Refrigeration estimating that reads your piping schedules
Upload grocery or retail refrigeration plans. Aginera extracts every circuit from your piping schedule, calculates suction/liquid/CO₂/glycol line footage, derives insulation and hanger quantities, estimates labor hours — and builds a bid-ready estimate.
Refrigeration estimating is the hardest trade to automate
Most takeoff software handles ductwork, electrical devices, and plumbing fixtures. None of them touch refrigeration piping schedules — the dense, multi-system tables embedded in R1.x and R2.x sheets that drive 60% of a grocery store remodel bid.
A typical big-box retail refrigeration plan set has 5+ rack systems (DX, SCO₂, TCO₂, GLY), 160+ circuit rows, piping schedules with suction/liquid/riser columns, case schedules with fixture types and door counts, and detail sheets calling out Unistrut P-1000 supports at 10'-0" O.C. An experienced estimator spends 2–3 days converting those schedules into pipe LF, insulation LF, hanger counts, and labor hours.
Aginera does it in under 5 minutes.
What Aginera extracts and calculates
Every quantity below is derived automatically from your refrigeration plan set — no manual counting, no spreadsheet formulas, no pipe-by-pipe tracing.
Piping Schedule Extraction
Reads R1.x and R2.x refrigeration sheets. Parses circuit rows, system types (DX, SCO₂, TCO₂, GLY), and estimated route lengths from fragmented PDF text.
160 circuits parsed from a 167-page retail plan set
Line-Type Breakdown
Splits total pipe LF into suction, liquid, CO₂ supply/return, and glycol supply/return. Each system type gets the correct pipe count multiplier.
13,770 LF total → 1,712 suction + 1,712 liquid + 7,548 CO₂ + 2,798 glycol
Insulation Quantities
Classifies all refrigerant lines as insulated or non-insulated based on spec requirements. Generates bid-ready insulation LF matching pipe totals.
13,770 LF insulated pipe per spec
Hanger & Support Counts
Calculates Unistrut P-1000 hanger counts using project detail spacing (typically 10'-0" O.C.) with a 15% waste factor for turns, risers, and field conditions.
678 EA from ceil(5,887 / 10) × 1.15
Piping Labor Model
Derives installation labor hours from pipe LF, insulation LF, and hanger count using journeyman pipefitter productivity rates. Flags night-work multipliers for retail.
3,305 hrs pipe + 1,033 hrs insul + 322 hrs hangers = 5,340 hrs base
Bid Intelligence
Auto-adds standard refrigeration scope items that drawings never show explicitly: refrigerant reclaim, pressure testing, crane/rigging, startup, night premium, valves/fittings allowance, roof penetration.
10 standard bid items auto-generated
From piping schedule to bid-ready estimate
Real output from a 167-page retail refrigeration plan set. Every row is auto-generated — no manual entry.
| Bid Line Item | Qty | Unit | Market Rate | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Refrigerant piping install | 13,770 | LF | $40–55/LF | Piping schedule |
| Pipe insulation | 13,770 | LF | $10–15/LF | Derived from pipe LF |
| Pipe hangers/supports | 678 | EA | $75–95/EA | Route LF ÷ 10' O.C. × 1.15 |
| Compressor rack | 1 | EA | $100K–150K | Plan symbol detection |
| Gas cooler | 1 | EA | $80K–120K | Plan symbol detection |
| Refrigerant reclaim | 1 | LS | $25K–35K | Auto bid intelligence |
| Pressure test / evacuation | 1 | LS | $70K–90K | Auto bid intelligence |
| Crane / rigging | 1 | LS | $80K–100K | Auto bid intelligence |
| Night work premium | 1 | LS | $35K–50K | Auto bid intelligence |
| Piping install labor | 3,305 | HRS | $100–125/hr | Labor model |
Estimate total: $1.68M — within the $1.65M–$2.05M competitive bid range for this project scope.
