So... You already have an Estimating System!
Is it easy to use?

It’s surprising how many times we hear (regardless of the brand purchased, even including our original LumberPro)… "Well, it’s OK for simple rectangular buildings but frankly I get lost trying to do today’s complex structures".

This is a problem in the entire estimating software industry. Our trade is characterized by computer systems designed by software experts, often with little understanding of the real needs of construction trades. This, coupled with a limited set of tools for software developers available from Microsoft® and other resources, has led to cookie-cutter solutions. The results look more like a standard spread sheet or a database set of tools rather than a system designed for estimating.

Visual LumberPro was designed by thinking outside of the normal confines of available Microsoft® tools. You will notice that many of the presentation aids on the Visual LumberPro screen look different! That’s because they were custom designed for use in this visual estimating application. You will find that the visual experience In LumberPro will make it easy to handle complex choices.

Assemblies

Traditional estimating systems have been largely based on some form of assembly (sometimes called a building scenario). This assembly concept is fast because groups of products, like a front wall assembly, can be inserted in the estimate very quickly. But the trade off for this speed is a 'cookie-cutter' approach to dealing with your customers. Sales needs are far better served when the estimate is customized for each customer’s requirements.

Assemblies may be changed and, of course, several assemblies for the same function could exist. However, the assembly approach ignores the fact that a product offering of 10,000 to 30,000 different items will result in an infinite number of combinations.

Visual LumberPro 4.0 brings a whole new innovative computer software design to the process of measuring a drawing. Clever new methods help establish the quantity, size or length of each building component. Once the requirements for the structure are established, LumberPro uses it’s newly designed product selectors to allow the user to quickly and easily make choices from ALL of the available products.

Three years in development, these new techniques are extremely fast and intuitive. Comparisons of one product to another can be made on the spot to help in making the otherwise bewildering array of choices.