STACK Erfahrungen

OCR regonition makes searching drawings for keywords a breeze. Custom variables within the estimate module simplifies building an estimate.

The Stack team continually publishes important Stack Updates monthly; many of the cons I've seen over the last year have been resolved. With that said the lack of an UNDO function is a continual annoyance (I am told this fix is on the roadmap).

The trainer was knowledgeable and polite, but software itself was clunky and over complicated. Too many options with slight variations for the same things.

My experience with Stack’s customer service has been the worst I have ever encountered. I am a new business owner in the construction industry in Florida. We do have a good network of clients, but it is small, and I told the salesman that I only do a handful of new builds a year and I could not justify Stack’s high yearly rate. The “demo” for stack only comes with 10 measurements and he insisted I would see the value once I had full access the system. He also offered a 25% discount if I completed the sale with him on the phone (a tactic to push you into a rushed decision which I stupidly fell for). I said I would try it out and we went through the purchasing process. Again, feeling as though I was against the clock and trying to rush through while on the phone, I did not click the terms and conditions link. I was then set up for 3 trainings, each an hour long. A lot of training, for an easy-to-use program…After the first training it became abundantly clear this program would bring no value to my company. No harm no foul right? I contacted the Customer service rep and informed them that, as I thought, this program was not right for me, and I would like a refund. It was inside a week, and I had not produced anything close to a useable quote. I stay very busy, and do not have time to take classes on how to constantly update this software. I was contacted a day or so later by [SENSITIVE CONTENT] to inform me that, even though it is against their policy to issue ANY refunds

I began using STACK with an employer that I had worked for several years ago. The ease of use, accuracy, and stellar customer support for the times I really needed it is why I have also decided to use STACK to perform estimations on my own for side jobs and have brought it along with me to my current employer for daily bidding and material takeoff use. I couldn't imagine going back to pen and paper.

Since STACK is constantly improving and rolling out new updates, I can't think of anything off hand that could be added or improved. There have been a couple of times that I called in with requests that were actually implemented into STACK, which really speaks to their attention to their customers.

Takeoff is very easy to use, Assemblies feature is amazing and saves so much time once it is setup. I appreciate that the system is cloud based, this really makes things run much more smoothly and easily. Integrations with Dropbox and Google Drive are also helpful.

Organization of takeoffs could be improved. There is no undo button which sounds minimal but it can be extremely cumbersome at times. I also dislike that measurements can't be set to round to the nearest whole number - who honestly needs to measure down to a tenth of an inch shown in decimal format? These are really minor things in the overall user experience but annoying nonetheless. Overall I am very happy with Stack over alternative options for takeoff software.

Stack is, hands down, one of the simplest solutions I've found for doing takeoffs. Depending on the industry, it's possible it may be too simple, however for the purposes of drywall and paint it is perfect. Building assemblies in Stack really streamlines the whole takeoff process, saving a lot of time and headache when it comes down to the little details. It's also super easy to learn due to how uncomplicated Stack's tool and interface are. You can make things much more complicated for more detailed accuracy, but you don't have to.

I'd like a few more options when it comes to proposal generation, but this is still a fairly new feature within Stack. Being able to fine tune the formatting would be helpful.

The customer support is top notch with instant and clear replies with real people. The learning curve for creating takeoff's is very user friendly.

The proposal generation is limited on what you can show or customize with the layout.

I like that I'm able to work with my team on the same server from anywhere I am. The list of projects help us to keep everything together and I like that I can label the projects with my name and what stage they are. the color change to the tab helps me to find the projects I am bidding and ones that I can start on next.

The assemblies are very basic, I know how to code in java and in excel but the language to make the items for takeoffs are different just enough to aggravate me. I wish there were more mark up functions and that I could close folders to only see one folder of plans and also the ability to sort my open tabs. Another it the ability to open documents in different windows and they both sync without me having to tell it to. I have used on-screen take off and do find this program more user friendly but having used Bluebeam for takeoffs and to review documents, I find this program to be lacking. I like that its a separate program that you download and do not need internet to use. the tools that are available are more programable and you can duplicate you plans to use for more then just a takeoff or mark up.

