Does Portravo do HVAC and mechanical takeoff?
Not live. Don't pretend.
Portravo has no mechanical or HVAC assemblies and no ductwork or equipment pricing in its benchmark, so if your scope is mechanical this is the wrong tool today and there is no version of this page that talks you into it.
What that means in practice
The trades the product is built around are general contracting, framing, electrical, plumbing, drywall, concrete and roofing, with material coverage that also includes insulation, fasteners and paint. There is no HVAC category in the benchmark and no mechanical assembly to map a quantity to.
If the extraction does pull a mechanical item off a sheet, it has nothing to link to, so it will not price. You will see it as an unmapped line rather than a silently missing one, which is the behaviour you want, but it is still not a priced mechanical takeoff.
The one HVAC thing that does exist
HVAC technician is available as a role on your labor rate card, so if you self-perform a small amount of mechanical work you can put a rate against those hours by hand. That is a rate card entry, not a takeoff, and it does not count or price equipment, duct, refrigerant line or registers.
Do not read that role as coverage. It is there because rate cards need to describe crews, not because the product understands a mechanical plan.
How to bid a job that has mechanical in it
Run the architectural, structural, electrical, plumbing and finish scopes through Portravo, confirm them, and carry your mechanical sub's number as a separate line you paste in. That is how most small GCs handle it anyway, because the mechanical sub is going to price their own work regardless.
If you are a mechanical contractor and mechanical is the whole job, buy an estimating platform that covers it. That is a straight answer and it is cheaper for you than finding out after a plan set upload.
Mechanical scope workaround
For a GC with a mechanical sub on the job.
- 01Run the non-mechanical scopes through the takeoff and confirm them as normal.
- 02Get the mechanical sub's written number before the bid goes out.
- 03Add the sub's number as its own line in your bid summary, with their quote date on it.
- 04Keep the sub's exclusions with the bid. Duct, controls and equipment start-up are where those fights start.
- 05Do not index or escalate the sub number. It is a quote; use it as quoted or get a new one.
No account, no card. Send your last supplier quote as a PDF and it comes back marked against the Portravo Sacramento benchmark within one business day.
Send a supplier quote for a free audit- Will Portravo add HVAC and mechanical assemblies?
- Mechanical and HVAC are described as roadmap, not live. Until they ship there is no mechanical assembly or HVAC material pricing in the product, and this page will say so.
- What trades does Portravo actually cover?
- General contracting, framing, electrical, plumbing, drywall, concrete and roofing, with benchmark material coverage that also includes insulation, fasteners and paint.