Export BOQ to Excel, in the standard you choose
To export BOQ to Excel in AiN Engine, you open the File menu of the bill of quantities window. The Hebrew export follows the Israeli standard, and the English export follows the standard chosen in Settings: CSI MasterFormat for US English or NRM2 for UK English. One thing I want to say plainly from the start: file downloads in AiN are for subscribers, and every export to a file needs an active subscription.
What you see in the File menu
I am Yaakov Avital, a quantity surveyor who also develops AiN. In my own work the deliverable is a bill of quantities in Excel that can go out to contractors for pricing, so the File menu is where the window finishes its job.
The menu sits in the menu row of the bill of quantities window, next to Edit, View and Data. These are the options it offers:
- Hebrew Excel: an export in the chapter structure of the Israeli standard.
- English Excel: an export in the standard chosen in Settings, CSI MasterFormat or NRM2.
- Contractor template: a separate Excel export in a template meant for contractors.
- Excel with evidence: an export that carries the evidence behind the quantities.
- Export to an external client: a view of the bill instead of a file, described further down.
- Save and load: saving the project and loading a saved bill of quantities. Both need you to be signed in.
How to export BOQ to Excel in your standard
The standard is set in the Settings menu on the top bar of AiN. It offers three pairs of language and standard: Hebrew with the Israeli standard, English (US) with CSI MasterFormat, and English (UK) with NRM2. The choice sets both the interface language and the item structure, and the English export follows the standard you picked.
The file itself is built from the bill of quantities in the window: chapters, items, units and quantities.
In practice, choose the standard by who will receive the file. A tender in Israel goes out in Hebrew, in the chapter structure used here. A client or consultant who works in English gets one of the other two, and it is worth asking which one before the export, because moving between standards is more than translating headings.
The bill of quantities window page walks through the chapters, rows and approval column you export from, and the page on BOQ standards and language covers the settings side.
Exporting one table instead of the whole bill
You do not always need the whole bill. Many tables in AiN carry a small Export to Excel chip that downloads the table on screen in one click. That helps when someone needs one part of the data rather than the full workbook.
For more flexible work there is the Data Table window. It opens by itself when rows arrive from the bill of quantities and behaves like a spreadsheet: sort, filter, add a column, write your own formulas, then export. For quantities grouped by category, family, type and level, see the page on quantity pivots.
Other windows have their own exports as well. Clash Detection results and the Raw Data Explorer download to Excel, and the Calculation sheet inside the bill of quantities exports to CSV. These are downloads too, so they also need an active subscription.
A client who only needs to look
Sometimes a client does not need a file, only a way to go through the bill of quantities and ask questions. The File menu has an export to an external client, which sends the bill to a separate BOQ Viewing Platform. The client signs in there with a username and sees the bill read-only, without full access to the app.
To me the advantage is that you can share the bill without opening your whole workspace to the client, and without adding one more Excel copy to the e-mail thread.
How to use it, step by step
- Choose the language and standard in the Settings menu on the top bar.
- Open the bill of quantities with the BOQ button. When a model finishes processing, the window also opens by itself.
- Go over the rows before you export BOQ to Excel. A row the model has nothing for carries a grey no-quantity chip, and a missing value is shown as missing, never as zero. Complete those rows with manual edits that stay labelled.
- In the File menu, pick the export: Hebrew, English, contractor template or Excel with evidence.
- For a single table, use the Export to Excel chip on it, or the export button of the Data Table.
Downloads are for subscribers: every file download from AiN, Excel or any other file type, needs an active subscription. Saving and loading a bill of quantities need you to be signed in. I prefer to say this openly, so anyone building a bill in AiN knows in advance what it takes to get the file in hand.
All the windows of the software are collected on the BOQ software page.
Frequently asked questions
Can I export BOQ to Excel without a subscription?
No. Every file download from AiN needs an active subscription. That covers the full bill, a single table and the sheets inside the bill of quantities.
Is the English export a translation of the Hebrew one?
No. It follows the standard chosen in Settings, CSI MasterFormat or NRM2, so its item structure is different as well. Choose the standard before you export, not after.
Does the client need access to the app to see the bill?
Not full access. With the export to an external client, they sign in to the viewing platform with a username and see the bill read-only. If they need a file, you export Excel for them.
What happens to rows without a quantity?
In the window they carry the no-quantity chip, and missing values are shown as missing, not as zero. Complete them or write a note on the row, so whoever receives the file knows what is still open.
Want to see AiN on your own model? The AiN Engine site has the demo video, the pilot for one project and the login. For quantity surveying work in Israel, write to me through the form.
AiN Engine website Contact form* Created with AI for marketing, for illustration only. Not reviewed by Yaakov Avital and not professional advice. Every project must be checked on its own by a professional quantity surveyor and an engineer.