HOLIXORAA contractor in Bandung used to spend two to three days preparing a Bill of Quantities for every tender submission. His team would open the DWG file, manually count elements, cross-reference specifications, and build the RAB line by line in Excel.
Then he uploaded his first drawing to Griya Studio.
The BOQ came back in four minutes. Not a rough estimate - a structured, itemised Bill of Quantities with materials, quantities, and unit breakdowns. The kind of document that would normally cost him a full working day.
He submitted three tender bids that week. He had previously managed one.
What Is Automatic BOQ Generation?
A Bill of Quantities (BOQ) - or Rencana Anggaran Biaya (RAB) in Indonesian project language - is the itemised cost breakdown required for every construction tender and project proposal. It lists every material, element, and unit of work with quantities and costs.
Traditional BOQ preparation requires:
- Reading and interpreting architectural drawings manually
- Counting structural elements (columns, beams, doors, windows, floor area)
- Calculating volumes and surface areas
- Pricing each item against current material costs
- Formatting the output for client or government submission
This process is skilled work. It typically takes 1-3 days per project, depending on complexity. For firms handling multiple concurrent projects, it becomes the bottleneck that limits how many bids you can submit.
Automatic BOQ generation changes this. An AI system reads the drawing - whether it is a DWG file, PDF floor plan, or even a photograph of a hand-drawn sketch - extracts the structural and spatial data, and generates a formatted BOQ in minutes.
How to Generate BOQ From a DWG File: Step by Step
Here is the process using Griya Studio, which is built for the Indonesian construction and architecture market:
Step 1: Upload your drawing
Supported formats include DWG (AutoCAD), PDF floor plans, and JPG/PNG scanned drawings. The AI reads the geometry, dimensions, and annotations in the file.
Step 2: Confirm project type
Select whether this is a residential, commercial, or industrial project. The AI uses this to apply the correct material categories and Indonesian cost standards.
Step 3: Review the extracted BOQ
The system returns an itemised BOQ with quantities broken out by category: structural works, finishing, MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing), and external works. You can review, edit, and add line items before export.
Step 4: Export in your preferred format
Download as PDF for client submission or Excel for further editing. The format matches standard Indonesian tender documentation requirements.
Total time from upload to exported BOQ: typically 5 to 15 minutes depending on drawing complexity.
Why This Changes How You Bid
The BOQ bottleneck has a compounding effect on construction businesses that most firms have never quantified.
If preparing a BOQ takes two days, and your team can only handle one project at a time, you can respond to a maximum of 10-12 tender opportunities per month. Miss a deadline, and that opportunity is gone.
With automated BOQ generation, the same team can respond to significantly more opportunities in the same time. The firms using this approach report:
- More bids submitted per month - the capacity constraint is removed
- Faster response to client requests - when a prospect asks for a quote, the answer comes the same day
- Fewer errors in submissions - manual BOQ preparation is prone to counting mistakes; AI extraction from the drawing source reduces these
- Less overtime on bid preparation - engineers and architects spend more time on design and less time on counting
The Indonesian Market Context
Indonesian construction tenders operate on tight timelines. Government procurement windows, private developer RFPs, and client requests all come with deadlines that favour whoever can respond fastest.
Firms with faster BOQ preparation consistently report higher tender win rates - not because their pricing is better, but because they can compete in opportunities that others miss. Speed is a qualification requirement before your design or price is even reviewed.
The regulatory context also matters. Indonesian project documentation standards (Standar Nasional Indonesia for construction) require structured BOQ formats that match specific categories. The Griya Studio BOQ generator is calibrated for these standards, which means less reformatting work before submission.
BOQ vs RAB: What Is the Difference?
In Indonesian construction practice, these terms are sometimes used interchangeably, but they have different scopes:
- BOQ (Bill of Quantities): Focuses on quantities of materials and work items. Typically prepared by the design team and used by contractors for pricing.
- RAB (Rencana Anggaran Biaya): The full cost plan, including unit prices, labour, and overhead. The client-facing document that shows total project cost.
Griya Studio generates a structured BOQ from your drawings. Most users then add their unit prices to create the RAB for client or tender submission. Future versions will include Indonesian market pricing benchmarks to automate the RAB step as well.
What Types of Drawings Work Best
The system handles a range of input quality levels:
Best results:
- DWG files with clean geometry and dimension annotations
- PDF floor plans with clear room labels and dimensions
- Multi-sheet drawings with consistent scale
Good results:
- Scanned PDF drawings at 300 DPI or higher
- Hand-drawn sketches photographed clearly
Limitations:
- Highly complex multi-storey projects with more than 20 sheets may require batch uploading
- Drawings without dimension annotations will produce estimated quantities rather than exact counts
Getting Started Without Paying First
Griya Studio offers 10 free credits when you register - enough to generate several BOQs and assess whether the output quality meets your standards. Most contractors and architects test with a real project they know well, which makes it easy to spot check the accuracy.
There is no credit card required to start. Upload your first drawing at griya.studio and see the BOQ output before deciding whether to continue.
The contractors who convert to paid plans (starting at $29/month for 50 credits) are almost always those who tested with a real project and saw the time saving for themselves. The ones who don't tend to be those who tested with a simple diagram rather than an actual project file.
Test it with something real.
What About 3D Renders?
BOQ generation is one of three core functions in Griya Studio. The platform also produces:
- Photorealistic 3D renders from the same drawing, in 9 architectural styles (exterior, interior, aerial, and more)
- 3D model exports in formats compatible with SketchUp and other downstream tools
For architecture firms, the combination of renders and BOQ from a single upload removes the need for separate software subscriptions (SketchUp, Enscape, and a BOQ tool) and eliminates the file transfer and version control headaches that come with using three separate platforms.
The firms getting the most value are typically those that use the render capability first (to win the project) and then the BOQ capability (to price and deliver it).
Griya Studio is built for Indonesian architects, contractors, and design firms. Sign up free at griya.studio.