Estimating Software for Plumbers in Australia
Plumbing quotes turn on fixture counts, pipe runs and what the wet areas actually need. Rignite counts the fixtures off the hydraulic drawing, measures the runs, and prices it against your merchant rates.
What makes plumbing quotes slow to price accurately?
Two things: counting fixtures and roughing-in points across a drawing set, and pricing tapware and fittings that change constantly across merchant catalogues.
A domestic bathroom renovation and a townhouse block are different problems, but both come down to the same steps. Count what goes in, work out what connects it, price the fittings, allow for the parts of the job you cannot see yet.
The counting is mechanical and slow. The pricing is fast to get wrong, because tapware and fixture pricing moves and a quote written off last quarter's rates quietly eats your margin.
Can Rignite count fixtures off a hydraulic drawing?
Yes. It parses the drawing legend, counts each fixture symbol across the sheets, and returns totals per room with each instance marked for checking.
Hydraulic and sanitary drawings work the same way as electrical services drawings: a legend defines the symbols, and the sheets repeat them.
Rignite reads that legend, then counts basins, WCs, showers, sinks, tundishes, floor wastes, hot water units and whatever else the legend defines, per room. Every counted instance is recorded with its location so you can verify the count against the drawing rather than accepting a number.
Where a drawing is dense or a symbol is small, the count can be re-run at higher resolution, and you can add or remove instances manually where the drawing is genuinely ambiguous.
Does it measure pipe runs?
Yes. Runs are measured from the vector geometry in the PDF and returned in lineal metres, kept separate by run type rather than totalled into one figure.
Cold water, hot water, gas and drainage are different lines on a quote and different prices at the merchant, so they are measured separately rather than collapsed into a single pipe number.
Measuring from the drawing geometry rather than an image means it holds up on busy sheets, and it does not need a vision pass on a vector PDF.
Which merchants can it price against?
Rignite prices against your own accounts. Reece, Tradelink, Samios, Plumbing Plus or whichever branch you actually buy from, at your rates.
Merchant pricing in plumbing is account specific and branch specific. A published catalogue price is not what you pay, and it is not what the plumber down the road pays either.
So the system runs on your suppliers and your negotiated rates. Where a price is missing or stale, the RFQ is drafted, sent and chased, and the reply lands back against the line it belongs to instead of sitting in your inbox.
How does it handle wet areas and PC sums?
Wet areas are measured per surface, so tiling and waterproofing are quantified separately from floor area. Tapware allowances come through as stated PC sums.
Wet areas are where plumbing quotes and building quotes overlap, and where scope arguments start. A bathroom is not one number.
Surfaces are measured individually, so a wall tiled to ceiling and a floor are separate quantities rather than one lumped area. Where the client has not chosen tapware yet, that goes on the quote as a stated provisional sum rather than a guess buried in a line item.
Putting allowances and exclusions in writing at quote time is what stops them becoming a variation argument on site later.
Is this worth it for mostly service work?
If you rarely see a drawing, the take-off step will not apply and the model caps your saving at 65%. The scope, pricing and quote compiling still do.
We would rather be straight about this. Automated take-off only helps if there is something to take off. A business doing blocked drains and hot water swaps has no plan set.
What still applies at fourteen quotes a month is everything after the measuring: the scope written properly, merchant pricing chased without you doing it, and the quote compiled and sent rather than sitting in drafts. The calculator caps you at the Automate share automatically and says so on screen.
Also for other trades
Sources and last checked
Estimating Software for Plumbers in Australia
Plumbing quotes turn on fixture counts, pipe runs and what the wet areas actually need. Rignite counts the fixtures off the hydraulic drawing, measures the runs, and prices it against your merchant rates.
What makes plumbing quotes slow to price accurately?
Two things: counting fixtures and roughing-in points across a drawing set, and pricing tapware and fittings that change constantly across merchant catalogues.
A domestic bathroom renovation and a townhouse block are different problems, but both come down to the same steps. Count what goes in, work out what connects it, price the fittings, allow for the parts of the job you cannot see yet.
The counting is mechanical and slow. The pricing is fast to get wrong, because tapware and fixture pricing moves and a quote written off last quarter's rates quietly eats your margin.
Can Rignite count fixtures off a hydraulic drawing?
Yes. It parses the drawing legend, counts each fixture symbol across the sheets, and returns totals per room with each instance marked for checking.
Hydraulic and sanitary drawings work the same way as electrical services drawings: a legend defines the symbols, and the sheets repeat them.
Rignite reads that legend, then counts basins, WCs, showers, sinks, tundishes, floor wastes, hot water units and whatever else the legend defines, per room. Every counted instance is recorded with its location so you can verify the count against the drawing rather than accepting a number.
Where a drawing is dense or a symbol is small, the count can be re-run at higher resolution, and you can add or remove instances manually where the drawing is genuinely ambiguous.
Does it measure pipe runs?
Yes. Runs are measured from the vector geometry in the PDF and returned in lineal metres, kept separate by run type rather than totalled into one figure.
Cold water, hot water, gas and drainage are different lines on a quote and different prices at the merchant, so they are measured separately rather than collapsed into a single pipe number.
