AI-Based Earthwork Takeoff Software for Accurate Estimates

Let’s be honest– doing earthwork takeoffs manually can be a daunting task. Right?

You’re spending countless hours measuring, calculating, and double-checking quantities, only to feel like ‘something’ still might slip through the cracks. And if that “something” turns into an error, it can cost you money, time, labor, and a lot of stress. 

We get it! If you feel overburdened by dragging your cursor for hours drawing and modifying lines in the sheets, then you need to have a better way to get the earthwork takeoffs done. And that is where Beam AI comes in. 

In this blog, we will walk you through the challenges you face while doing earthwork takeoffs and how Beam AI can help you save time, which you can ultimately use to bid on multiple projects. Let’s dive in– you’re going to love what we have built for you. 

What is Earthwork Takeoff? 

Earthwork takeoff is the process of calculating the material and soil quantity required to be moved for preparing the land for construction. 

The process includes cutting down the ground to lower areas to remove the soil and then filling the other part of the ground to raise the level of the site. This results in a change in the topography of the location multiple times. To carry out this process, various tools are used, such as dozers, machine control motor graders, pavers, skid steers, and soil compactors. 

But let’s face it – doing earthwork takeoffs is not as simple as it sounds. They are time-consuming and require a lookout for multiple variables–site conditions, soil behavior, and material volumes. If these variables are not correct, you won’t be able to effectively lay the foundation for getting the construction work started. Hence, earthwork takeoffs are super important for any construction project to take place successfully. 

Potential Challenges in Earthwork Takeoff Processes

Earthwork takeoffs are essential to any construction project, yet they often come with a unique set of challenges. Managing large volumes of site plans or ensuring effective collaboration among stakeholders can make the process feel a little bit complex. Let’s examine some common pain points professionals face while doing earthwork takeoffs. 

Difficulty in managing complex site plans.

When it comes to earthwork takeoffs, one of the biggest hurdles professionals face is dealing with complex site plans. Construction blueprints today are filled with various details—slopes, irregular terrains, multi-layered designs, and constantly changing project parameters. Managing this level of complexity manually can quickly become a difficult task for estimators.

Time wasted on manual measurements and calculations

Let’s be real, every line traced and every calculation done manually during earthwork takeoffs eats into valuable hours that could be better spent on strategy, collaboration, or bidding on new projects. Even if you work around the clock, attempting to complete a takeoff in time crunch will lead to wasted hours. 

Chances of material shortage

Earthwork takeoffs are very crucial for a successful start of any construction project. The amount of material aligned to fill the ground should be quantitively accurate. Even if there is a small difference in calculating the material required, this could lead to overestimating or underestimating the project. In both cases, construction workflow gets affected and there are chances of disposal issues, inadequate storage, and high bidding costs.  

Benefits of Using Beam AI, An Earthwork Takeoff Software

When it comes to doing earthwork takeoffs, estimators find themselves in a dilemma due to the complex nature of this particular takeoff process. Multiple items such as excavation, backfill, grading, erosion, and sedimentation control are involved and take up a lot of time. Beam AI might just be the game-changer you’ve been looking for. Here's why:

1. Accurate expense budgeting

Every construction project starts with the earthwork. It is the first and the most important phase because accurate quantities here mean you have an estimate that accounts for all costs. 

Beam AI does takeoffs for you so you don’t have to spend hours at end in front of a screen clicking and drawing polygons. You save 90% of your time and can devote your bandwidth to refining estimates and value engineering so that your bids are competitive and win.

Besides, you also reclaim time to focus on coordinating with your GCs and vendors which allows you to align on drawings, specs, and scope in advance.

2. Seamless collaboration with team & clients 

Once you’ve finished your takeoff, do you find yourself spending extra time re-entering data into your estimating software? It’s a tedious step that can slow you down. With Beam AI, that’s no longer an issue. Its export feature lets you create custom Excel outputs tailored for your estimating software—no reformatting required.

For client presentations, you can also export data directly in PDF format. Moreover, you can create shareable links that allow team members or clients to view the takeoffs, ensuring that everyone can stay in the loop. You can also track changes in real-time, making sure that none of the project detail is overlooked.

3. Advanced tagging

Beam AI analyzes your earthwork blueprint and gives you the option to divide your takeoff based on tags. Tags make it easy to sort, filter, and group measurements in your takeoff. You can organize them by phase, trade, or any other logical category that fits your project. For each measurement, you can assign one tag or subtag from a specific category type. The best part? You can use multiple tags for a single measurement to keep quantities organized across your takeoff.

Once you’ve created and assigned tags to your measurements, head to the “Detailed Report” section in your takeoff. There, you can use the filter and sort options to customize your report exactly the way you need before exporting it in Excel format.

Beam AI’s advanced editing toolbar allows you to sort, tag, modify, and group quantities as per your needs.

Traditional Earthwork Takeoffs: Challenges Solved With Beam AI

Traditional earthwork takeoff methods often require estimators to spend excessive time on manual calculations, limiting their capacity to focus on higher-end tasks such as value engineering, bidding on projects, and more. Let us discuss few of the roadblocks construction professional face while doing takeoffs traditionally and how Beam AI helps solve each of them.

Hours spent on tracing site plans

In traditional takeoff software, estimators spend hours clicking, pointing, and drawing over multiple surfaces. This consumes a lot of their time that they could have used to bid on projects, refine value engineering, and communicate with their team and GCs. 

However, Beam AI uses artificial intelligence to automatically interpret and extract critical information from complex blueprints, such as dimensions, surface areas, volumes, and material quantities. 

The software traces the blueprint, identifying features like the excavation area, slopes, and cut-and-fill regions. Even if any changes are made to the blueprint (such as shifting the excavation area or altering the depth), Beam AI instantly updates the data, including recalculating the volumes, without requiring manual intervention.

Beam AI replaces effort-intensive software with a 3-step process:

1. Upload your site plans
2. Define your scope of work and hit ‘submit’
3. Let AI do the heavy lifting - AI analyzes your plans and an experienced estimator validates them before you receive your takeoff

Difficulty tracking revisions across addenda

Most automated takeoff software requires you to do a takeoff again from scratch in case there’s a revision across plans. This used to result in double the time taken for a single takeoff. Beam AI automatically tracks and updates revisions across addenda. The AI-based software picks up the changes and reflects instantly in the earthwork takeoff calculations and other project data, ensuring all team members are working with the latest information.

Final Thoughts

Earthwork takeoff comes with lots of complexities. With Beam AI, you can automate and streamline the takeoff processes, saving you hours to focus on bidding on more projects. Say goodbye to manual earthwork takeoffs and hello to more efficient, cost-effective projects. Ready to transform your earthwork takeoffs? Let Beam AI help you get there. Register for a free trial today.