Craft Quantities: construction material calculators

Returns the full text of one Craft Quantities page, identified by its id: what the page works out, its inputs or measurements with units and opening values, and its sources.

Returns items of the Construction Quantities Benchmark, a CC BY 4.0 dataset of construction quantity questions built from the site's calculator test vectors: each with its inputs and a prompt in metric and US units, the expected answer in each system with its tolerance, and the worked steps. A page of calculators at a time or one calculator's items, with the download link and how to cite it.

Returns the input fields of one calculator, identified by its slug: each field's id, label, accepted units, range and default value in metric and US units, with the calculator's version, page and citation. It computes nothing.

Returns one worked construction estimate from the site, identified by its slug: the measurements, the steps in order with the calculator each uses, the figure each step pins and the waste chosen.

Returns the room planner's fields for one kind of space: its figures, surfaces and finish ids, scope questions and rows, with their ids.

Where does a figure come from, and how is it cited? Returns a calculator's sources as it cites them, the codes and standards they name, the site's standards pages, and a citation in plain, APA, Harvard and BibTeX. It adds no source the calculator does not cite.

Returns the measurements one whole-job takeoff needs, identified by its id: each measurement's id, unit and opening figure, its build-up choices, the calculators it runs and what it leaves out.

Turns a supplier's or builder's quote the reader has, prices and all, into a My Project file, as the site's Quote to Estimate does, and checks its own arithmetic. The prices are the reader's figures from their document, not the site's.

Lays out reinforcing bars in a rectangular slab or footing from the bar size, spacing and cover the engineer gives: bars each way, bar lengths, total length with lap, stock sticks, weight where the site's calculator carries the size, and the layout as SVG and DXF. A quantity layout, not a design: it does not size structure or check a code.

Finds which family of building codes or standards governs one kind of work in one market (US, Canada, UK or Australia, or a country mapped to one), who publishes it and the site's standards page. It does not say which edition is in force: adoption is local, and the answer names who decides.

Measures areas, perimeters and lengths from points read off a floor plan, sketch or photo (pixel coordinates) and one known reference (a figured dimension, an ID-1 card or an A4 or Letter sheet): scaled figures in metric and US units with an uncertainty band, closure and crossing checks, and a canvas link. It receives no image.

Returns a link that opens a construction calculator's page on craftquantities.com with the reader's figures filled in and their unit system, so a person can see or change the working on the page.

Optimises a cut list: pieces of given lengths cut from the stock lengths a merchant sells (timber, studs, joists, rafters, rebar, trim), or rectangles nested on sheets (plasterboard, drywall, plywood, OSB, tiles) in straight edge-to-edge cuts. Gives the stock or sheets to buy, a cutting plan per bar or sheet, the real waste and a lower bound. Quantities only: no prices, no structural design.

Builds a construction programme (build schedule, Gantt) from a project's labour hours: tasks by trade, stage and level in the usual order of work, each its hours over the crew and working day given, with totals, a CSV and, with a start date, an iCalendar file. Reads a project state token, a My Project file, takeoffs or a drawing. Weather, inspections and lead times are not modelled. No prices.

Plans several spaces together, with an optional roof over them, as one project in the site's room planner, and returns each space's rows, every line together, labour hours and the plan. Quantities only; it does not size structure.

Plans one space, such as a room or a bathroom, from its size, openings and the finishes chosen, as the site's room planner does, and returns its materials list: each row with its quantity, what it still needs, what is not built and why, and labour hours. Quantities only; it does not size structure.

Resolves a permanent Craft Quantities id (such as cq-c0412), a current or earlier slug, or a craftquantities.com address to the page as it is today: its kind, current slug, slug history, page link and permanent /id/ link. Ids are assigned once and kept when a page is renamed or moved; a removed page names its replacement.

Re-runs every pinned step of a worked construction estimate now, in both unit systems, and returns whether each still meets the published figure.

Works one whole-job takeoff, identified by its id, from the measurements given: the materials list of a job such as a slab or a deck, each line from its own calculator, with what to order, waste allowances, metric and US units, labour hours (not a price), what is not counted, a citation and the page link. It does not size structure.

Searches the site's construction pages for a question in everyday words, such as how much concrete or tile a job needs, and returns the matching pages: id, kind, title, link, description and slug. It finds; it computes nothing.

Works out how far one amount of material goes, such as 40 bags of concrete or 24 gallons of paint: the area it covers and the size of slab, room, deck or wall that is, as the site's Solve Backwards page works it, waste taken off. It does not size structure.

Says one building-trade word in US, Canadian, UK and Australian usage, such as plasterboard (drywall in the US) or skirting (baseboard): each market's word, how close each is, false-friend warnings, unit traps such as US and imperial gallons or short and metric tons with their conversions, and the market's document family. Brand names, plurals and misspellings match too.

Changes a My Project project carried in a state token (cqp1.…, from a project file answer): add or remove a room or space, change a dimension, add or remove a takeoff or calculator line, change a roof pitch, rename. Rebuilds every line and returns the new token, a short diff, the totals and a site link. The token is compressed, not encrypted; nothing is stored. No prices.