Trimble GC WinEst

Score5 out of 10

6 Reviews and Ratings

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for Trimble GC WinEst are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Business Problems Solved

Users have found WinEst to be a valuable tool for preparing estimates in their construction projects, replacing older methods such as Excel and macros. With its simplicity and flexibility, WinEst has become an indispensable asset in the estimation process. One of the key advantages of the software is its ability to easily switch between formats and assign Work Breakdown Structure, allowing clients to view information in their preferred way. This feature saves time and streamlines communication with stakeholders.

WinEst is particularly useful for estimating complex projects, producing bid packages, and developing databases. It has become a go-to solution for finding new subcontractors and managing bids within multi-person or multi-company projects. Once users become familiar with its features, they find the interface easy to use, enabling them to create accurate estimates even for projects with specialty items not already in the system. The software's stable background eliminates concerns about calculations and Excel formula errors that plagued older methods.

Furthermore, WinEst's content manager offers a highly dynamic yet organized system for creating uniform reports. It has become the primary estimating software used by pre-construction departments across various companies. While some users feel that the software is shifting away from its strengths as an open platform leader in construction estimating, many still rely on WinEst for its simplicity, flexibility, and stability in managing their estimation tasks effectively.

Reviews

2 Reviews

The Best

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

November 13, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use WinEst as our estimate software across the company. The majority of users are in PreCon but as operations comes in, they learn the system. We chose WinEst for:
1) Its stable background. No more worrying about how markups, escalation, GCs are being calculated. You also remove the common occurrence of breaking excel formulas
2) Ability for uniform reports - takes your deliverables to the next level.
3) Highly dynamic yet organized content manager.

Pros

WinEst allows for uniformity and clarity. Having the ability to mange your views, reports, assignments etc. allows for bid teams to put together a highly detailed estimate quickly and efficiently.
Being able to develop database items ensures that every bid you produce will have the same look and feel - important for repeat clients.
Winest also allows for simple importing of takeoff from programs like OST. WinEst's feature that allows for multiple users to edit the estimate at the same time is unbelievably useful.
WinEst allows for a huge amount of flexibility. The built in functionality and reporting preferences allows you to create any sort of reporting format you can imagine.

Cons

At times, WinEst controls feel counter intuitive. Also the tools available for actually developing the database can feel clunky. This means that if you do not take the time to create a robust import file, you will spend a serious amount of time fixing your errors.
WinEst is also an object based database which means that it is difficult to do mass dumps of information (mainly takeoff) into the program. While this is great for ensuring that everything is done purposefully, it does lead to extended hours of data entry
It takes hours upon hours of use before you begin to realize the true potential. The sheer number of tools is overwhelming and their help resources are very basic and only explain how to correctly enter the data but not the feature's best use cases.

Likelihood to Recommend

WinEst is truly built for everyone. Their assemblies/database linking is perfect for self perform and subcontractors while their database management and custom reporting is perfect for GCs. While Excel set the bar, WinEst is on another planet. With the immediacy required by today's markets, WinEst allows you to deliver a superior product while being more accurate.

Aaron Graves

Estimator in Professional Services at Power Construction (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

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Why WinEst?

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

April 3, 2017

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

WinEst is our primary estimating software used by our pre-construction department.

Pros

It's very flexible when building an estimate and selecting items to include. You can either click your way to the datebase or quickly copy and paste similar items.
The numerous ways to view and estimate whether it's by CSI, Uniformat, Master Format, or any view you'd like to see. One of ours is by program area, i.e. Sitework, Tower, Parking Deck, etc. After that, you can sort by Bid Package, CSI, etc. Quick buttons can be created far all the views you'd need which allows changing between views a breeze.
The visual interface is pleasing and easy to read.
It's easy to create your own database using Excel. Once you tag an item with unit costs, sort codes, etc., Winest will import it. You can also build it manually within the program but Excel was faster.

Cons

As with other estimating software I've used, WinEst needs to make reports easier to do. You can make reports with your own headers and such but creating those templates is very difficult to create unless you're a programmer.
Initially, we had some database sharing conflicts with our server that needed to be overcome. I believe Winest has since improved this though.
Could really improve the takeoff function. It has an OST integrator but it's an afterthought at best. Using OST directly is a must.

Likelihood to Recommend

I use WinEst in all stages of estimating from conceptual to GMP.

Andy Ruda

Senior Preconstruction Manager in Marketing at Balfour Beatty Construction US (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

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