FEATURE FOCUS FASTEST STAYS AHEAD OF THE CURVE IN SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY Since 1995, FastEST has provided contractors with fast, accurate, and effective software to streamline the estimating process. Manual counting and takeoffs are now easily done right on your computer screen, with quick and easy highlighting of piping and ductwork. An integrated database of material costs and labour hours allows you to scratch the extra step of taking off your final quantity counts and transposing them to a separate pricing/labour sheet. In FastDUCT and FastPIPE, it’s as simple as a click of the Recalculate button, and in a few seconds, you have a full quantified material cost and labour hour total for any given bid. Then, send it to the final spreadsheet to quickly add any other costs, and tack on the necessary markup on the estimate. It’s as simple as that. As Microsoft continues to develop new operating systems, FastEST, Inc. continues to stay ahead of the curve, testing and adapting to new versions of Windows within the FastDUCT and FastPIPE programs. As graphic technology advances, in ways like the release of UHD and 4K monitors, FastEST makes sure that our intuitive on-screen takeoff remains adaptable to these new, cutting-edge displays.
The FastEST program database has always been a proprietary, in-house format that we developed over two decades ago. It is not SQL-based, which results in much-improved performance compared to other competing estimating products. As contractor companies continue to move towards networked and cloudbased environments, our fast and easy catalogue format yields excellent performance over these shared environments. As always, one of FastEST’s most beneficial tools is the ability to directly import digital project plans right into the program for fast and easy on-screen takeoffs. We continue to fine-tune and improve on all of the on-screen related takeoff tools, including the ability to import a wide variety of file formats (PDF, .tif, .jpg, and .bmp, among others), easily revised plan replacement, plan overlay for comparisons, and much more. To find out more about FastEST and how we’ve helped thousands of HVAC and mechanical contractors improve their estimating process, visit our website at https://fastest-inc.com. You can watch videos of our latest and greatest program versions in action. You can also contact us at 800-828-7108, or email us at mike@fastest-inc.com. ■
British Columbia
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Sheet Metal Journal
