Guide · Estimating workflow
From a model MTO to Trimble Estimation MEP: getting quantities into your pricing tool
Short answer: there is no button that sends a Navisworks model into Trimble Estimation MEP, and Metriq MTO does not have a Trimble integration. The bridge that works is a line-based Excel MTO in a schema you control, mapped once to the columns your pricing tool expects and checked before a single rate is applied. Get the sheet right and the import is the easy part.
Why estimators price in a pricing tool
Quantities and prices are different jobs. A take-off tells you how many metres of 2-inch carbon steel and how many 90° elbows the job needs. A pricing tool tells you what those cost to buy and to install. In UK building services, Trimble Estimation MEP and the wider Trimble estimating range are built around a priced library — Trimble’s LUCKINS database, which Trimble describes as holding over 500,000 HVAC, electrical and plumbing items with material and labour data. Causeway Estimating and RIB CostX play a similar role for many QS teams.
That library is the reason estimators stay in the tool: the labour norms, supplier discounts and the firm’s own adjustments live there, built up over years. Nobody sensible rebuilds that in a spreadsheet. Trimble Estimation MEP’s own take-off is built mainly around 2D drawings. When the quantities instead come from a 3D model — usually a Navisworks NWD federation — the take-off happens somewhere else, and the question becomes how to land those numbers in the library cleanly.
What the MTO needs before it goes anywhere
Whatever import route your version offers — a spreadsheet import, a pasted range, or line-by-line entry — check its documentation or ask the vendor’s support. The route varies by product and release. What does not vary is that a pricing tool can only match rows that are consistent. Before mapping anything, make sure the MTO has:
- Consistent descriptions or item codes.“90 ELL LR”, “Elbow 90 long radius” and “LR 90” are one item to you and three to a matching rule. Pick one vocabulary and hold every row to it.
- Nominal sizes, not raw dimensions.Price libraries are keyed on nominal bore. An outside diameter in millimetres, or a bare “40” that could be a bore, a schedule or a pressure class, will not match reliably.
- Two sizes on reducing fittings. A reducing tee or reducer with a blank second size cannot be priced or ordered, and the row looks complete enough that nobody notices.
- One unit per item type. Pipe in metres; elbows, tees, flanges and valves as each. Mixed units in one column are the most common cause of a quantity that imports cleanly and prices wrongly.
- Material or spec, and the line. Carbon and stainless at the same size are different rates. Keeping the line or system name lets you break the priced bid down the same way the model is built, and trace a query back to a run.
Much of this is decided upstream: the model has to publish class, size and length before any tool can report them. Our Navisworks piping take-off guide covers what to check in the model itself.
Mapping the columns
Do the mapping once, write it down, and reuse it on every job. A typical piping MTO maps to an estimating import like this — your tool’s field names will differ, so read the right-hand column as intent, not as labels:
| MTO column | What the pricing tool uses it for | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Item code / description | Matching to a library item | One vocabulary; no free text |
| Nominal size | Selecting the size variant | Inches vs DN; second size on reducers |
| Quantity | Extending material and labour | Numbers stored as text |
| Unit | Must agree with the library unit | Metres vs stock lengths; mm vs m |
| Material / spec | Choosing the right rate | Blank cells default silently |
| Line / system | Sections, headings or cost breakdown | Keep it even if you do not import it |
Keep the MTO’s own sheet untouched and do any conversion in a separate mapping sheet. When a revision lands two days before the bid, you want to drop the new MTO in and re-run the same mapping, not repeat a morning of hand edits.
Check the totals before you price
The import is where good quantities quietly go wrong. Before any rates are applied:
- Count the rows. The number of lines in the pricing tool should equal the number of rows you exported. A difference means rows were dropped or merged on the way in.
- Compare metres per nominal size. Total pipe by size band in the tool against the same figures in the MTO summary. Band-by-band agreement is far stronger evidence than a matching grand total.
- List the unmatched items. Anything the tool could not match to a library item needs a decision now, not after the price is out.
- Look at what the take-off could not measure. Items the model did not evidence should stay visible as a risk or a provisional sum, not disappear because they had no quantity.
- Check for duplicates upstream. If the federation carried the same run twice, the import faithfully prices it twice. See duplicate pipes in federated models and zero-length pipes in Navisworks.
Where Metriq MTO fits — and where it stops
Metriq MTO does the take-off half. You upload a Navisworks NWD of up to 300 MB, choose which source models belong in the bid, and download a line-based piping MTO in your client’s own Excel schema: pipe in metres, fittings and valves as each, duplicate objects across the federation counted once, and every row traceable to the model object it came from. Items the model cannot evidence are listed on their own, never invented. The workbook is editable and in your column order, with an evidence report alongside it.
On a subscription (£200 a month excluding VAT) your MTO template is mirrored in the first month — code vocabulary and net/gross convention — so the sheet arrives already shaped for your mapping. A single file (£100 excluding VAT) is measured with the rulebook and schema as they stand. Either way, the pricing stays in your estimating tool; Metriq MTO hands you a sheet that maps cleanly into it.
Questions estimators ask
Does Metriq MTO integrate with Trimble Estimation MEP?
No. There is no direct integration. Metriq MTO produces an Excel workbook in your client’s own schema and column order, and you bring that into your estimating tool through whatever import or paste route your version supports.
What columns does a pricing tool need from an MTO?
At minimum: a consistent description or item code, a nominal size (two sizes for reducing fittings), a quantity, a unit, and the material or spec. A line or system column is worth keeping so the priced bid can be broken down the same way the model is.
Should pipe be in metres or in lengths?
A model take-off gives pipe in metres and fittings and valves as each. If your price library holds pipe per stock length rather than per metre, convert once, deliberately, and write the factor next to the column so the next person can check it.
How do I check the quantities survived the import?
Compare the row count and the pipe metres per nominal size in the estimating tool against the same figures in the MTO before any rates are applied. Matching grand totals are not enough, because two errors can cancel out.
Upload one NWD and get a line-based piping MTO in your client’s own Excel schema, with the evidence behind every row — ready to map into the tool you already price in.