced Estimate Maintenance features
06/25/08
- New features added to the to-do list component which integrate into the estimate process and helps track estimates
- New features and report capabilites for the job tracking module
- Enhanced reporting controls and capabilities added to existing reports
- New true network version available
07/01/08

- New Costbook Added (Electrical Estimator)

- Changes made to 3.5 to enable access to the new Electrical Estimator Costbook database.

07/02/08

- Fix on 3 labor based estimate reports where the category sort was not being reflected on the reports.
- Updated the about-us dialog box to reference 3.5 instead of 3.0.

07/08/08 - Fixed internal QB report to correct a rounding error on totals

07/12/08

- Fixed To-Do List issue when an estimate is saved and retained in the system and the user decides to add a to-do task for
the estimate, the estimate information is not carried over to the to-do list task.

07/31/08

- Minor alignment changes to column headers and data in reports.

- Electrical Costbook added to drop down costbook selection in menu navigation

- Merge estimate not calculating correctly when original source estimate contained non-contiguous areas numbers (due to
08/9/08 deleting areas in an estimate). Fixed.
- Drop down menu Question Mark help not working on some forms. Fixed.
- New feature added to the Bid4Build Administration area. A new customer can now import in the estimate contents of
08/15/08 the demo estimate as long as the demo has been installed in the root directory C of the customer's computer
(c:\bid4build). Password access is "bid4buildadmin".
08/18/08

- New report added per customer request. Customer Report by Category with estimate items listed by category with a cost
total by category and overall.

- Resolved remaining issues with some forms not displaying context sensitive help when the drop down menu question
mark is selected.
- When clicking on the form [X] button on the My Company Information screen, and the menu navigation is displayed,
the navigation menu would not come back into display mode. Resolved.
- Updated documentation help file with some lingering 3.0 screens convereted to 3.5.
- New Functionality Added: In the Estimate Maintenance Screen, a search and look up icon has been added next to the
08/27/08
item code field display. This enables the user to look up and search for a costbook item to replace the current item listed.
The item will be replaced with the new item located. The item quantity will remain untouched and the item category rank
will be removed. This feature has been added in preparation for a new integration with a Bid4Build digital takeoff
solution.
- Added a look up button to the item search screen so that the user can select to view the full item details of an item in the
search list display. The item is in edit mode and could be edited.
09/13/08

- Bug detected with the internal cost reports which caused duplicate items displayed when multiple phases are included in
an estimate. Material, Subcontract, Labor and Equipment internal reports have been fixed.

- New Import a Bid4Build Takeoff Live estimate feature. This will be fully operational on 11/1/08. Once a Bid4Build
Takeoff Live estimate has been created and saved, you can then import in the associated data file (which has the same
name but with an mdb extension). This data file is imported and used as the basis for the final estimate. If any items do
10/20/08
not have costs associated (such as user-defined items), then these items will be flagged during the import and presented
for cost assignment via the estimate maintenance screen. Note: The Bid4Build Takeoff Live integration will only work
with the Enterprise Edition.
10/31/08

- NEW - BID4BUILD VERSION 3.5.1 AND BID4BUILD TAKEOFF LIVE RELEASED FOR NOVEMBER.

