When using ESTmep, some items might need to be flagged for Price on Application (POA). For example, some large sizes of pipework items that are made of materials that experience price fluctuation, such as steel and copper, sometimes cannot be estimated with accurate price information. Therefore, item cost information is not defined.
When using Quick Takeoff for entering items for the quotation, the following notification dialog can sometimes display.
The Incomplete Item Costs dialog notifies that there is no material price assigned for that item's size, and provides the opportunity to define a new cost. The new cost is added to the assigned price list. Subsequent takeoffs using the same item and size will now have the new cost value assigned to the material. The Incomplete Item Costs dialog will no longer be displayed once the new cost is defined for the remainder of the archived job. Only the first instance when the item is taken off causes the Incomplete Item Costs dialog to be displayed. The Define a Cost Now option places the product code into the attached price list and inserts the value entered at the bottom of the price list for the future. This only affects the current price if you are working in an Archived ESJ file.
If the product code and price are required to be added to the main database, the main database would need to be loaded (MAJ) and the item taken off for inclusion into the Global database. This would then apply for all future quotations and would then never be prompted for a price during the next quotation.
Leaving the item with a price list assigned, but having no link to a code from the price list data, allows the mechanics of POA to operate. This means that each quotation prompts for the initial price of the item being selected for its POA.
Check for Prices using 3D Viewer
When drawing items using the Design Line or Attacher features, POA prices are not known to the Autodesk Fabrication software as this requires multiple fill techniques. It would not be practical to prompt for every instance of POA during the fill routine. Therefore, after completing a model using Design Line or Attacher, using the 3D viewer, select the Items tab for listing all the job contents, select the item(s), then use the right-click menu to "Check for POA prices".
The Check for POA Costs dialog prompts to enter all prices that do not have a price list cost applied, and use the same logic as described above in the Quick Takeoff mechanism. Only one of each size will be listed in the dialog for the price to be applied to all matching items and for the remainder of the quote. The prices specified on this dialog are used.
