Estimating Software for Builders in Australia
Residential builders quote from architectural plans, and the take-off is where the hours go. Rignite measures the drawings, prices the job against your own suppliers, and writes the scope of works.
How long does a builder actually spend quoting a job?
Industry sources put trade admin at 8 to 20 hours a week, and a fixed price residential quote at anywhere from 4 to 40 hours depending on scope.
Manual take-off is the expensive part. Independent measurement of the process puts construction take-offs at roughly an hour per PDF page, and take-off at 50% to 80% of the whole bidding effort. A 15 to 25 page residential plan set is therefore 15 to 25 hours of measuring before you have priced a single line.
Our own model uses 12 hours as a builder's desk quoting time per job, which deliberately excludes the site visit and the client meeting because software cannot remove those.
What does Rignite measure from a set of plans?
Rignite traces room boundaries from the drawings and returns floor areas, wall lengths and ceiling areas per room, then applies your finishes to each surface.
The take-off runs off the vector geometry in the PDF rather than guessing from an image, which is why it holds accuracy on a real plan set.
What comes back is per room: floor area in square metres, wall lengths in lineal metres, ceiling area, and the wall wrap so corners and returns are handled properly rather than approximated. Finishes attach per surface, so a wet area tiled to ceiling and a bedroom carpeted are measured as different things rather than one floor number.
For multi-dwelling work, units are extracted separately, so a duplex or a townhouse block comes back unit by unit instead of as one merged total.
Which suppliers can it price against?
Rignite prices against your own supplier list and your negotiated rates, not a generic national price book, and drafts the RFQs when a price is missing.
Most Australian builders run a mix: Dahlsens or Bowens for timber and frames, Bunnings Trade or Mitre 10 Trade for consumables, a local concrete plant, and whichever plasterboard and roofing suppliers you have accounts with.
The point is that your rates are not the list rates. Rignite is configured against your suppliers and the pricing you actually get, and where something is not on file it drafts the RFQ, sends it and chases the reply rather than leaving a gap in the quote. Subcontractor rates sit alongside supplier pricing so labour and materials both land in the same estimate.
Does it write the scope of works?
Yes. The scope is generated from what was measured, so inclusions, exclusions, provisional sums and risk items trace back to the drawings rather than a template.
A scope written from a template misses what is specific to the job. A scope written from the measured drawings does not, because every line came from something on the plan.
That matters commercially as much as technically. Scope gaps are what turn into variations, arguments and unpaid work halfway through a build. Getting demolition, rock, PC sums and exclusions stated properly at quote time is cheaper than negotiating them later.
How is this different from Buildxact or a spreadsheet?
Buildxact gives you estimating software to operate. Rignite runs the take-off, the supplier pricing and the scope, configured to your business and handed over working.
A spreadsheet is infinitely flexible and entirely manual. Estimating software is faster, but you are still the one measuring the plans, maintaining the price list and writing the scope.
Rignite is set up differently. The setup fee exists because we configure it to your suppliers, your job types, your margins and your templates and hand it over working, rather than giving you an empty system to populate. Buildxact publishes $199 to $599 a month excluding GST. Rignite is $2,000 setup plus $97 a month at Calculate, and our pricing includes GST.
What does it cost a builder to run?
Calculate is $2,000 setup plus $97 a month, Automate $4,000 plus $399, Complete $8,500 plus $849. All prices include GST. Annual saves 20%.
Complete is the tier built for plan-based work, because that is where automated take-off applies. If you quote from drawings, that is the one that removes the most.
The honest test is the halved one. Take whatever the calculator says we save you, cut it in half, and see whether the plan still pays for itself on your own rate and volume. Every input is editable, so you can run it on your numbers rather than ours.
Also for other trades
Sources and last checked
Estimating Software for Builders in Australia
Residential builders quote from architectural plans, and the take-off is where the hours go. Rignite measures the drawings, prices the job against your own suppliers, and writes the scope of works.
How long does a builder actually spend quoting a job?
Industry sources put trade admin at 8 to 20 hours a week, and a fixed price residential quote at anywhere from 4 to 40 hours depending on scope.
Manual take-off is the expensive part. Independent measurement of the process puts construction take-offs at roughly an hour per PDF page, and take-off at 50% to 80% of the whole bidding effort. A 15 to 25 page residential plan set is therefore 15 to 25 hours of measuring before you have priced a single line.
Our own model uses 12 hours as a builder's desk quoting time per job, which deliberately excludes the site visit and the client meeting because software cannot remove those.
What does Rignite measure from a set of plans?
Rignite traces room boundaries from the drawings and returns floor areas, wall lengths and ceiling areas per room, then applies your finishes to each surface.
The take-off runs off the vector geometry in the PDF rather than guessing from an image, which is why it holds accuracy on a real plan set.
What comes back is per room: floor area in square metres, wall lengths in lineal metres, ceiling area, and the wall wrap so corners and returns are handled properly rather than approximated. Finishes attach per surface, so a wet area tiled to ceiling and a bedroom carpeted are measured as different things rather than one floor number.
For multi-dwelling work, units are extracted separately, so a duplex or a townhouse block comes back unit by unit instead of as one merged total.
Which suppliers can it price against?
Rignite prices against your own supplier list and your negotiated rates, not a generic national price book, and drafts the RFQs when a price is missing.
Most Australian builders run a mix: Dahlsens or Bowens for timber and frames, Bunnings Trade or Mitre 10 Trade for consumables, a local concrete plant, and whichever plasterboard and roofing suppliers you have accounts with.