Note: This version of Bid4Build is required to integrate with Bid4Build Takeoff Live.
- Fixed report by Area - All Costs - Markups which was being slightly cutoff in 2 cost columns depending upon the
particular PC graphics display being used by some customers.
- Bid4Build Takeoff Live import a plan estimate is now available within the program under the Files drop down menu
section.
- Documentation update to include new features for 3.5.1
- Bid4Build Takeoff Live Demo is a fully functional program which can be used with the 10/31/08 or later Bid4Build
3.5.1 update.
- Changes made in preparation for Craftsman Costbooks 2009. Area Modification Factors and Crew Composition data
updated.
- Modified the Takeoff LIve plan import function to enable loading of multiple plans to a single estimate file. This is
11/16/08 being provided to help extend the number of pages limit in the current B4B takeoff Live to enable batching of plan
estimates into a single consolidated estimate file.
- Fixed the Merge estimate feature to correctly work with estimate or B4B Takeoff Live Plan files. This way both
multiple Takeoff Live plans and estimates can all be merged together.
11/19/08 -Removed 2008 reference to area modification form view.
-Bug in section 2.2 of the menu navigation causing the last customer number to be defined for a new project regardless of
12/06/08 customer selected using the search function. This is fixed so that the customer selected from the search has the correct
customer number entered into the new project record.
-Error encountered with the Takeoff Live import where the fully qualified file name of the import file (which includes the
12/08/08 directory path) is longer than 50 characters. This has been removed as part of the long description for the area created on
import. This error no longer occurs with long file names.
-New Phase/Category report added which removes the costs by item and category with just a cost summary at the end
which is created with a new page.
12/09/08
- Adjustments made to 2 reports which were reported to have some slight cut-off on material and labor columns which
output to PDF995 only.
05/09/09

-Modification and improvements to various reports. Key modification is a momre accurate breakdown between categories
and items when unassigned item codes are used in the estimate.

05/15/09 -5/9 update was labeled in the program 5-9-08. This has been corrected to 5-9-09.
- Minor adjustments made to the operation of the quick start menu.
09/17/09 - Addition of the Demo database data to the licensed version of the program
-Fixed the empty tax table description issue which can sometimes be created
- Changes/updates to the crew composition and area mod factors to accommodate the new 2010 costbooks
- Function added to the costbook display at the bottom of the program to notate which costbook year is being used by the
11/15/09
program. It will display 2010 for the new 2010 costbooks
- All costbooks have been updated to 2010
2/1/10

- Fixed a problem with the costbook import for all costbooks (excluding GC Costook). If the GC costbook is not installed
and any of the other costbooks were installed, the costbook import would not work. This was a code error during the
costbook 2010 preparation which is now fixed.

- Provided additional logic to handle possible corrupted saved estimates. This fix will provide better correction and
handling of estimate imports.
4/14/10
- Added a new Manhours internal report which will display the associated crew composition for each item in an estimate
which contains a crew composition.
7/14/10 - Report Rounding adjustments.
10/16/10

- Fixed the combined GC National and Bid4Build default costbook download option for users with the 2010 costbooks
(requires at minimum the National General Construction Costbook)

- New Internal PDF function added. This is now part of the report menus as a print option.
- Consolidation of the various non estimating reports into one central report menu
12/16/10
- New iPhone and iPad integration available and added as a print type button on reports
- 2011 Costbooks now available

2/1/11

- Added functionality to remove the security warning when the application is used with Access 2010 Runtime
- Fixed a dependency to have the GC costbook installed when using the new Miscellaneous Reports form.
- Added the blank costbook template excel file to the install of the production license. This lets you easily create your
own costbook database.

- Added ability to export an estimate to Excel in a Costbook Excel export format so that the estimate can be used as a
stand-alone costbook and available for import back into the costbook database.
- Enhanced the Estimate Maintenance with Totals screen to provide cost totals by Item and totals for manhours
(productivity rates).
- Enhanced the edit individual item estimate and costbook screens to better accommodate the secondary item description.
- Fixed the Estimate long description reports so that the secondary description comes in correctly as opposed to
2/27/11
concatenating the crew composition to the secondary description
- Fixed the drop-down table lists Units of Measure table to that the text "EA" is not displayed when entering new units of
measure.
- Added the ability to store the purchase reference number of the product directly into the program. If this field is blank
then it will be automatically displayed when opening the program. This is now also a drop down menu option in the Tools
section.
3/18/11

- Further refined the Purchase Reference number screen. Moved this to the top of the Help section.
- Moved the How do I create an Estimate to the Help section.

5/1/11

- Fixed the PDF button on reports menus. The PDF MS DLL routine does not work correctly for Access 2010 (it creates a
landscape document from a portrait and cuts off the report pages). The workaround is to check the Access version and if
2010, use the internal PDF capability. The PDF button will now display a selection of output types including PDF.

