Build the Estimate

An Estimation in Darwin brings everything together:
modules, materials, labor, expenses, quantities (from IFC, 2D, or manual input), a price list, and project settings.

Start from the modules your team has reviewed, then add this project’s quantities and reviewed prices. Check the scope and assumptions before relying on a reused recipe. If you have no modules yet, capture your first module before this exercise.

This chapter guides you through:

• creating the estimation container
• understanding the different kinds of line items an estimate can hold
• reviewing quantities
• organizing the estimate into sections with their own margins
• generating a cost summary
• handling revisions

Before starting, confirm the project, currency, Price List, and distribution center. You need an editable revision and quantities you can explain. Manual quantities are enough for this exercise; BIM and drawings are optional.

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1. Creating an Estimation

To create an estimation:

1. Open your Project.
2. In Estimations, click Create Estimation.
3. Name it and choose the distribution center.
4. Review default margins and distance before confirming.

You will be redirected to the Estimation Details page — the workspace where all quantities, modules, and cost logic come together.

Every estimation stores one driving distance from its distribution center to the project. It is the basis for pricing the estimate’s distance-based transportation expenses (rate per km × distance). Darwin calculates the route from the distribution center by default and recalculates it whenever you save the estimation header; you can enter a manual distance instead, which is kept until you switch back to calculated. The create/edit dialog previews the calculated route before you save so you can override it. See Transportation Rates.

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2. What Goes Into an Estimation

An estimate can combine these line types:

Line item type	What it is	When to use it
Module	A reusable assembly — materials, labor, and expenses bundled together as one recipe (e.g., “Reinforced Concrete Slab 15cm”)	Repeatable construction logic your company has priced before
Module Composite	Modules at defined quantities; components follow the parent’s section	Inspecting a composition already present in the estimate
Standalone Material / Labor / Expense	A catalog item without a parent module	Itemizing a cost outside a reusable recipe

Modules and composites bring reusable Cost DNA to the project. Standalone resources itemize the remaining work. Each line can be direct or indirect; standalone does not mean indirect.

New lines use the estimate’s pinned price basis. Direct work is organized in sections; indirect work can remain outside them.

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3. Adding Line Items

From the Estimation Details page:

• Add a module — search your module catalog and add it as a line. Its materials, labor, and expenses come with it automatically, in the quantities the module defines.
• Existing composites can be inspected through their composition. The current toolbar has no add-composite picker.
• Add a material, labor item, or expense directly — skip the module entirely and add a catalog item straight to the estimate as a standalone line.

If your project came from an IFC or 2D import, mapped elements appear automatically as module lines (or, when a BIM element was mapped straight to a material with no module in between, as a direct material line) — you don’t need to add those by hand.

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4. Entering or Editing Quantities

If you used IFC mapping or 2D QTO

Quantities appear after generating or applying the mapped, reviewed measurements. Uploading a file alone does not add them.

You can still adjust or override them if needed — Darwin trusts your judgment above the model or drawing.

If you are estimating manually

You can enter quantities directly:

1. Select a line — a module, a composite, or a direct material/labor/expense item.
2. Enter the quantity.
3. Check that the value matches the selected item’s unit.

Manual, IFC-driven, and 2D-derived quantities can coexist in the same estimation, even across different line types.

Model-plan takeoff can contribute alongside IFC element mapping. Review each line’s accepted sources and any overlap reason; reapplying a session replaces only its previous contribution, preserving other sources and manual adjustments. See Work With QTO Sessions.

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5. Inspecting Cost Breakdown

Click any module row to expand its cost structure — you will see the materials, labor, and expenses it contains, each shown as quantities × unit prices or hours × rates. A direct material, labor, or expense line shows the same breakdown at its own single level, since there’s no module wrapping it.

Rates are calculated results. Use Price Review for project prices; resource drawers edit the shared catalog. Save pending lines and quantities before checking totals. See Edit Estimate Scope and Margins for changes that save immediately.

When a module has fixed costs, click its Effective tag to see fixed cost, variable unit cost, variable subtotal, total, and effective rate for cost and price. Fixed + variable reconciles to the total. A quantity change can move the effective rate without changing the variable unit cost, because the fixed amount is spread over a different quantity. At zero quantity, unit rates show —. Unsaved quantity edits keep the last saved breakdown until you save.

Ordinary saves keep existing prices and module recipes; they recalculate totals using those saved inputs. New lines use the estimate’s pinned price basis. To refresh prices or recipes, explicitly Recalculate and review the confirmation and before/after result, including expense charge-basis changes. The first calculation also reports what it resolved. See Price Lists.

Active and superseded approved revisions have read-only line and margin editors. A finished project applies that state to every revision. Create or open a later revision to change approved work.

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6. Organizing the Estimate Into Sections

A real project rarely has one uniform margin. Site work, structure, and finishes often carry different risk and different commercial terms. Estimation Sections let you group lines — modules, module composites, materials, labor, expenses — into named categories, each with its own margin per cost type: material, labor, and expense (subcontract resolves through expense margin).

Every new estimate starts with a default section. Indirect work can remain outside sections. To organize your estimate:

1. Open the sections in Estimation Details.
2. Create sections that reflect trade categories, project phases, or work packages (e.g., “Sitework,” “Structure,” “Finishes”).
3. Open Margins to review defaults and section or line overrides.
4. Move lines into the appropriate section, or reassign an entire section’s lines at once.

An empty value inherits from the next level; zero applies 0%. Check the chosen basis: cost 100 at 20% markup produces 120; at 20% margin on price it produces 125. Switching Differentiated/Blended mode preserves values, but editing a blended input changes all three cost types at that level.

See Estimation Sections and Edit Estimate Scope and Margins for the full rules. Marking sections ready records preparation, not approval.

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7. The Estimation Summary

Click the Summary tab to view:

• total materials cost
• total labor cost
• total expenses
• base cost before commercial margins
• applied margin and sell price

Resource-type and direct/indirect totals are two breakdowns of cost; do not add them together. Disclosed tax and handling are already included. See Read an Estimate Summary to check the figures.

Confirm that quantities are saved, the price basis is intended, and you can explain the sell price. The workspace opens reports and revision comparison; use Details to edit and Price Review to update rates.

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8. Revising an Estimation

Estimations evolve. Darwin supports revision workflows such as:

• creating a new estimation based on a previous one
• updating price lists
• recalculating costs based on new mappings (IFC or 2D)
• adjusting modules, direct lines, or quantities

A revision keeps the history intact while giving you a clean workspace for the next iteration.

The project container maintains all versions for traceability.

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9. When You Don’t Need IFC or 2D Drawings

You can build complete estimations manually by:

• adding modules or standalone material/labor/expense lines
• entering quantities
• applying a price list

Darwin does not require BIM or 2D drawings — it simply accelerates the process when they are available.

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10. Next Step

With your estimation created, the final key step is ensuring your prices are up to date:

➡️ Review Prices and Exchange Rates