Your company has priced this work before.
A good estimator carries years of crew compositions, yields, waste factors, supplier knowledge, and hard-earned judgment. Too often, that knowledge lives in copied spreadsheets and in a few people's heads.
- The same work gets rebuilt — a new project starts from a blank sheet or an old copied file
- Price changes take care — someone updates hundreds of cells and hopes every formula survives
- Experience walks out the door — when a senior estimator leaves, the company can forget what they knew
- Decisions become hard to answer — teams must reconstruct who approved a budget and which prices they reviewed
We love Excel. We just stopped asking it to be our memory.
Excel remains a brilliant calculator. The company still needs a reliable place for the knowledge behind the calculation: how it builds, what it assumed, where each quantity came from, and who accepted the result.
Darwin gives the company that memory. A new estimate starts from what the team already knows, while estimators keep the judgment that makes the work credible.
Capture the knowledge once. Use it on every project.
Darwin keeps the parts of an estimate clear, connected, and ready for the people responsible for each decision.
HOW YOUR COMPANY BUILDS — MODULES
A module captures how your company delivers a unit of work: materials, crews, yields, direct expenses, and assumptions. Build that logic once and reuse it wherever the same work appears.
Senior estimators shape and validate modules. When the team finds a better way to build, it can improve the module while earlier estimates retain the logic they used.
This is your company's Cost DNA — its own estimating knowledge, kept inside the business and strengthened over time.
TODAY'S MARKET — PRICE LISTS
A Price List holds material prices and labor rates for a defined period, region, or supplier context. Prices stay separate from the modules that describe how the work gets built.
When the market moves, update or select a Price List. The module's crews, yields, and assumptions remain untouched.
Darwin shows the effect before your team accepts it, so everyone can see which prices were applied and what changed.
MEASURED SCOPE — QUANTITIES
Every quantity shows where it came from, when it was accepted, and who accepted it.
Teams can bring quantities into Darwin in three ways:
- IFC import: extract elements from an optional BIM model, connect them to modules, and review the proposed quantities
- 2D takeoff: measure area, count, length, and polygons directly on PDF drawings
- Manual entry: enter the estimator's quantity directly and keep its source visible
Model and takeoff results are suggestions. The estimator accepts, adjusts, and owns the final quantity. Judgment remains with the estimator.
THE BUSINESS DECISION — OVERHEAD AND MARGIN
Overhead and margin stay visible at the estimate level, where the people responsible for the business decision can review them directly.
A margin or policy adjustment is recorded clearly, alongside the logic, quantities, and prices the team reviewed.
See the market move with The Reprice.
Take a finished estimate and apply a different Price List. Darwin recalculates the full estimate in seconds and shows it side by side with the original, which stays untouched.
The same modules + The same quantities + A different Price List = A clear market difference
The Reprice lets your team:
- Apply today's prices without rebuilding the estimate
- Compare the new result with the original side by side
- See which differences came from the market
- Keep the estimate your team previously reviewed and approved
Your logic didn't change. The market did. Darwin knows the difference.
From a request to a better way of building.
Darwin carries the company's knowledge and decisions through the full cost lifecycle:
REQUEST Someone asks for work to be priced. The team captures the scope, files, context, and purpose together.
CLARIFY The team resolves missing information and agrees on the scope before estimating begins.
ESTIMATE The estimator starts with proven modules, reviews quantities from IFC, 2D takeoff, or manual entry, and applies the right Price List.
REVIEW Reviewers challenge prices, assumptions, quantities, and risks. They can accept the estimate or send it back with clear questions.
APPROVE Formal approval records who approved what, when they approved it, and which prices were in effect. The approved estimate becomes the baseline.
TRACK Cost Control tracks actual costs, invoices, and commitments against the approved baseline, from the full budget down to each cost group.
LEARN When execution differs from the baseline, the variance can become a proposed module improvement. A person reviews and accepts it before future estimates use it.
The right people stay responsible for every decision.
Darwin gives each person a clear place to contribute their expertise and leaves a practical record the whole company can understand.
Module authors
capture how the company builds, including materials, crews, yields, expenses, and assumptions.
Price reviewers
validate Price Lists and confirm the market basis used for the estimate.
Estimators
interpret scope, review quantity sources, apply judgment, and own the quantities used in the estimate.
Approvers
review the complete estimate and establish the approved baseline with their decision on the record.
Cost controllers
compare actual and committed costs with the approved baseline and bring meaningful variance back to the team.
A price update leaves the module intact. A margin decision stays distinct from a market movement. A design revision keeps the earlier approval record clear.
There is always an answer to who approved what, under which prices, and what the team learned after construction began.
BIM is welcome and always optional.
Darwin can read IFC models to accelerate quantity work. It extracts model elements, groups them, proposes connections to modules, and presents calculated quantities for review.
The estimator still decides what the scope means and which quantities belong in the estimate.
IFC quantities remain suggestions. The estimator interprets boundaries, applies rounding and waste allowances, and accepts or adjusts every quantity before it enters the estimate. Darwin keeps the source and that decision visible.
Teams can also measure from 2D PDF drawings or enter quantities manually for early and conceptual work. Each workflow preserves the estimator's judgment.
Darwin delivers value with or without BIM.
Keep what your company learns.
See how Darwin can carry your estimating knowledge from the first module to Cost Control. Every project teaches the next one. That's why it's called Darwin.
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