9/1/11

- Fixed reports to handle a rounding error with large numbers.

10/15/11

- Added a form view to manage the actual estimate items which is designed to be used in conjunction with the Add Items
from Costbook to Estimate form.

12/18/11

- Updated for 2012 Craftsman Costbooks. Includes updates to the area modification factors and crew composition. Also
updates to the costbooks to 2012.

- Added a new component called Formula Assemblies. This enables the user to use the existing expression
calculator (which is now enhanced) to assign costbook items to formulas. When the formulas are run in the
estimate screen, the items assigned will automatically be selected and - added a new component called formula
assemblies. This enables the user to use the existing expression calculator (which is now enhanced) to assign
costbook items to formulas. When the formulas are run in the estimate screen, the items assigned will
automatically be selected and populated with the corresponding calculation results and available to transfer to
your estimate. (documentation update will be forthcoming)
- added a total of 81 construction formulas
- Fixed a number of reports to enhance format
- Added a new formula assembly report to the misc reports section
- fixed issues with the import of a takeoff estimate so that when the area description is changed (default if takeoff plan)
that these are changed for every item which is assigned to this area
06/07/12 - fixed a schedule issue with import of takeoff items into the estimate and then displayed in the schedule
- changed the defaults on items from the takeoff estimate which relate to points and assignment of 0's in an estimate
- fixed the assembly transfer to remove 0's placed in the item qty field
- removed the do not delete message in the default B4B costbook
- B4B digital signatures added to install and update files
- changed the update password on this new update install file (contact bid4build support to receive an updated password email ' support@bid4build.com)
- rebuild the change order process so it is improved and added a specific change order report
- modified the takeoff live icon
- removed the change background colors and password options from the program
- enhanced the invoice process, reports and integrated the change order additions
- misc changes to menus and access screens (including background colors)
- fixed a number of bugs in the original assembly process and updated the create assemblies screen to handle assembly

formulas. Also fixed issue with possible duplicate assembly names

- fixed the company logo add where it provided a false check of the runtime environment
- fixed import of national insurance and repair costbook where it was populating 0's in the estimate screen
- Fixed some bugs with the new formula assembly create process where when you selected the checkbox to add an
06/19/12 assembly it would uncheck.
- Consolidated features into the Add Items to Costbook menu
- Fixed an issue with the Change Order function where change orders were not getting created and the system would not
detect and inform the user that an estimate first needs to be saved before a change order can be created.
- Fixed an issue with scheduling where the schedule items from the estimate would repeat themselves for every customer
06/30/12
in the customer database.
- Fixed the Invoice function where when creating an invoice and clicking on the button to bring in the invoice total
amount, this amount was either not correct or not brining in the dollar calculation.
07/18/12

- Program menus modified a bit for final delivery and match with updated documention
- V 3.5.1 Documentation updated for 7/18/2012

- Adjusted the Quickstart menu so that the background on some monitors with specific video cards is light blue rather
than white
07/27/12 - Adjusted the Estimate report titel fields which cut off slightly based upon some monitor video cards.
- Fixed an issue with the new Change Order form which was not posting new change orders correctly.
- Fixed the Documentation PDF download which is now pointing to the newly updated 2012 documentation.
- Fixed the Quick Start menu bug where in Area Edit sometimes the Quick Start menu doesnt appear upon exit from the
Area Edit.
08/20/12
- Added a routine to check if any items have been checkmarked but not transferred to an estimate. It flags this and then
provides an option stay in this screen when the Exit button is selected.
- Fixed an issue with the Change Order file
- Fixed the Invoice estimate amount selection to add all taxes (including secondary)
09/05/12
- Modified the tax screen to update Canadian tax information
- Resolved an issue with the Change Order report
09/21/12 - Fixed internal cost base reports so the cost description only repeats at the top of each page.
- Re-fixed scheduling repetition from 6/30 fix.
- Additional fixes on change order processing. Report showed incorrect CO# and resolved small bug with the calendar in
09/30/12 the change order.
- Fix to a small bug in the help file context process
- Updated pointer to MS Project from Office 12 to Bid4Build directory
- Add the new Takeoff Spreadsheet import capabilty and unprotected import spreadsheet. Added this as a menu option
10/13/12 under File Open.
- Added the Change Order report in the Estimate Change Order section.
- Several internal estimate reports modified to handle rounding issues. Include one Phase based report and one Long
10/24/12 Description report.
- Modified the Estimate Analysis screen to adjust for this rounding as well.
- Modified the Bill of Materials report with item codes to include each cost and removed markups.
- Change some report descriptions on the Estimate Report menu
11/19/12
- Removed the save record conflict which sometimes would display if the "select for current estimate" project checkbox
was selected and deselected multiple times.

