Plandroid - Graphical Air Conditioning Design and Quoting Software
Plandroid Help Documentation
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The Costing page is a spreadsheet-style list of all the cost items in your design.
The parts that make up your design are listed, but you can also add your own cost items
with the Add Cost Item toolbar button (
). Fields that have a white background can
be edited, but fields that have a grey background are generated by the program and cannot
be edited. Totals rows are shown highlighted with a light blue background. Some data, such as the unit price
of a part, its price modifier, or it installation cost is still editable even though it comes from the parts catalog.
Any new value you give it will be used the next time you use that part. These modifications are stored on a per-user
basis, so any changes you make will not change the costings of another user using the same computer - although they
can use the menu item Tools -> Import New Catalog or Price File to import a file that specifies the edits to use.
Also, a number of options settings can be specified in Tools -> Options -> Costing -> Catalog edits to give you
fine control over how catalog edits are used. For more information see the
Catalog Edits File Structure section.
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Cost Items
Cost items may be hidden using the Hide Items button (
).
This tool lets you easily modify your costing table for ordering different sets of components from different suppliers, for
example. The tool is available from the toolbar or from the context menu (the context menu is opened by right-clicking anywhere
in the spreadsheet), and will hide whichever rows you have selected. Cost items which are hidden are no longer added to the
total cost shown in the Totals row, and likewise do not appear in any parts tables in the Report. Hidden items are also
excluded from automatic parts orders. Pressing the button again will
unhide all hidden cost items. You can use the context menu tool to hide additional items when some are already hidden.
The leftmost column may contain icons next to an item. The red not-drawn symbol
(
)
means that the item is not drawn in the final report diagram (to keep it from becoming
cluttered). The check mark (
) means that item has been selected as an always add
item. Always add items are added automatically to any new design you create so you cannot
forget them. They are set with the context menu item Always Add This Item. If you mark a
drawn part as always add, then it will also be inserted into the design canvas
in a new design, so long as its product code can be found in your loaded catalogs.
You can also edit an item in the price modifier column. The modifier column may be
hidden by using the Hide Modifiers toolbar button (
), for those times
when it may be inappropriate to display them openly. To specify a discount, use a negative modifier (e.g. -10%), or to
specify a price mark-up use a positive modifier (e.g. 10%).
Labour Cost Estimates
There are options to automatically cost the labour involved in installing your system. In the Menu item Tools -> Options -> Costing you can choose to include the install costs as install time (with an estimate of the time in minutes taken to install each component), or install costs (with a fixed labour price for each component). Selecting either one of these options will add the labour costs subtotal row to the spreadsheet, and add this to the total cost. (Adding both of them will display both columns, but will not add their respective subtotals to the total cost, as it would not make sense to add them twice). The install time is given in minutes, and you will need to set your labour cost per minute to calculate the total labour cost with this option. Hovering the mouse over the install time will show a tooltip with the value converted to hours and minutes, and hovering over the cost per minute field will show you the labour rate per hour.
Tax as a Cost Item
You can also elect to show a cost item row for tax in the same options Menu item (Tools -> Options -> Costing). Checking the Show tax row checkbox will display the tax row, and you can edit the Modifier percentage which is added to the total cost.
Ordering Parts
You can use the Order toolbar button (
) on this
page to directly order your parts via email, if you have used a catalog from a supplier who supports
automatic ordering. Only parts which are not hidden are included in the order.
Highlighting Rows
The layout of your costing table can be customised using the Highlight Item toolbar button
(
). Item rows can be highlighted by
choosing any combination of text font, text colour, and background colour for that row. Current highlight
styles are shown when you open the drop-down list of styles, plus you can add or modify any style by
choosing the Set Highlight Styles item. You can even define the default Normal style
to suit your preferences.
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The next page is the Report page.