Measuring from the drawing geometry rather than an image means it holds up on busy sheets, and it does not need a vision pass on a vector PDF.
Which merchants can it price against?
Rignite prices against your own accounts. Reece, Tradelink, Samios, Plumbing Plus or whichever branch you actually buy from, at your rates.
Merchant pricing in plumbing is account specific and branch specific. A published catalogue price is not what you pay, and it is not what the plumber down the road pays either.
So the system runs on your suppliers and your negotiated rates. Where a price is missing or stale, the RFQ is drafted, sent and chased, and the reply lands back against the line it belongs to instead of sitting in your inbox.
How does it handle wet areas and PC sums?
Wet areas are measured per surface, so tiling and waterproofing are quantified separately from floor area. Tapware allowances come through as stated PC sums.
Wet areas are where plumbing quotes and building quotes overlap, and where scope arguments start. A bathroom is not one number.
Surfaces are measured individually, so a wall tiled to ceiling and a floor are separate quantities rather than one lumped area. Where the client has not chosen tapware yet, that goes on the quote as a stated provisional sum rather than a guess buried in a line item.
Putting allowances and exclusions in writing at quote time is what stops them becoming a variation argument on site later.
Is this worth it for mostly service work?
If you rarely see a drawing, the take-off step will not apply and the model caps your saving at 65%. The scope, pricing and quote compiling still do.
We would rather be straight about this. Automated take-off only helps if there is something to take off. A business doing blocked drains and hot water swaps has no plan set.
What still applies at fourteen quotes a month is everything after the measuring: the scope written properly, merchant pricing chased without you doing it, and the quote compiled and sent rather than sitting in drafts. The calculator caps you at the Automate share automatically and says so on screen.
Also for other trades
Sources and last checked
Estimating Software for Plumbers in Australia
Plumbing quotes turn on fixture counts, pipe runs and what the wet areas actually need. Rignite counts the fixtures off the hydraulic drawing, measures the runs, and prices it against your merchant rates.
What makes plumbing quotes slow to price accurately?
Two things: counting fixtures and roughing-in points across a drawing set, and pricing tapware and fittings that change constantly across merchant catalogues.
A domestic bathroom renovation and a townhouse block are different problems, but both come down to the same steps. Count what goes in, work out what connects it, price the fittings, allow for the parts of the job you cannot see yet.
The counting is mechanical and slow. The pricing is fast to get wrong, because tapware and fixture pricing moves and a quote written off last quarter's rates quietly eats your margin.
Can Rignite count fixtures off a hydraulic drawing?
Yes. It parses the drawing legend, counts each fixture symbol across the sheets, and returns totals per room with each instance marked for checking.
Hydraulic and sanitary drawings work the same way as electrical services drawings: a legend defines the symbols, and the sheets repeat them.
Rignite reads that legend, then counts basins, WCs, showers, sinks, tundishes, floor wastes, hot water units and whatever else the legend defines, per room. Every counted instance is recorded with its location so you can verify the count against the drawing rather than accepting a number.
Where a drawing is dense or a symbol is small, the count can be re-run at higher resolution, and you can add or remove instances manually where the drawing is genuinely ambiguous.
Does it measure pipe runs?
Yes. Runs are measured from the vector geometry in the PDF and returned in lineal metres, kept separate by run type rather than totalled into one figure.
Cold water, hot water, gas and drainage are different lines on a quote and different prices at the merchant, so they are measured separately rather than collapsed into a single pipe number.
Measuring from the drawing geometry rather than an image means it holds up on busy sheets, and it does not need a vision pass on a vector PDF.
Which merchants can it price against?
Rignite prices against your own accounts. Reece, Tradelink, Samios, Plumbing Plus or whichever branch you actually buy from, at your rates.
Merchant pricing in plumbing is account specific and branch specific. A published catalogue price is not what you pay, and it is not what the plumber down the road pays either.
So the system runs on your suppliers and your negotiated rates. Where a price is missing or stale, the RFQ is drafted, sent and chased, and the reply lands back against the line it belongs to instead of sitting in your inbox.
How does it handle wet areas and PC sums?
Wet areas are measured per surface, so tiling and waterproofing are quantified separately from floor area. Tapware allowances come through as stated PC sums.
Wet areas are where plumbing quotes and building quotes overlap, and where scope arguments start. A bathroom is not one number.
Surfaces are measured individually, so a wall tiled to ceiling and a floor are separate quantities rather than one lumped area. Where the client has not chosen tapware yet, that goes on the quote as a stated provisional sum rather than a guess buried in a line item.
Putting allowances and exclusions in writing at quote time is what stops them becoming a variation argument on site later.
Is this worth it for mostly service work?
If you rarely see a drawing, the take-off step will not apply and the model caps your saving at 65%. The scope, pricing and quote compiling still do.
We would rather be straight about this. Automated take-off only helps if there is something to take off. A business doing blocked drains and hot water swaps has no plan set.
What still applies at fourteen quotes a month is everything after the measuring: the scope written properly, merchant pricing chased without you doing it, and the quote compiled and sent rather than sitting in drafts. The calculator caps you at the Automate share automatically and says so on screen.