Measure materials or objects for installation or assembly
Most of the output can be produced by software today.
Software can pull the data, run the comparison and write up what it found. The accuracy depends almost entirely on whether it is wired into the real system of record rather than a stale copy, which is the problem the tools and auth layer exists to solve.
| How automatable | Mostly automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Analysis and evaluation work |
| Jobs that do it | 19 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | Builders, Tools and auth |
| O*NET activity | Estimating the Quantifiable Characteristics of Products, Events, or Information (4.A.1.b.3) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 19 occupations that perform it.
- Locate and mark reference points for columns or plates on boiler foundations, following blueprints and using straightedges, squares, transits, or measuring instruments.
- Measure distance from reference points and mark guidelines to lay out work, using plumb bobs and levels.
- Measure and mark cutting lines on materials, using a ruler, pencil, chalk, and marking gauge.
- Roll out, measure, mark, and cut carpeting to size with a carpet knife, following floor sketches and allowing extra carpet for final fitting.
- Measure and mark guidelines on surfaces or foundations, using chalk lines and dividers.
- Measure and cut metal lath to size for walls and ceilings, using tin snips.
- Measure designated amounts of ingredients for terrazzo or grout, according to standard formulas and specifications, using graduated containers and scales, and load ingredients into portable mixer.
- Measure and mark surfaces to lay out work, according to blueprints or drawings, using tape measures, straightedges or squares, and marking devices.
- Measure mirrors and dimensions of areas to be covered to determine work procedures.
- Measure and cut insulation for covering surfaces, using tape measures, handsaws, power saws, knives, or scissors.
- Measure and cut insulation for covering surfaces, using tape measures, handsaws, knives, and scissors.
- Measure and cut strips from rolls of wallpaper or fabric, using shears or razors.
- Locate and mark the position of pipe installations, connections, passage holes, or fixtures in structures, using measuring instruments such as rulers or levels.
- Lay out, measure, and mark dimensions and reference lines on material, such as roofing panels, using calculators, scribes, dividers, squares, or rulers.
- Perform tie spacing layout and measure, mark, drill or cut.
- Measure, cut, and bend wire and conduit, using measuring instruments and hand tools.
- Measure, cut, thread and assemble new pipe, placing the assembled pipe in hangers or other supports.
- Weigh clay, and mix with water and chemicals to make drilling mud, using portable mixers.
What we would actually use
One recommendation rather than a shortlist, because a shortlist is just your problem handed back. This is what we would buy for analysis and evaluation work, and what it costs.
Start in the assistant with an export of the real data, because the accuracy problem here is a stale copy rather than a weak model. Make, at $9 a month, is the cheapest way to put the pull on a schedule once the analysis is worth repeating.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
The rest of the category
Context, not alternatives to weigh up. We name the layer rather than promise a named product does your specific task.
Matched from the kind of work, not from vendor marketing. Check any of them can reach the system your records actually live in — that connection, not the model, is where these projects stall.
How people actually do it
No workflow names this activity yet, but these automate the same kind of work, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Who does this work
19 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Boilermakers
- Brickmasons and Blockmasons
- Carpenters
- Carpet Installers
- Derrick Operators, Oil and Gas
- Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installers
- Floor Layers, Except Carpet, Wood, and Hard Tiles
- Glaziers
- Helpers--Carpenters
- Helpers--Electricians
- Helpers--Pipelayers, Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters
- Insulation Workers, Floor, Ceiling, and Wall
- Insulation Workers, Mechanical
- Paperhangers
- Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters
- Rotary Drill Operators, Oil and Gas
- Sheet Metal Workers
- Terrazzo Workers and Finishers
- Tile and Stone Setters
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Measure physical characteristics of materials, products, or equipment”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.