- Added to the Estimate Maintenance screen the same function as in the Costbook Maintenance where when you double
click on the Item Code, it pops up the Item Estimate Screen which enables you to edit all the details for that Item in the
Estimate.
- Added a new function in the Estimate Maintenance screen called "Replace Assembly Items with Costbook Items". This
will take each Item which has been entered into the Estimate from an Assembly Category defined in the Costbook and
12/02/12
convert the Item from the Assembly Item Code prefix to the actual Code from the current Costbook. It also will replace
the Assembly Category name with the actual Category definition of the Item from the current Costbook.
- Fixed the "Add Costbook Items" Assembly selection at the bottom of the screen to only list the group Assemblies. The
formula Assemblies will not be listed.
- Changes made to the Item Description adjustments in the Estimate and Costbook Maintenance Screens.
- Program updated for 2013. Includes Area Modification Factors, Crew Composition costs and associated tables.
- Program optomized for 2013 costbooks. 2013 costbooks created and available to customers.
1/01/13
- Supplier field added to estimate vertical view in the Add Costbook Items to Estimate to enable view of suppliers
including suppliers assigned to allowances in preparation for new custom costbooks..
1/02/13

- Several updates made to the Contract Writer including expansion of the variable phrases screen and addition of a print to
PDF button.

- Costbook import update designed to make the import file more flexible to update. Specific field mapping was created
for each column to he XLS costbook file. Resolves some "unable to import" issues
- Changes made to the Invoice module including, modification of reports to eliminate the tax field and use the total which
includes all taxes and change orders; some report re-alignments, resolved an error in previous reports where the tax on a
2/06/13 % less than 100 billed was inaccurate
- Multiple changes/enhancements made to the vertical estimate view module which is invoked in the Add Items to
Estimate screen. Enables you to provide multiple views of content within this module
- Added the supplier field to the Horizontal module view so that this can be used for allowances. Also removed the
additional menu fields which are displayed with this module which are are unnecessary.
- NEW ALLOWANCE FEATURE FINALIZED AND ADDED
- Multiple Estimate Report enhancements/revisions
- Additional reports added including new Allowance reports
2/25/13
- Purchase order report added
- Estimate and Costbook maintenance now accommodate Allowances
- Adjustments to Bid Management screen
- NEW partnership with Design Build Estimator which provides best-practice estimating templates which can now be
integrated with Bid4Build. This is via the File open function which has been redesigned.
- Allowance function now available with reports which use just the Equipment field and zero markups to contain the
5/19/13 material allowance
- Internal reports have been fixed. Slight difference is costs between customer reports
- Report Writer data entry window modified to mimic the width of an 8 1/2 x 11 report including margins
- Additional provisions made for integration with the Digital Takeoff extended edition.
- Final changes to the integration preparation for the licensed version of Design Build Estimator
6/22/13 - Modification/fix to the Estimate Reports Purchase order to enable Total summary by Supplier rather than at the end of
the report. User will still need to select the supplier report based upon the assigned PO#.

