Craft Quantities

Creates one My Project backup file from a list of whole-job takeoffs (each a takeoff id and its measurements). Each takeoff's lines are worked as its page commits them; the reader restores the file on craftquantities.com as a new project. Nothing is stored or sent; no prices.

create_project_file_from_takeoffs

Creates a request for quote from a materials list or bill of materials (the lines of a takeoff, house, plan or calculation, or the reader's own): Markdown to paste, a CSV, the site's link a merchant opens to price it, and a My Project file. It carries no price and sends nothing to anyone.

create_supplier_quote_request

Matches one building defect described in plain words, such as a crack, a damp patch, a water leak or a tripping breaker, to the site's diagnosis pages, and returns the candidate causes, what tells them apart, the checks in order and when to call a professional; ambiguous words return candidates. It does not say which cause it is.

diagnose_symptom

Draws one plan on the Construction Canvas from the shapes, rooms laid out by adjacency on a grid, house figures, drawing commands, canvas document or template given, and returns its materials list, a plan of each level, labour hours, a link that opens the drawing on the canvas, and a file. It does not size structure.

create_drawing

Estimates the materials to build one rectangular house of one or two storeys from a few figures (footprint, walls, roof, openings): every quantity with what to order, assumptions, plans of each storey and labour hours, as the site's House Estimator does. It counts; it does not design a structure. No prices.

estimate_house

Exports a Construction Canvas drawing (a template, shapes, a room layout, drawing commands, house figures or a canvas document) as DXF for CAD, with the site's CQ-* layers, and as SVG, one plan per level in millimetres, or as one openBIM IFC4 model with quantity sets, as the canvas's own download writes them; a file too large to return is rebuilt from the drawing's link.

export_drawing

Resolves a permanent Craft Quantities id (such as cq-c0412), a current or earlier slug, or a craftquantities.com address to the page as it is today: its kind, current slug, slug history, page link and permanent /id/ link. Ids are assigned once and kept when a page is renamed or moved; a removed page names its replacement.

resolve_id

Finds which family of building codes or standards governs one kind of work in one market (US, Canada, UK or Australia, or a country mapped to one), who publishes it and the site's standards page. It does not say which edition is in force: adoption is local, and the answer names who decides.

market_documents

The true shape of a worktop, shelf or panel between walls that are not square: front and back lengths, setbacks, diagonals and the blank with scribe and bow, then the blank and any other parts nested on stock: part ids, grain, cut order, offcuts and edge banding. Geometry only.

fit_panel

The full-size template a calculator page prints: a stair stringer or step gauge, rafter cuts, a cone or frustum pattern, an arch's centring or voussoirs, an anchor bolt setting jig or plate, a curved plate; its lines as SVG and DXF, its checks and omissions, and how it tiles on paper.

print_template

Returns the input fields of one calculator, identified by its slug: each field's id, label, accepted units, range and default value in metric and US units, with the calculator's version, page and citation. It computes nothing.

get_calculator

Returns the measurements one whole-job takeoff needs, identified by its id: each measurement's id, unit and opening figure, its build-up choices, the calculators it runs and what it leaves out.

get_takeoff

Returns one worked construction estimate from the site, identified by its slug: the measurements, the steps in order with the calculator each uses, the figure each step pins and the waste chosen.

get_example

Returns items of the Construction Quantities Benchmark, a CC BY 4.0 dataset of construction quantity questions built from the site's calculator test vectors: each with its inputs and a prompt in metric and US units, the expected answer in each system with its tolerance, and the worked steps. A page of calculators at a time or one calculator's items, with the download link and how to cite it.

get_benchmark

Returns the room planner's fields for one kind of space: its figures, surfaces and finish ids, scope questions and rows, with their ids.

get_planner

Groups a materials list, bill of materials, takeoff, plan or project (lines, calculator slugs or a project state token) by CSI MasterFormat 2018 division, by the site's own keyword rule over each line's calculator or words. A suggested grouping, not a specification; no Uniclass or NRM grouping is given. No prices.

classify_items

Works out how far one amount of material goes, such as 40 bags of concrete or 24 gallons of paint: the area it covers and the size of slab, room, deck or wall that is, as the site's Solve Backwards page works it, waste taken off. It does not size structure.

solve_backwards

Levels two to six contractors' quotes for one job against the job's own lines: per line, whether each includes it (its quantity against the job's range, both systems), leaves it out, excludes it or offers an alternative; what each adds; questions to ask. Money is taken out: no total, no ranking.

level_quotes

Returns a link that opens a construction calculator's page on craftquantities.com with the reader's figures filled in and their unit system, so a person can see or change the working on the page.

open_in_site_link

Works one whole-job takeoff, identified by its id, from the measurements given: the materials list of a job such as a slab or a deck, each line from its own calculator, with what to order, waste allowances, metric and US units, labour hours (not a price), what is not counted, a citation and the page link. It does not size structure.

