Waste, material costs, and pitch

Three settings on every component decide how the app turns a measurement into an order quantity: waste, material pricing, and the pitch multiplier. All three live on the component itself, and waste and pitch can be overridden on a single quote without changing the saved component.

Waste

Waste is the extra allowance for cuts and breakages. You set it as either a percentage or a fixed amount.

• Percentage waste. Adds a percentage to the calculated quantity. Best for area-based materials like tiles, membrane, or board.
• Fixed waste. Adds a fixed amount per item. Useful for lineal-based components where every length needs a small overlap or trim, for example "100mm of waste per garden edging length".

You can also set waste to off if it does not apply.

Material price and pack sizing

Most components are priced per unit - per m2, per lineal metre, or per item. That is the default.

For materials that come in packs, rolls, bags, or sheets, use a pack pricing strategy instead. Enter the pack price and how much one pack covers, and the app works out how many packs your measured quantity requires, then prices from that.

Four pack strategies:

• Per pack - by length. For rolls or fixed lengths (e.g. a 20m cable roll).
• Per pack - by area. For rolls or sheets covering a fixed area (e.g. a 50m2 underlay roll).
• Per pack - by coverage. For materials applied at a rate (e.g. 20L paint covering 50m2).
• Per pack - by volume. For bulk materials (e.g. a 5m3 concrete unit).

Pack counts round up to whole packs. Waste is applied before the pack count is calculated, so the final order already includes your waste allowance.

Pitch multiplier

Some measurements are taken flat from a plan view, but the real material runs along a slope or angle. The pitch multiplier scales the plan number up to the actual material length or area.

Pitch can be applied to areas and to lineal lengths (excluding Lineal x Height measurements, which already account for a vertical dimension). You enter the pitch angle during the quote builder - not at the component level.

Pitch is only applied when the component has pitch enabled AND the quote is using a Plan measurement. If the measurement is set to Actual, the pitch step is skipped because the number is already real.

A worked example

A landscaping plan shows a 100 m2 area on a 30-degree slope (pitch factor ~1.155). Waste is 5%.

• Plan, pitch on, 5% waste: 100 x 1.155 x 1.05 = ~121 m2 ordered.
• Plan, pitch off, 5% waste: 100 x 1.05 = 105 m2 ordered.
• Actual, pitch on, 5% waste: 100 x 1.05 = 105 m2 ordered. (Pitch skipped because the number is already the real measured area.)

Related

• Plan vs Actual
• Creating a component