- Changed contract writer retrieve screen to display only category and report to prevent date overwrite
- Added a backup function to the contract writer templates in case of any file corruptions in cwriter.mdb
- Some reports lost ability to suppress detail. Fixed.
- Rounding fix on the QB estimate report
- Update to the latest DBE spreadsheet import process
- Add QB by Category integration capability
- Modified the contract writer to use ^ character instead of @ character to handle hard coded email address confusions
- Fixed the Contract writer report which had some periodic missing information when presented. This involved a text
limit of 30000 characters per memo field
10/16/13 - Modified the contract writer file screen to handle a bug
- Fixed the number variable selections in Contract Writer and also made them currency. Sometimes came in as 0
- Modified the estimate import on contract writer to use RTF file rather than text file and place spaces in the indent
sections for a better cut and paste.
- Rebuilt the create assembly process
- Added a new maintenance screen for access to longer primary and secondary descriptions
- Updated DBE program (more versions to come)
- Many updates added to the new network version
- Added the ability to imbed a preformatted estimate report into the contract writer
- Reformatted screens to create more color and structure consistency
- Added Takeoff live integration functions (see takeoff section)

- Added new SIGNATURE function. This enables you to add a signature image into the My Company Information scree.
This includes a pre-signature information section, a signature line and post-signature section. This provides the ultimate
customization for a signature section. The signature section is currently available in the Contract Writer module.
- Modified the Estimate Rpt by Category - Category Cost, Streamlined to include the secondary description of an item
11/03/13 indented below the primary item description. If no secondary decription exists, then the line will be compressed but if a
secondary description does exist, this will be displayed in blue under the primary description
- Added a fix to the Assembly create function to prevent adding any items to an assembly unless either the Assembly or
Formula Assembly option is selected. Also fixed is the add of items to existing assemblies which was not always adding
additional items.
- Removed the Assembly Group Transfer selection in the Add Items to Costbook screen. This is now part of the Item
Transfer process. If costbook items are not selected, but just a group assembly, then the transfer items will transfer this
group to the estimate.
- This has now been replaced with a button which will list all the items selected for transfer to an estimte. This was added
11/06/13
so that when using the Formula Assemblies, you can quickly identify and modify the items which have been selected
across all costbook categories.
- Fixed an issue with auto selection of areas if not selected
- New video of Formula Assemblies has been completed and available from within the program help section
- New function added. Append an Excel costbook. This enables you to add costbooks on top of each other to create one or
more master costbooks. Feature also includes handling items which have null item codes or items which have the item
11/13/13 code referenced as "Unassigned". This is sometime the case when an estimate is exported to create a costbook. This is
also managed now with the standard import Excel costbook. The item code is handled by using the Z@ numbers which
are use to create estimate items on the fly. The system will auto assign Z item codes for these items.
- Added the ability to import a costbook file and have it auto create suppliers. If the suppliers are defined in the costbook
and have not yet been added to the supplier database, the import process will take the name of the supplier and create a
11/14/13
supplier record adding this to the company name. This means the supplier can be used in estimate bill of materials reports.
You then add the addition information you want for each supplier created in the supplier database.
- Further updated the import and append costbook process to handle blank records and alpha versus numeric items costs
in various customer excel costbooks.
11/18/13 - Fixed the estimate and costbook item edit screens which were not accepting supplier information
- Changed the Takeoff import message to a form message box which is much clearer in terms of what step to take for a
takeoff import.
12/01/13 - Updated with 2014 Crew Compositions and Area Modification Factors for the 2014 Craftsman Costbooks

