BIM quantities pivot: model quantities by level, category and material
A BIM quantities pivot is how I look at a model's quantities from several angles before any of them goes into a bill of quantities. In AiN Engine, the software I develop and work with, that job is done by three sheets inside the full BOQ window. This page is for anyone who prepares or checks a bill of quantities from a model: what each sheet shows, what it gives you and where its limits are.
What you see: three sheets in the workbook
The three sheets are tabs of the full BOQ window, so you can look at the quantities another way without leaving the bill of quantities.
- Pivot: free grouping of the model quantities by category, family, type and level, in the style of Navisworks.
- Multi-Material: a materials table with the material type in the rows and the levels in the columns, showing area, volume or count, with filters by category and level.
- Multi-Quantity: a total for every combination of category and level in a suitable unit (square metres, cubic metres or units), with a checkbox on every row and a way to add rows to the bill of quantities.
Each of the three sheets has an export. Like every file download in AiN, it needs an active subscription.
The Pivot sheet: a BIM quantities pivot by category, family, type and level
The Pivot tab does one thing. It groups the model quantities by the fields you choose, category, family, type and level, and shows a total for each group. If you have worked with Navisworks, the logic will feel familiar. Even in the compact view of the BOQ window, which keeps only two tabs, the Pivot is one of them, next to the bill of quantities.
In my own work, a BIM quantities pivot is the first check on a new model. I group by level and check that floors which should be identical give similar totals. Then I group by type and look for types I did not expect, such as a wall type that appears once in the whole building. A difference like that is not always a mistake, but it is a question worth asking before the number reaches the bill.
Material, level and unit: Multi-Material and Multi-Quantity
In the Multi-Material sheet, the rows are the material types in the model and the columns are the levels. Each cell holds an area, a volume or a count, and you can filter by category and by level. It answers a simple question quickly: how much of each material is on each floor, as modelled.
The Multi-Quantity sheet takes one more step towards the bill. It sums every combination of category and level in the unit that suits it, with a checkbox next to each row. The rows you tick can be added to the bill of quantities or dragged into it. A row added this way is a starting point, and the checking and the approval happen in the bill of quantities itself.
In the bill of quantities, every quantity carries a label that says where it came from: the model, the pivot, manual entry and others. I wrote about those labels and about approval on the quantity audit trail page.
Missing is not zero
In the bill of quantities a missing value is shown as missing, not as zero, and the quantity takeoff does the same with missing lengths. A total that counts a wall with no area as zero looks complete and is not. A total that tells you how many elements are missing a value tells you what to check before you rely on it.
A fourth view, the category dashboard, is currently in the Hebrew interface only. It shows totals for the whole model and a warning count of elements that have no area or no volume: they are shown and counted, but not summed.
What it gives you, and how I use it
- A view by level before the bill: differences between similar floors show up early, while it is still easy to ask the designer.
- Materials by level in one table: no need to build it by hand from a model export.
- From a total to a line in the bill: a Multi-Quantity row goes into the bill of quantities with its unit.
- Quick answers in one place: how much, where and of what, without leaving the BOQ window.
- Load the model. The BOQ window opens when processing finishes, and you can also open it from the BOQ button in the top bar.
- Open the Pivot tab and group by level, then by type. Note anything that looks out of place.
- In Multi-Material, check the materials level by level.
- In Multi-Quantity, tick the rows you need and add them to the bill.
- In the bill of quantities, check each line, complete what is missing and approve. If you need the tables outside the software, export them to Excel with an active subscription.
What these sheets do not do. They sum what was modelled, as it was modelled. They do not convert quantities to the project's measurement rules, they do not add what was never modelled, and they do not decide which item a quantity belongs to. Those decisions stay with whoever prepares the bill.
The pivot is one window among several. The full picture is on the BOQ software page, and the data behind each element is on the BIM data extraction page. I am Yaakov Avital, a quantity surveyor, and I develop AiN out of my own work on bills of quantities.
Frequently asked questions
What is a BIM quantities pivot, in plain words?
A table that groups the same quantities by a field you choose, such as level, category, type or material, and shows a total for each group. Same data, another angle. In AiN the data comes from the model you loaded.
How is the pivot different from the quantity takeoff?
The takeoff shows a detailed table of element groups with their category, type, level and measurements. The pivot lets you choose how to group and shows totals. I use both, and I wrote about the takeoff on the Revit quantity takeoff page.
Can I download the tables to Excel?
Yes. Each of the three sheets has an export, and downloading files from AiN needs an active subscription. For the bill of quantities itself, see export BOQ to Excel.
Is the category dashboard available in English?
It is currently in the Hebrew interface only. The three sheets described on this page are available in both interfaces.
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.