Naming Takeoff Items
Why two extra seconds on a name pays off in better AI-suggested assemblies.
Naming Items Well
Item names drive the AI assembly suggestions you’ll see later in Cost build-up. Spend the extra two seconds at takeoff time.
The rule
- “GF slab” → vague suggestions, you’ll scroll the picker.
- “Ground floor 150mm reinforced slab” → the right assembly is in the top three.
What a good name contains
Pack three things into the name where you can:
- Where — Ground Floor, Roof, Corridor 2.4.
- What — Reinforced slab, Painted wall, Copper pipework.
- Spec — 150 mm, Two-coat, 22 mm.
So instead of “Slab”, write “Ground Floor — 150 mm Reinforced Slab” (or the example used elsewhere in these docs, “100mm reinforced concrete slab”). The picker has more to match against and the AI suggestion is far more likely to be right first time.
Why it matters
Every wrong-suggestion picked manually costs 5–10 seconds. Across a 150-line takeoff that’s 15+ minutes of friction you avoid by spending two seconds per item name up front.