Residential materials estimator

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tallgirl

tallgirl

Senior Member
Location
Glendale, WI
Occupation
Controls Systems firmware engineer
Anyone have access to a free (or very cheap :) ) estimation program for residential electrical materials?

Apparently I will not be staying home for the holidays :)
 
My residential estimating program consists of a yellow pad. You can do a resi takeoff pretty quickly. It might take me 20 minutes to work something up on the typical 3br, 2ba home.
 
tallgirl said:
Anyone have access to a free (or very cheap :) ) estimation program for residential electrical materials?

Apparently I will not be staying home for the holidays :)
Click to expand...

Check out the Home Depot contrator estimator program on there site. We use a seperate local supplier but home depot has a good program to download that has real time pricing on material.

If thats what your looking for.
 
speedystevie said:
Check out the Home Depot contrator estimator program on there site. We use a seperate local supplier but home depot has a good program to download that has real time pricing on material.

If thats what your looking for.
Click to expand...

Thanks -- sounds like that's exactly what I'm looking for.
 
tallgirl said:
Anyone have access to a free (or very cheap :) ) estimation program for residential electrical materials?
Click to expand...
I have both.

For $33 you buy the "National Electrical Estimator" at Amazon...
..take your pick...
[2007 version]...
or the [2006 Version]....
I'm still using the [2004 Version] - but that's because I'm "old school" (or maybe cheap?)

Speaking of cheap, and I saw "free" in your post...I got that too....The Home Depot Worksite CD....mine came in a plain brown wrapper(2003 version)....saw this one eBay:
hdwscdjz6.jpg


Did I say it was free...daily updates, too.
This is the same EXACT program as TNE...but prices are updated from your local HD (or non-local, you can change it), whereas TNE wants some $$ for a the service.

Here's the catch...someone needs to host the file to distribute to the masses. HD does NOT carry this item at the "Pro Desk" anymore...emailing them is good exercise for your fingers ~ I'm still waitng for a response.

I've asked before if someone can host a 404,997kb zip file...they must be reading my email to HD ;)

Those are your cheapest choices....or get a dart board :D
 
speedystevie said:
Check out the Home Depot contrator estimator program on there site. We use a seperate local supplier but home depot has a good program to download that has real time pricing on material.

If thats what your looking for.
Click to expand...
Have you got a link?


(the rest is filler)
 
bauler said:
.... buy the book from Amazon as mentioned above. ....
Click to expand...
The "book" also comes with the CD ;)

EDIT:
The book has all the information the CD has - but the book doesn't update.
I have honestly never even opened the book/s.
 
celtic said:
I have both.

For $33 you buy the "National Electrical Estimator" at Amazon...
..take your pick...
[2007 version]...
or the [2006 Version]....
I'm still using the [2004 Version] - but that's because I'm "old school" (or maybe cheap?)
Click to expand...

Ah, but are you easy? No point in being cheap if you're not going to be easy as well ...

Speaking of cheap, and I saw "free" in your post...I got that too....The Home Depot Worksite CD....mine came in a plain brown wrapper(2003 version)....saw this one eBay:
hdwscdjz6.jpg


Did I say it was free...daily updates, too.
Click to expand...

Errrm, I don't understand. You saw it on eBay, but it's free? Different definition of "free", I suppose.

I've asked before if someone can host a 404,997kb zip file...they must be reading my email to HD ;)

Those are your cheapest choices....or get a dart board :D
Click to expand...

If it's legal for me to host it (meaning, not copyrighted ...), I'd be happy to do so. Not sure how anyone would get it from me on account of I've got a firewall with a ruleset that makes for good bedtime reading ...

I think I've got a couple hundred gigabytes of unused space lying around somewhere --

Code: 
#junk-box-> vgdisplay -s datavg
  "datavg" 465.74 GB [275.00 GB used / 190.74 GB free]
#junk-box->
 
Tallgirl you don't have your own webpage or FTP site?

How about just setting it up on BitTorrent or something?
Even if it is copyrighted the holder may be willing to offer free or really cheap distribution license.
 
Last edited:
DaveTap said:
Tallgirl you don't have your own webpage or FTP site?

How about just setting it up on BitTorrent or something?
Even if it is copyrighted the holder may be willing to offer free or really cheap distribution license.
Click to expand...

I have a large file server in the house I use to store everything imaginable. But that doesn't mean you can get to it from the outside.

And BitTorrent makes me nervous. I much prefer sftp (the file transfer protocol that runs on top of SSH / SSL) to FTP.
 
celtic said:
I've asked before if someone can host a 404,997kb zip file...
Click to expand...
I can. If you do the legwork to make sure it's legal, I'd be happy to host it. Let me know.

I have the HD Worksite CD on my computer. I use the pricing a lot, but I've never tried to use the estimator.
 
LarryFine said:
I can. If you do the legwork to make sure it's legal, I'd be happy to host it. Let me know.
Click to expand...

If it was free - how can it not be legal?

The copy I have was actually d/l'ed from someone else's FTP server. I got it back in 2003 (maybe 2004?). The link has long been lost.
 
bjp_ne_elec said:
Celtic - how about this site? Smart$ set it up on an NEC post, so folks could download a trial version of a graphics program called Canvas.

They say up to 500MB:

http://s2.quicksharing.com/

I'd be real interested in trying the HD thing out.

Thanks

Brett
Click to expand...

Uploading it now...we'll see how it goes...if all is good - I'll start a thread and you guys can have it....have I mentioned it was free?
 
celtic said:
Uploading it now...we'll see how it goes...
Click to expand...

It doesn't seem to be going to good... 90 minutes and it's still not uploaded (I have cable for my ISP)...not good at all....hopefully it's just a large demand on the hosting server with it being Friday night and people uploading mp3's, ringtones and porn.

I'll try again in the AM before I go to work (yes...working Saturday)
 
Celtic - any luck?

Celtic - any luck?

Celtic - just curious if you attempted another upload? I'd be real interested in checking that software package out.

I assume the price updating is still supported?

Thanks,

Brett
 
bjp_ne_elec said:
Celtic - just curious if you attempted another upload? I'd be real interested in checking that software package out.
Click to expand...

LOL
I am trying RIGHT now...before the game starts ;)...it's been 30 minutes so far..still "uploading". I'll let it run during the game too.


bjp_ne_elec said:
I assume the price updating is still supported?
Click to expand...

Yup.
Daily price updating from the HD you chose ~ usually closest one to your zip code...because you can change that preference if need be.
 
Wish I could get something like this to link up to my local electrical suppliers.

Celtic - thanks.

Getting ready for the game myself, but I'll check back to see if you were successful.

Brett
 
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