01/04/14 - Update to DBE import due to changes with the DBE programs
- Rich Text Capabilty added to the Contract Writer
- Updated the Contract Writer embed pre-formatted report to have better formatting
02/01/14
- Upgraded base program from Access 2000 to 2003 to handle Rich Text via Access 2007 or 2010
- New installs have upgraded contract writer MDB. Older releases can still use the old plain text DB
- Updated reports so that all reports can use the RTF supress lines for output and have the summary lines removed prior to
printing
02/09/14
- Replaced the iPhone button on the Estimate, Misc and Contract Writer report screens to Export which now pops up a list
of output formats.
- Estimate Maintenance screen modified to handle calculator manipulation. When the Qty field is double clicked which
invokes the calculator, the estimate Item Qty is now displayed on the main calculator display panel. This value can then
be further manipulated.
04/27/14
- Added a WASTE FACTOR capability in the Estimate Maintenance. The Select a Cost Category drop down now has a
Waste option. When you enter in a Change% this will then use the percentage input and add it to each item quantity in the
estimate. You need to select an Area or Category to apply the Waste Factor.
- Updated the Add Costbook Items - Add New Item to Estimate screen to restrict descriptions which are more than 256
06/10/14 characters. Reorganized and improved screen entry.
- Updated the Create Manual Estimate screen to include a secondary description.
- Replaced the Estimate Analysis screen displayed when the button is selected from the Add Costbook Items screen with
a smaller summarized cost analysis screen. This also includes a contingency field which can be used to put in a
07/23/14
percentage and calculate what the total estimate could cost in addition to markups and taxes. This screen can remain open
as estimates are being built and the refresh button will update the amounts.
- Modified Demo and Program to accommodate the new website update and file access. Program now points to the
updated website. NOTE: Current program updates require a logon password. If you are on support contact Bid4Build to
09/3/14 obtain a login ID - Modified the Digital Takeoff import process for group assemblies. Now you can specify a quantity
value for an assembly. This quantity will then be multiplied for each item in the group assembly database being brought
into the estimate. This enables you to do actual assembly takeoffs from within the Digital Takeoff application.
01/03/15 - Updates to 3.5.1 for new 2015 costbooks, area modification factors and crew compositions.

11/01/08

Bid4Build Takeoff Live Released.

12/17/08

-Takeoff Live active pages in memory display increased from 3 to 6. Various code routines improved.

12/30/08

05/09/09

09/17/09

-Takeoff Live Item Costbook form display has the ability to increase the size of the box in a horizontal fashion to
enable display of long item descriptions. This can be accomplished by hovering the mouse over the left or right box
end point and then grabbing the box and extending it outwards. This must be done each time the display is reopened
(will default back to the original size).
- Version 3.7 released.
- Increase to 6 sheets
- Performance and memory management enhancements
- Auto backup manager
-Version 4.0 in development. Highlights include an all new, more stable non-Microsoft graphics engine with flexibiilty
to allow stretching of objects, adding of points to an object, unlimited sheets and many more additions.

03/15/10

-Version 4.0.2 Pre-Release available.

10/01/10

-Updated help documention for V4

06/07/12

-Updated Takeoff version and enhanced features/fixes with the import to the estimating system

05/19/13

2/16/14

3/03/14

-Extended Version Available

-Lite Version Available (4.0.3.0)
-Development of a new Enterprise Digital Takeoff Solution (5.0.4.7)
- Added Snap and Ortho. Box function coming soon
- Enhanced the calculator
- Improved the Item Costbook selection screen (sticky on category and Item for Craftsman costbooks)
- Better handling of linear and area selections and overlays (new algorithms used for object selection)
- Enhancements to the continue menasurement process (cut and paste, define UOM, bigger box selection)
- Highlighter function for lighter background. Coming is white/transparent background for getter takeoffs
- Improved graphics engine
- Changes to tooltip function
- Added Item list of selected items to a takeoff component
- Added ablity to define Area short and Long descriptions for import (creating multiple areas and phases)
- When appending takeoff estimates, new Phases are created
- Ability to now select Assemblies from the Estimating system and have them auto populate in the estimate upon
import
- Adding Comment field to Item costbook selection which maps to secondary desc in B4B
- Load system faster and in front of active applications
- Adding Subtract function of an area on an area (comming)
- Adding Symbols library and abilty to add a costbook item (coming)
- switch over to online help process with video help
- More remember functions added to program (such as for area short and long desc)
- Abilty to integrate or connect to add a 3rd party app like another calc to the program
- A Reset toolbars option adde- Ability to free-form a takeoff component
- Added a listing function for each takeoff component to view assigned items
-New Bid4Build Excel Design Floor Plan added to the suite of products. This is an Excel based solution which
enables you to create a basic floor plan in Excel and this can then be output to PDF and imported in to Digital
Takeoff solution.