Collaborate with Viewpoint and your peers by providing us with your input
It would be a huge time saver to be able to copy Alternates from one estimate to another. Most Alternates are common to all of projects. A sunroom, screen porch, covered porch, detached garage, etc... If given the ability to duplicate an alternate then one would not have to spend time rebuilding the same one over and over. You would only have to revise it each time for the differences. The Alternates are often mini estimates within the larger estimate. For example, a sunroom contains almost all of the divisions and items as the parent estimate just with less quantities. It is not a simple change this tub for another tub alternate.
An Estimate has the "save as" feature and the "explorer" feature that allows you to copy whole or parts of estimates and catalogs. However, the Alternates do not.
We build residential and remodel projects. This feature would be extremely helpful. Even though we can set up Alternates in our template, there are always alternates that are created for one job that can be copied into another. Especially in the case where the project Estimates are totally different but the Alternate is common. Such as hardwood steps are identical to any home or most screen porches. To be able to duplicate would allow the quantities and not just the template to be potentially used.
I have been a user since 2005 (Quest) and this feature is one that seems to be natural but is missing.
Gary Duncan
Dear Viewpoint Suggestion Box contributor;
We at Viewpoint sincerely thank you for your contribution to Suggestion Box on how we can improve Viewpoint products. While we can’t do everything at once, we rely upon your feedback to help guide the prioritization of our product improvements, and Suggestion Box is a critical tool for us to understand and prioritize our customers’ needs.
Viewpoint reviews Suggestion Box regularly for all of our products and updates statuses, adds comments, and performs various house-keeping (including deleting) as needed to ensure that Suggestion Box is maintained as a productive environment for product enhancements requests.
© 2023 Trimble Inc. All Rights Reserved. Viewpoint®, Vista™, Spectrum®, ProContractor™, Jobpac Connect™, Viewpoint Team™, Viewpoint Analytics™, Viewpoint Field View™, Viewpoint Estimating™, Viewpoint For Projects™, Viewpoint HR Management™, Viewpoint Field Management™, Viewpoint Financial Controls™, Vista Field Service™, Spectrum Service Tech™, ViewpointOne™, ProjectSight® and Trimble Construction One™ are trademarks or registered trademarks of Trimble Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and other countries. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
I agree with you Gary - this would be extremely helpful! I do what Mike suggests for typical alternates, however that only works when you initially setup an estimate, not if you need or want to add more alternates as the project progresses
For typical items that I duplicate regularly I make an assembly for them. You can put in everything you want and zero out what you do not use.
Gary, you can create a job with all of the typical alternates loaded in it. Then use that job as a template when creating a new job. All of the alternates will now be in the new job.