The greatest feature is the ease of use. They kept it simple for the take-off, genius on the auto-save. Of course, the cloud-based feature. No more bringing home the laptop, cables, plans, specs. Quick uploads and tons of memory for those large jobs.

Had issues with Silverlight running on MAC in earlier versions. ( wasn't a huge deal and I believe when Stack took over they fixed the bugs).

I'd like to see options when drawing a linear measurement to have various dashes or hashes for lines would be helpful. For example, on other platforms I could indicate through-wall cf with a red dotted line while below do a solid line indicating another linear measurement such as expansion joint. You would then be able to visually identify to different terminations on the same linear measurement. Just a suggestion.

The catalog they push so highly is not suited for the real world. The software that they claim they have experts to support you with do not know how to resolve the problems. The support center plays the game of deny and delay, hoping you will figure it out on your own, or just stop calling. I was offered a 30 day trail which they now are not honoring and refusing to refund my money.

My team loves how easy the program is to use and track projects. The measuring and estimating capabilities of this program are fantastic.

I am displeased with the fact that several years ago we subscribed when the software was in its infancy and the rates seem to continue to take drastic jumps each time we are due for renewal. Additional, we spent countless hours a few years back to put in all the formulas for the assemblies program and after spending all the time to create them, when it was time for renewal if we wanted to keep access to all of "our" formulas we had to pay an additional fee to keep the work we created.

Takeoffs are quick, assemblies are easy to put together, it's very quick and easy to change what items and assemblies in a count. The main advantage for us is that we can have multiple people using the software at once.

Features I'd like to see are:
-adding assemblies to an assembly 'item group'
-simplify the process of creating an item>creating an assembly>creating a count takeoff
-customized icons for takeoff counts
-ability to lock (tick box) pricing in a proposal. once locked a new revision will be made if any variations are added
-ability to copy a project and make several versions of it, so the older revisions are superseded but still available for reflection
-ability to change pricing at the Estimate page for that specific project, without changing global pricing stack-wide
-ability to download proposals in more than .pdf. Eg word, excel
-ability to manage projects a little better. lots of unused space on the Projects screen. On the left you should have folders that organise my projects into 'Bidding, Bid submitted, Won, Lost etc'

Easy of use. Staff and support. Cloud based. Was able to seamlessly work while out of town.

Very slow uploads. Can lag heavily at times (we are using gigabit internet). Can be slow and frustrating while doing take offs from time to time. When updates are running you can't access your take-off system. No, "offline" option.

The program is easy to use out of the box/ The real magic is in the custom assemblies. You can create anything you're looking for. At first, these custom assemblies are cumbersome to set up. But once they are set up, taking off a project is almost automated. Add in some nifty features like different scales on the same drawing page, multipliers for different layers, multitool select for deleting and copying... We are very happy with this product for on-screen take-offs. The new excel template recently released is also great.

Honestly, there's always going to be something an end user wants but most of the things we want are things that are too difficult to apply universally. For example, we would love to see the ability to alter pricing and structure of existing assemblies but the only way to do that is to make it custom. We understand why, because all users draw from these assemblies. What would be nice is to copy groups within a stack assembly.

Once it is all set up the need to physically price is no longer required. Multi select is great. probably reduced my take off time by 40%, and I am still learning new things to improve.

Please see comments

This software is the most user friendly software i have used. It does not matter what form the drawings are in. I can scale and take off a scanned set of drawings just as easily as i can with a downloaded set of drawings.
I have a few pdf programs downloaded which i can scale to which do not require me to upload anything. However if i can afford the opportunity i always prefer to load the drawings into stacked for scaling and takeoff.

One of my least favorite features is the "Auto Name" function. This feature tends to need a bit more work. Granted there is the option to manually name each page; which is fine for small projects with just a few sheets. However the larger jobs this is just tedious and time consuming.