Sets that keep changing
Drawings reissued through design and construction, each issue moving quantities that have already been priced.
AI for heavy civil estimating: quantities, revisions, changes
AI for heavy civil and infrastructure estimating does one thing a spreadsheet cannot: it keeps every quantity, earthworks, structures, drainage and linear works, tied to the drawing revision it was measured on, so that when the set is reissued the change is a list of moved quantities rather than a fresh measure, and a change order or a payment application can be justified against the contract line by line. Mirage runs that for civil contractors; Rouandi, a civil engineering firm, runs one estimating workflow on live projects.
Where the time goes on civil and infrastructure work
Long projects, many issues of the same drawings, and a contract that every quantity eventually answers to.
Changes to justify
A change has to be traced to the drawing, the clause and the quantity that created it before it can be claimed or agreed.
Quantities across hundreds of sheets
Earthworks, structures and linear works measured across plans, sections and details, then checked again at every issue.
Payment against the contract
Applications for payment checked against contract quantities and approved changes, line by line, by hand.
What Mirage runs for civil and infrastructure contractors
Every result carries the revision it came from. That is what lets a quantity survive the next issue of the drawings.
Drawing revision comparison
Two drawing sets compared in full: what was added, removed or modified, where it sits, and what it changes in the quantities.
Change orders
Each change traced back to the drawings, specification clauses, contract scope and quantities that created it.
Takeoff and estimating
Drawing sets measured, quantities structured around your bill of quantities and cost codes, each tied to its drawing and revision.
Pay applications
Applications for payment and subcontractor invoices checked against the contract, the quantities and the approved changes.
Civil quantities: what is measured, from which drawing, and what moves between revisions
The quantity types a civil estimate is built from, where each one is read, and what a reissued set usually changes. Every quantity carries its revision, so the third column is a list, not a re-measure.
| Quantity | Measured from | What a revision typically moves | Checked against |
|---|---|---|---|
| Earthworks: strip, excavate, fill by class | Plans, long and cross sections, geotechnical notes | Formation levels, batter slopes, extents of a platform | The pay item or bill item, and the previous revision's figure |
| Structures: concrete, reinforcement, formwork | General arrangement and reinforcement drawings, bar schedules | Member sizes, bar marks, a schedule that no longer matches the drawing | The bar schedule against the drawing; the previous revision |
| Drainage and utilities | Drainage layouts, long sections, manhole and chamber schedules | Invert levels, pipe runs rerouted, chamber types | The schedule against the layout; counts against the plan |
| Linear works: kerbs, barriers, fencing, pavement layers | Plans, typical cross sections, pavement schedules | Chainage limits, layer thicknesses, a typical section applied to a new length | Chainage against the plan; the previous revision |
| Pay applications and changes | Contract bill, approved changes, measured record | Nothing: this is where the moved quantities are priced and justified | Contract quantities and approved changes, line by line |
Illustrative of the quantity types, not of any client's project. Volumes from a digital ground model and unit-rate build-ups stay in your estimating software; Mirage feeds it.
In production at Rouandi
Rouandi is a civil engineering and construction firm. Clients in civil and infrastructure also include Flatiron Dragados and Green Infrastructure Partners.
- Scope
- One real workflow already running inside the team's estimating process, on live projects, rather than a broad roll-out.
- Review
- Every output went through Rouandi's team before it was used. Their corrections adjusted the system before the next document.
- Now
- The workflow runs inside Rouandi's estimating process, not as a pilot beside it, and five or more team members were trained along the way.
Every result can be checked against its source.
A quantity your team cannot verify is a quantity nobody will use. Each result Mirage returns carries the reference it came from, and your estimators and engineers review it against the original before it reaches a bid, a cost system or a project workflow.
- Quantity
- The drawing, sheet, element and revision it was measured on.
- Conflict
- The specification clause and the drawing that disagree.
- Revision
- The two sets compared, and each element added, removed or modified.
- Bid line
- The quotation line and the scope item it is compared with.
- Sign-off
- The person who validated it before it was used.
Questions from civil and infrastructure contractors
Yes. Two drawing sets are compared in full: what was added, removed or modified, where it sits, and what it changes in the quantities. Each quantity keeps the revision it was measured on.
It traces each change back to the drawings, specification clauses, contract scope and quantities that created it, so the references are in one place. Your commercial team still builds and agrees the change.
It measures what the drawings show: areas and lengths from plans and sections, counts from schedules, cross-section areas where sections are drawn, each tied to its sheet. Cut and fill volumes from a ground model, unit-rate build-ups and the pay-item structure stay with your estimators and your software; Mirage feeds them, it does not replace them.
Quantities are structured around the bill of quantities or pay-item schedule you price in, so each measured quantity lands against the item it is paid under. At application for payment, the measured record is what the certified quantity is checked against.
A proof of concept on your own documents one week after the first meeting, then the first workflow in production in 4 to 6 weeks. The pilot is fixed-price and you can stop after it.
Project management and document control platforms such as Procore and Autodesk Construction Cloud, estimating spreadsheets, ERP and accounting systems such as SAP, Oracle and Sage, and scheduling software. Where a documented interface exists, Mirage connects to it; where none exists, our engineers build the connector during deployment. Nothing is migrated.
Bring us the operation you need to improve.
Mirage will map the workflow, identify what can be automated and define the fastest path to production.
Start with a written plan
Tell us where your team loses time. We send back which workflows are worth automating, what a deployment involves on your systems and the shortest path to production. No commitment.