Quick Start Guide

En Español

Anxious to get started with STACK? Let's jump in! Watch for a quick overview of steps to take with your first project.

Views

When you sign in to STACK, you'll be taken to your Project List where you can access your existing projects from a list view and create a new project by clicking on the New Project box. You can also Search your projects from this view.

When you click New Project you'll be take to the new project's Home page where you can enter the project name, select the bid date, status, assign users, enter the project location, and any notes. 

You can also select your Calendar view by clicking Calendar at the top left, which allows you to control the month, week, and day view. Project dates can be changed by simply dragging and dropping the project onto the new date. Accessing your calendar will give you the option to create a New Project or add an Event to the calendar

Uploading Plans

Once you have created a new project, click the Upload Plans button on the project Home page. Click Choose a Local File to upload the plans from your computer or upload using one of the other options shown on the left - Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, etc. Once the file is selected, click the Done button.

The project will start to process.  Depending on the file size and internet speed, this can as little as a few seconds or as long as several minutes.

If you need to add additional plans to a project, click Upload and repeat the process.

Keyword Search 

Once your plans are uploaded, finding the plans you need to measure can be tedious, especially on a large project. Luckily, STACK is here to help.  Sheet title or Keywords can be searched on any plan in the project.  

The search box is located in the upper left hand corner of the Plans menu.

When a project is uploaded, a scanning icon will appear in the upper left letting you know the plans are being scanned.  

When the scanning icon no longer appears, the plans are ready to be searched.

You can search by plan title or keywords on the plan pages.  The search results will show in separate columns.  One column for Title search results, and another for Content search results.

Simply click on a plan name to view the plan page, or click Exit Search to return to the Overview tab to view all the thumbnail plan images.

TIP:  Running Autoname will provide a better experience when searching for plan title.

Create Folders 

Once you have located all of your most important plan pages, STACK makes it very easy to organize and navigate your projects using folders.  By default, a folder will be created for the plans. You can create additional folders, and drag and drop plans into those folders.

First, let's start by creating a new folder.

In this example, we've created a folder for addenda.  

Once you've created a new folder, you will see it in the plans tree as well as a quick access button in the overview tab. For versatility, we gave you a couple options for moving plans into folders

• Option 1: You can drag and drop plans from the overview tab into folders in the plans tree, 
• Option 2: Or you can drag plans from the overview tab to the quick access buttons in the overview tab. 
• Option 3: You can even drag and drop an entire folder. 

Once plans are added to the folders, our users have the ability to quickly scroll to the folder on the 'Overview' tab.  You can do this two different ways:

1.  To scroll from the 'Plans' tree, click the folder name and the 'Overview' tab will scroll to the location of the folder.  
2.  To scroll to from the 'Overview tab', click the quick access button and the tab will scroll to the location of the folder. 

Measuring 

Once you have your plans organized, you are ready to get started on your takeoffs.  When you find a plan to measure, click 'New Takeoff' and select the measurement type for the material you want to measure.

The takeoff name is what you are wanting to measure (e.g. 12" Tile). You can add an optional description and then Create Takeoff.

Once created, you will have the ability to change the pre-selected appearance, add an item/assembly, or duplicate the takeoff. Click Start Measuring to begin measuring your materials.

Move the mouse over to the plan page. Click once to start measuring, click once for each turn, and double click to finish.  You can continue to measure on the page (or other pages).  When finished, click 'End'.  You can create a new takeoff for your next measurement, or see your values in the Reports section.  You will want to create a New Takeoff for everything you want to measure in the project.  You can re-start an existing takeoff by clicking the arrow icon, or click the ellipse for more options.

Tips & Tricks 
Here are some best practices to follow when measuring:

Viewing plan pages
To zoom in and out you, use your mouse scroll wheel. If you hold down on the left button of your mouse, you can also drag your cursor to pull the screen around.

Once you have completed your takeoffs STACK offers many reports, and also the ability to tailor the grouping of your data. Let's start with the basics.

In total, STACK offers 7 Reports.  3 reports for measurements, and 4 reports for materials. Any of the reports can be grouped in various ways. Start by clicking on the Reports in the upper menu. The list of reports will be listed on the left side of the screen. Click each one to access the report. The report name will be listed at the top of each report. 

Summary of each report:

Takeoff Quantity Report:  Report focusing on the primary measurement type.

Takeoff Summary Report:  Report showing the primary measurements, along with any secondary measurements.

Measurements by Takeoff Report: Report shows each individual geometry for each takeoff.

The following reports are available if you use items and assemblies:

Item List Report:  A material list for the project, without pricing.

Item Cost Report:  An unformatted material list for the project, with pricing.

Item Cost by Type Report:  A project wide report formatted by cost type.

Item Cost by Takeoff Report: A report showing materials and pricing for each takeoff in the project.

Viewing the Data: 

Columns:  Deselect any of the columns you do not want visible in the report.

Grouping:  Allows you to group by plan page, or any two label groups that have been defined.

Expand:  Breakout grouped data into individual rows.

Row Filters: Use to filter the report data. Expand the data first to see only what you filtered by.

Excel:  When exporting to Excel, the report will always export as seen on the screen. Exporting a CSV will yield all the raw data for the project.