Grayson1

I am a chief user for about 3 years, personally, however, have been using since 2015 I have been in the residential custom Design/Build building business for 40 years and have been using Proest estimating for over 20 years. for those not familiar with ProEst, they wrote the original timberline estimating software. it has digital takeoff capabilities like Planswift but uses database of items to complete the estimate and proposal. I have asked both ProEst and Chief about somehow connecting the softwares but neither seem to want the merge. My goal is the find or create some software that continually updates a completed estimate as the drawing progresses. To be clear, that already happens in chief with the takeoff of the materials, if you draw it correctly [ without using polylines to fill in the gaps, etc. ] but to have the take off materials along with the data from ProEst on labor or subcontractors, and other incidentals such as supervision, permits, rental, fixtures allowances, cleanup, insurance, porta john, overhead etc. all to be calculated as the drawing progresses or changes, would be outstanding in the design build custom arena. Does anyone have thoughts about this or possible software that will do this?

we have several people working on the same plans. i am planning on using a common cloud based server, IE dropbox, google drive or other. has anyone had any experience with doing this, if so which drive do you use. this way each time the drawing is picked and updated updated version is saved on the server and not as confusing to stay with current drawing using more than one person doing the drawing.

whats the best way to share chief files with our co-workers? we have been using 128g thumbdrives and it works but do any of you guys have luck with drop box or other cloud based system? thanks !!!! Justin Johnson TLC Design/Build LLC