For v/d/v wiring in hotels, a quick estimate was done this way:
Measure longest room pulls (say 275')
Measure shortest room pulls (say 55')
Avg the two ((275+55)/2) = 165'
Multiply by number of home runs/room (say, 4*) =660
Multiply by # of rooms (say 85) = 56,100
Add in all other drops (say, 45) at avg distance (165') = 7,425 + 56,100 = 63,525
Add in feeders from IDFs to MDF, demarc to PBX/data rooms (varies). Let's just say 66,000ft total at this point.
Guesstimate CCTV (were using siamese cable then), speakers separately.
*If there are 2 phone runs (cat5e) per room, 1 cat6, and one coax, you'd figure ~50%/25%/25% of that 66k' for cat5e/cat6/coax. This would be 33k' cat5e, 16.5k' cat6, 16.5k' coax, probably one box speaker cable, and 1-3 rolls siamese, plus some length of 25/50/100pr for phone feeders.
Obviously not to the foot accurate, but would get you very close much of the time. Took me about 5 minutes to do the math here. If we were short, we'd order more before we ran out, and if over, use the extra on the next project. Always aimed for short on the initial order as carrying umpteen partial boxes/spools of 6-8 different cable types to another job was more trouble than it was worth. Waste was somewhere around 3-4%.
If you're pulling in 750MCM feeders you want a much more exact measurement than the umpteen thousand feet of NM/MC/THHN you will need. The only thing we measured precisely was 25/50/100pr cable as a thousand foot spool weighs a ton, costs a fortune, and we did not want to come up short or significantly over.
Hope that helps some on the v/d/v side of things.