run_takeoff

The mitre saw chart for trim corners: per corner angle the mitre each piece takes, the outside corner read through the room, the gap a 45° cut leaves on 18 mm and 3/4 in trim and where it opens, crown laid flat (38/52 and 45/45) mitre and bevel, and the handing table. Any corners on request.

miter_chart

The one-page job sheet a takeoff page prints for the van: the job's picture as SVG, key dimensions in metric and imperial, the build-up, each line going in with what to buy, labour hours by trade, and the link reopening the page on these figures. Words and figures for the PDF; no prices.

make_job_sheet

Draws a whole-job takeoff or a worked example at the figures given as a Construction Canvas drawing and returns the link that opens it; the drawing rides in the link's fragment, so nothing is uploaded. Says what the drawing cannot carry. For quantities, not a construction drawing.

make_canvas_link

Optimises a cut list: pieces of given lengths cut from the stock lengths a merchant sells (timber, studs, joists, rafters, rebar, trim), or rectangles nested on sheets (plasterboard, drywall, plywood, OSB, tiles) in straight edge-to-edge cuts. Gives the stock or sheets to buy, a cutting plan per bar or sheet, the real waste and a lower bound. Quantities only: no prices, no structural design.

optimise_cuts

Plans one space, such as a room or a bathroom, from its size, openings and the finishes chosen, as the site's room planner does, and returns its materials list: each row with its quantity, what it still needs, what is not built and why, and labour hours. Quantities only; it does not size structure.

plan_room

Plans several spaces together, with an optional roof over them, as one project in the site's room planner, and returns each space's rows, every line together, labour hours and the plan. Quantities only; it does not size structure.

plan_project

Re-runs every pinned step of a worked construction estimate now, in both unit systems, and returns whether each still meets the published figure.

run_example

Re-runs a worked example with the job's figures changed: each change follows down every step that reads it, each step beside its published figure with the difference, both unit systems, the project lines with offered hours, and a link reopening it. A modelled job; no prices.

run_example_live

Returns the full text of one Craft Quantities page, identified by its id: what the page works out, its inputs or measurements with units and opening values, and its sources.

fetch

Lays out reinforcing bars in a rectangular slab or footing from the bar size, spacing and cover the engineer gives: bars each way, bar lengths, total length with lap, stock sticks, weight where the site's calculator carries the size, and the layout as SVG and DXF. A quantity layout, not a design: it does not size structure or check a code.

layout_reinforcement

Plans trim round a room, piece by piece, from its corners, door openings and built-ins (or a drawn room): each piece in fitting order with its long and short point lengths, each end's cope, mitre, butt or scarf with its saw settings, the cut list and the trim lengths to buy.

plan_room_trim

Runs a how-to guide's "Try the calculation" block on the figures given: each step's calculator in the guide's order, what to buy with waste and order quantities, both unit systems, person-hours, and the guide's link opening the block on these figures. No prices; nothing sized.

run_guide_chain

Turns gaps measured off a straight line into a scribe line for an uneven surface: the widest and narrowest gap, the width to start from, the strip to cut away, the line as full-size SVG and DXF, and its print layout on A4, Letter or a roll. A pattern, not a fit.

scribe_template

Searches the site's construction pages for a question in everyday words, such as how much concrete or tile a job needs, and returns the matching pages: id, kind, title, link, description and slug. It finds; it computes nothing.

search

Where does a figure come from, and how is it cited? Returns a calculator's sources as it cites them, the codes and standards they name, the site's standards pages, and a citation in plain, APA, Harvard and BibTeX. It adds no source the calculator does not cite.

get_sources

Lays out a flight as built: risers, goings, pitch, 2R+G, the floor opening for a headroom, the stringer as cut, timber and fixings (straight, landing or winders), or concrete and bars, or steel mass; both systems, limits read against a named code, a canvas link. Not sized.

stair_flight

Returns the topic illustration a page of the site carries: the SVG's address, its subject in words and its licence. One per guide, comparison, diagnosis, example, category, material and solve-backwards question; a shared plate for the glossary, methods, policies, standards and tools.

get_illustration

Says one building-trade word in US, Canadian, UK and Australian usage, such as plasterboard (drywall in the US) or skirting (baseboard): each market's word, how close each is, false-friend warnings, unit traps such as US and imperial gallons or short and metric tons with their conversions, and the market's document family. Brand names, plurals and misspellings match too.

translate_term

Turns a supplier's or builder's quote the reader has, prices and all, into a My Project file, as the site's Quote to Estimate does, and checks its own arithmetic. The prices are the reader's figures from their document, not the site's.

import_quote

A worktop along several wall faces, as the Construction Canvas cuts it: each piece's true shape at the room's real angles, butt or mitre joints at corners, long straights joined, the front run and free ends, and the blanks nested on worktop lengths with the cut order and banding. Not sized.

fit_worktop_run