Quantity take‑offs that update with your MEP model

Report Inappropriate Content · ‎2026-03-18

What is an Interactive Schedule?

An Interactive Schedule is a live list generated directly from your model. It shows your ducts, pipes, fittings, and equipment, and it updates automatically whenever the model changes.

This means:

Live quantities – Lengths, counts, and other values always match the current model.
Less manual work – You do not need to recount items after every design change.
Better ordering – You can quickly see what you need at each design stage and prepare documentation or quantity take-offs.

In MEP Designer, interactive schedules are usually created as Element Schedules, which list individual elements and their properties. These schedules stay linked to the 3D model.

+ Select schedule items on Floor Plan/3D by clicking on Select on Floor Plan/Select in 3D icon in the left upper corner

Create your first element schedule

Follow these steps to create a basic element schedule:

Go to Document > Schedules > Scheme Settings
Click Scheme Settings from the opened schedule window.
Click New.
Choose Element Schedule.
Give it a simple name and ID.

Define Criteria – Decide which elements appear

The Criteria section controls which elements are listed in your schedule.

Choose what to list, for example Pipe Segment or Duct Segment.
Use the Open Parentheses and Close Parentheses columns of Scheme Settings to build more complex, nested criteria.
To list multiple Element Types, join them with an OR statement (for example: Pipe Segment OR Duct Segment).

Set Up Fields – Decide which columns appear

The Fields section controls the columns in your schedule.

Choose what to show, for example: Element ID, MEP System, Size, Length, Material etc.
Click OK.
In the Navigator, double-click the schedule name to open it.

Adjust cell size

Click the cell size icon at the top of the schedule to open the dialogue box.
Use the Resize button to automatically fit rows and columns to content, or enter custom width and height values.
Manually drag cell boundaries on the top and left side of the schedule to set row heights.
Double-click a row or column edge to auto-fit its contents.
Hide rows or columns using the eye icon, or by setting the row height or column width to 0

To adjust zoom, use the pop-up from the bottom scroll bar, or click "Fit to Width" to fit the schedule to the current window.

Sort and calculate data

Once the schedule is created, you can control how data is ordered and summarized.

Change the order of the rows:

Click the Up arrow to sort a field from small to large (or A to Z).
Click the Down arrow to sort a field from large to small (or Z to A).
Leave the sort symbol blank if you do not want to sort by that specific field.

These icons help you calculate and clean up the schedule view:

In the Fields panel of "Scheme Settings": choose the fields whose values you want to add up/count items/subdivide these into “Totals”.

Symbol	What it does
Σ	Adds values together
Σ1	Counts items
Flag	Creates subtotals by category

Examples:

Count fittings ➜ Σ1 on ID/Name ➜ Number of fittings
Pipe take-off ➜ Σ icon to pipe length ➜ One total length at the bottom of the schedule
Total pipe length per system ➜ Flag + Σ ➜ Subtotals for each system

Format and clean up

Click the style buttons at the top to display fields in standard columns or form-like rows.
Group identical items by selecting the "Merge identical items" option. For each field in a merged schedule, you can define which value to display.
- For the merged field, open "Field Settings".
- Choose "Uniform value" to merge field contains uniform values. (eg. 5 identical pipe fittings become one row)
- Choose "Sum of values" to add up the values of the merged field. eg. Total length of similar pipes)
- Choose "List of values" to list each value separately. (eg. Different lengths listed together)
Under "Apply Format Options" on the right size change text size, make headers bold, or wrap long text so it stays inside the cell. Add background colors or cell borders to highlight important totals or headers.
- You can customize text, borders, and background color for each cell category (such as “totals” cells and “header” cells).
- From the "Format Options" popup, choose a cell category to format.
Hide zeros and dashes to remove unnecessary visual noise from empty cells by opening the "Field Settings"

Export the Interactive Schedule

Go to File in the top menu.
Select Save As.
Choose either Excel Workbook or Word Document as the file format.
Click Save to export your schedule data.

Practical Examples

Pipe Take‑Off

Criteria: Element Type is Pipe Rigid Segment
Fields: MEP System, DN, Diameter, Length
Total: Σ on Length.

Equipment Count.png

Equipment Count

Criteria: Element Type is Equipment
Fields: MEP System, Element ID, 3D Axonometry, Quantity
Total: Σ on Quantity

Duct ordering list

Criteria: Element Type is Duct Rigid Segment
Fields: MEP System, Length, Width, Height, DN, Custom field
Total: Flag on MEP System, Sum on Length