The point is that your rates are not the list rates. Rignite is configured against your suppliers and the pricing you actually get, and where something is not on file it drafts the RFQ, sends it and chases the reply rather than leaving a gap in the quote. Subcontractor rates sit alongside supplier pricing so labour and materials both land in the same estimate.
Does it write the scope of works?
Yes. The scope is generated from what was measured, so inclusions, exclusions, provisional sums and risk items trace back to the drawings rather than a template.
A scope written from a template misses what is specific to the job. A scope written from the measured drawings does not, because every line came from something on the plan.
That matters commercially as much as technically. Scope gaps are what turn into variations, arguments and unpaid work halfway through a build. Getting demolition, rock, PC sums and exclusions stated properly at quote time is cheaper than negotiating them later.
How is this different from Buildxact or a spreadsheet?
Buildxact gives you estimating software to operate. Rignite runs the take-off, the supplier pricing and the scope, configured to your business and handed over working.
A spreadsheet is infinitely flexible and entirely manual. Estimating software is faster, but you are still the one measuring the plans, maintaining the price list and writing the scope.
Rignite is set up differently. The setup fee exists because we configure it to your suppliers, your job types, your margins and your templates and hand it over working, rather than giving you an empty system to populate. Buildxact publishes $199 to $599 a month excluding GST. Rignite is $2,000 setup plus $97 a month at Calculate, and our pricing includes GST.
What does it cost a builder to run?
Calculate is $2,000 setup plus $97 a month, Automate $4,000 plus $399, Complete $8,500 plus $849. All prices include GST. Annual saves 20%.
Complete is the tier built for plan-based work, because that is where automated take-off applies. If you quote from drawings, that is the one that removes the most.
The honest test is the halved one. Take whatever the calculator says we save you, cut it in half, and see whether the plan still pays for itself on your own rate and volume. Every input is editable, so you can run it on your numbers rather than ours.
Also for other trades
Sources and last checked
Estimating Software for Builders in Australia
Residential builders quote from architectural plans, and the take-off is where the hours go. Rignite measures the drawings, prices the job against your own suppliers, and writes the scope of works.
How long does a builder actually spend quoting a job?
Industry sources put trade admin at 8 to 20 hours a week, and a fixed price residential quote at anywhere from 4 to 40 hours depending on scope.
Manual take-off is the expensive part. Independent measurement of the process puts construction take-offs at roughly an hour per PDF page, and take-off at 50% to 80% of the whole bidding effort. A 15 to 25 page residential plan set is therefore 15 to 25 hours of measuring before you have priced a single line.
Our own model uses 12 hours as a builder's desk quoting time per job, which deliberately excludes the site visit and the client meeting because software cannot remove those.
What does Rignite measure from a set of plans?
Rignite traces room boundaries from the drawings and returns floor areas, wall lengths and ceiling areas per room, then applies your finishes to each surface.
The take-off runs off the vector geometry in the PDF rather than guessing from an image, which is why it holds accuracy on a real plan set.
What comes back is per room: floor area in square metres, wall lengths in lineal metres, ceiling area, and the wall wrap so corners and returns are handled properly rather than approximated. Finishes attach per surface, so a wet area tiled to ceiling and a bedroom carpeted are measured as different things rather than one floor number.
For multi-dwelling work, units are extracted separately, so a duplex or a townhouse block comes back unit by unit instead of as one merged total.
Which suppliers can it price against?
Rignite prices against your own supplier list and your negotiated rates, not a generic national price book, and drafts the RFQs when a price is missing.
Most Australian builders run a mix: Dahlsens or Bowens for timber and frames, Bunnings Trade or Mitre 10 Trade for consumables, a local concrete plant, and whichever plasterboard and roofing suppliers you have accounts with.
The point is that your rates are not the list rates. Rignite is configured against your suppliers and the pricing you actually get, and where something is not on file it drafts the RFQ, sends it and chases the reply rather than leaving a gap in the quote. Subcontractor rates sit alongside supplier pricing so labour and materials both land in the same estimate.
Does it write the scope of works?
Yes. The scope is generated from what was measured, so inclusions, exclusions, provisional sums and risk items trace back to the drawings rather than a template.
A scope written from a template misses what is specific to the job. A scope written from the measured drawings does not, because every line came from something on the plan.
That matters commercially as much as technically. Scope gaps are what turn into variations, arguments and unpaid work halfway through a build. Getting demolition, rock, PC sums and exclusions stated properly at quote time is cheaper than negotiating them later.
How is this different from Buildxact or a spreadsheet?
Buildxact gives you estimating software to operate. Rignite runs the take-off, the supplier pricing and the scope, configured to your business and handed over working.
A spreadsheet is infinitely flexible and entirely manual. Estimating software is faster, but you are still the one measuring the plans, maintaining the price list and writing the scope.
Rignite is set up differently. The setup fee exists because we configure it to your suppliers, your job types, your margins and your templates and hand it over working, rather than giving you an empty system to populate. Buildxact publishes $199 to $599 a month excluding GST. Rignite is $2,000 setup plus $97 a month at Calculate, and our pricing includes GST.
What does it cost a builder to run?
Calculate is $2,000 setup plus $97 a month, Automate $4,000 plus $399, Complete $8,500 plus $849. All prices include GST. Annual saves 20%.
Complete is the tier built for plan-based work, because that is where automated take-off applies. If you quote from drawings, that is the one that removes the most.
The honest test is the halved one. Take whatever the calculator says we save you, cut it in half, and see whether the plan still pays for itself on your own rate and volume. Every input is editable, so you can run it on your numbers rather than ours.