Civil Works Quantity Surveying and Estimation with PlanSwift

Explore the basic quantity surveying course, its agenda and topics, learn the quantity surveying concept, responsibilities, and opportunities, and follow the recommended sequence led by Sadie Cohen.

Discover how a quantity surveyor acts as the project cost expert, estimating materials, labour, machinery, and time to support early feasibility and budgeting from concept to completion.

Explore the diverse roles of a quantity surveyor, from measurement and costing to coordination, documentation, tendering, budgeting, value engineering, and cost control across construction projects.

Identify essential math, economics, project management, construction law, and software skills for SHS quantity surveyors, and develop interpersonal, administrative, and communication abilities to excel in practice.

Explore three pathways to become a quantity surveyor: university degree, apprenticeship, or starting as a technician with part-time study, plus certifications like Rics and Ikz.

Explore job opportunities for quantity surveyors across architecture, civil, MEP, and infrastructure. Learn salary expectations, chartered status advantages, and how to find remote or freelance work on Indeed and LinkedIn.

Learn construction technology and the science behind building components. Understand three project types: building construction, civil engineering, and building services, and apply these insights to quantity surveying takeoff.

Explore the document checklist for a quantity surveyor, covering pre-contract and post-contract documents, feasibility studies, bill of quantities, preliminaries, specifications, schedules, procurement, tendering, variations, claims, and final account.

Explore PlanSwift, the leading quantity surveying software, for fast takeoffs from drawings. Learn workflow essentials, including CAD/pdf support, scale setting, Excel integration, and variation drawing comparisons.

Download and install Planswift to support civil works quantity surveying and estimation, enabling efficient takeoffs, budgeting, and project estimation workflows.

Master PlanSwift by creating projects, importing drawings, setting horizontal and vertical scales, and performing area, linear, and count takeoffs across CAD, PDF, and image files.

Learn how a bill of quantity guides cost and tendering by listing item descriptions, units, quantities, rates, and amounts, following standards for preliminaries, main work, and provisional sums.

Learn to perform earthwork takeoffs from drawings using plan shift templates, calculating excavation, backfill, disposal, and raft foundation quantities while reading the drawings for foundation and soil details.

Learn concrete takeoff using PlanSwift: calculate raft, ground beams, neck column, walls, cores, slabs, stairs, and ramps with area and volume methods, including necessary subtractions.

Perform formwork quantity takeoffs (shuttering) for foundations, columns, beams, slabs, and more using PlanSwift, with concepts from master format and nm2 and practical templates.

Explore the all-in rate calculation sheet for civil works, learning how to derive a single unit rate from material, machinery, and manpower, plus project-specific factors.

Master steel takeoffs by using the bar bending schedule and drawings to calculate top and bottom mesh, extra reinforcement, and columns, beams, and stirrups for foundations and slabs.

Practice what you learn, download drawings, and use lifetime access to grow with updates after completing lessons to earn a certificate and explore broader quantity surveying opportunities.