Measure work site dimensions
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 | 14 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 14 occupations that perform it.
- Locate, measure, and mark site locations or placement of structures or equipment, using measuring and marking equipment.
- Take measurements and study floor sketches to calculate the area to be carpeted and the amount of material needed.
- Measure and mark surfaces to be tiled, following blueprints.
- Measure, mark, or record openings or distances to layout areas where construction work will be performed.
- Measure surfaces or review work orders to estimate the quantities of materials needed.
- Measure dimensions and verify level, alignment, or elevation of structures or fixtures to ensure compliance to building plans and codes.
- Measure and lay out fence lines and mark posthole positions, following instructions, drawings, or specifications.
- Measure and mark locations for installation of markers, using tape, string, or chalk.
- Measure excavation sites, using plumbers' snakes, tapelines, or lengths of cutting heads within sewers, and mark areas for digging.
- Count sections of drill rod to determine depths of boreholes.
- Interpret instrument readings to ascertain the depth of obstruction.
- Verify depths and alignments of boring positions.
- Measure depths of drilled blast holes, using weighted tape measures.
- Lower anchor poles to verify depths of excavations, using winches, or scan depth gauges to determine depths of excavations.
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
14 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Carpet Installers
- Construction and Building Inspectors
- Construction Laborers
- Dredge Operators
- Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas
- Explosives Workers, Ordnance Handling Experts, and Blasters
- Fence Erectors
- First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers
- Highway Maintenance Workers
- Paperhangers
- Rotary Drill Operators, Oil and Gas
- Septic Tank Servicers and Sewer Pipe Cleaners
- Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas
- Tile and Stone Setters
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Assess characteristics of land or property”. 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.