METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TOTALIZING MATERIALS FROM CONSTRUCTION DRAWINGS

• US 3,601,585 A
• Filed: 09/18/1968
• Issued: 08/24/1971
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/1968
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Dan B. Paulsen
• Original Assignee: Dan B. Paulsen
• Inventors: Paulsen, Dan B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wilbur, Maynard R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Gnuse, Robert F.
• Application Number:
  US04/760,527
• Time in Patent Office: 1,070 Days
• Field of Search: 235/92
• US Class Current: 377/24
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 7/02 for measuring length, width or thickness G01B7/004, G01B7/12 take precedence

Abstract

In order to accumulate the total amount of required electrical materials for estimating the cost of electrical facilities for a designed building, the length of all conduit runs obtained from a sealed electrical construction drawing are converted into a proportional number of electrical pulses by a rotameter. Each pulse thereby provided is employed to generate a selected multiple number of pulses by appropriately gating the output of a high frequency pulse generator wherein the number of pulses thus gated is selected to be proportional to the number of conductors carried by each conduit run. The resulting gated pulses are accumulated by a pulse counter accumulator which thereby registers a number proportional to the total conductor length for all of the conduit runs displayed by the construction drawing. In addition to the accumulation of conductor lengths, method and apparatus are disclosed for totalizing the conduit length for each conduit size and for totalizing the number and size of conduit fittings by similar pulse generating, gating and counting operations.

Claims

1. Measuring apparatus for totalizing construction materials including the conductor length of multiconductor conduits and the conduit length for each of a plurality of conduit sizes and the total number of conduit fittings from a scaled construction drawing, the combination comprising:

first means adapted for movement over the drawing for converting distance thereby traveled into a proportional number of first electrical pulses, a pulse generator issuing second electrical pulses of frequency higher than the frequency of said first pulses, pulse-counting means, gating means connected to and controlled by said first means and connecting said generator to said counting means and passing a selected number of second pulses to said counting means in response to each first pulse, manually operably switching means connected to said gating means for setting the selected number of pulses passed thereby to represent the total length of all conductors carried by each conduit, an additional pulse-counting means for each conduit size, second gating means connected to said switching means and said additional counting means and said first means for passing the pulses issued by said first means to selected of said aDditional counting means in response to said switching means, a third pulse-counting means for each fitting size, and pulse doubler means connected between said second gating means and said last-named additional counting means issuing a pair of pulses to certain of said last-named counting means in response to operation of said gating means.

2. The method of totalizing component lengths of multicomponent courses provided by a scaled construction drawing including conduit runs, conductors carried within the conduits represented by such runs and wherein each conduit run shown by the drawing includes a pair of conduit fittings at the terminal ends thereof, comprising:

converting the length of each course into a proportional number of first electrical pulses, generating a second pulse during the converting operation for each conduit run, doubling each such second pulse to provide a pair of pulses for each run, counting each pulse provided by said doubling operation to register a total number of fittings, generating a continuous train of third electrical pulses having a frequency greater than that of said first pulses, transmitting a selected number of said third pulses proportional to the number of components in each course in response to each first pulse, and counting said transmitted pulses to provide a number proportional to the total length of the components.

3. The method defined in claim 2, said converting step further comprising selectively changing the frequency of the first electrical pulses in proportion to the drawing scale.

4. The method of totalizing component lengths of multicomponent courses including conduit runs displayed by a scaled construction drawing, conductors carried within the conduit represented by such runs wherein the size of the conduit of each run is dependent on the number of conductors carried thereby and wherein each conduit run includes a pair of fittings of a size corresponding to the conduit size of each run, comprising:

converting the length of each course into a proportional number of first electrical pulses, generating a continuous train of second electrical pulses having a frequency greater than that of said first pulses, transmitting a selected number of said second pulses proportional to the number of components in each course in response to each first pulse, counting said transmitted pulses to provide a number proportional to the total conductor length, separately counting the first pulses for each size of conduit by automatically gating such first pulses to selected separate counting means in response to the selection of the number of pulses to be transmitted by said transmitting operation, generating a third pulse during the converting operation for each conduit run, doubling each of said third pulses to provide a pair of pulses for each conduit run, and separately counting the pulses provided by said doubling operation for each conduit size automatically in response to the selection of the number of pulses to be transmitted by aforesaid transmitting operation to register a total number of fittings for each size thereof.

5. The method defined in claim 4, said converting step further comprising selectively changing the frequency of the first electrical pulses in proportion to the drawing scale.

6. Measuring apparatus for totalizing construction materials from a construction drawing, including the conductor length of multiconductor conduits and the total number of conduit fittings represented by a scaled electrical construction drawing, the combination comprising:

first means adapted for movement over the drawing for converting distance thereby traveled into a proportional number of first electrical pulses, a pulse generator issuing second electrical pulses of frequency higher than the frequency of said first pulses, pulse-counting means, gating means connected to and controlled by said first means and connecting said genErator to said counting means and passing a selected number of second pulses to said counting means in response to each first pulse, adjustable pulse frequency changing means connected between said first means and said gating means and responsive to said first pulses to issue a proportional number of pulses to said gating means whereby the apparatus may be adjusted to accommodate different construction drawing scales, manually operable switching means connected to said gating means for setting the selected number of pulses passed by said gating means to represent the total length of all conductors carried by each conduit, and an additional pulse-counting means for each fitting size, and pulse doubler means connected between said gating means and said last-named additional counting means issuing a pair of pulses to certain of said last-named counting means in response to the operation of said gating means.