State-of-the-Art Contractor: Magic Act

If you’re looking for simple-to-use unit price estimating software for either the Mac or Windows, try Bid Magic from Turtle Creek. Like its predecessor, HyperEstimator, Bid Magic blends a liberal use of icons with task-specific screens, called cards, that lead users stepby- step through the building process. The program performs an estimate using quantities and costs that are calculated from information entered on several general information cards. The first card, called Basic Costs, stores information on contingency percentages (called “fudge factors”), geographic location, and construction quality (Figure 1). In the section called Locality Factor, for example, three different icons indicate pricing defaults for three different markets. Relatively inexpensive rural construction is represented by a log cabin icon; suburban costs, by a