How it works
Upload your refrigeration plan set
Drop the full PDF — Aginera identifies refrigeration sheets (R1.x plans, R2.x schedules, RD1 demo plans) automatically. No need to split or pre-classify pages.
AI reads piping schedules and plan symbols
Text extraction parses circuit rows, system types, and pipe run lengths from schedule tables. Vision AI detects equipment symbols (racks, gas coolers, walk-ins) from plan sheets. Both methods run in parallel.
Derived quantities are calculated
Route LF → Pipe LF (with per-system multipliers) → Insulation LF → Hanger count → Labor hours. Every formula is transparent and matches how an experienced refrigeration estimator would calculate.
Bid intelligence fills the gaps
Standard scope items that drawings never show explicitly — refrigerant reclaim, pressure testing, crane/rigging, night premium, valves/fittings — are auto-added with appropriate classifications.
Review and generate your estimate
Items are classified as Bid Items, Derived Quantities, Needs Visual Verification, or Schedule Metadata. You review what matters, skip the metadata, and generate a priced estimate at market rates.
Manual vs. Aginera: refrigeration takeoff comparison
Manual estimating
- ✕ 2–3 days per plan set
- ✕ Count circuits one by one from schedule tables
- ✕ Manually multiply route LF by system type
- ✕ Spreadsheet formulas for hangers and insulation
- ✕ Rely on memory for standard bid items
- ✕ Labor hours estimated from gut feel
Aginera
- ✓ Under 5 minutes per plan set
- ✓ Parses all circuits from piping schedule automatically
- ✓ Correct multiplier per system: DX ×2, TCO₂ ×3
- ✓ Hangers and insulation calculated from route LF
- ✓ 10 standard bid items auto-added
- ✓ Labor model: pipe × hr/LF + insul + hangers + testing
Frequently asked questions
What refrigeration items does Aginera extract from drawings?
Aginera reads refrigeration piping schedules, case schedules, and plan sheets to extract: refrigerant route lengths, pipe footage by line type (suction, liquid, CO₂ supply/return, glycol supply/return), pipe insulation quantities, hanger/support counts, display case data, compressor rack and gas cooler equipment, walk-in cooler/freezer scope, and roof-mounted equipment. It also auto-adds standard bid items like refrigerant reclaim, pressure testing, crane/rigging, and night work premiums.
How does the piping schedule extraction work?
Aginera detects refrigeration piping schedule pages using content-based anchors — not brittle text search. It recognizes multiple retailer schedule formats by identifying circuit row patterns (A01 DX, 2.42A SCO2, D13 TCO2), pipe column headers (SUCTION, LIQUID, ESTIMATED TOTAL LENGTH), and system type labels. Each circuit row is parsed for its estimated pipe run length, then aggregated by system type with the correct multiplier: ×2 for DX/SCO₂/GLY (suction + liquid) and ×3 for TCO₂ (supply + return + liquid).
How accurate are the derived piping quantities?
On a 167-page big-box retail plan set, Aginera derived 13,770 LF of refrigerant piping from 160 circuits across 5 rack systems — matching the expected range from manual analysis. Hanger counts use the 10'-0" O.C. spacing from the project details with a 15% waste factor, producing 678 EA — consistent with an experienced estimator's calculation of ceil(5,887 / 10) × 1.15.
Can Aginera estimate piping labor hours?
Yes. Aginera applies industry-standard labor factors to every derived quantity: 0.18–0.30 hr/LF for pipe installation, 0.05–0.10 hr/LF for insulation, 0.35–0.60 hr/EA for hangers, plus fixed allowances for testing/startup (160–300 hrs) and valves/fittings (300–600 hrs). Night work multipliers of 1.25–1.50× are flagged for retail environments.
Does it work with CO₂ and glycol refrigeration systems?
Yes. Aginera supports all modern commercial refrigeration system types: DX (direct expansion), SCO₂ (subcritical CO₂), TCO₂ (transcritical CO₂), and GLY (glycol secondary). Each system type gets the correct pipe multiplier. The total pipe LF is broken down by line type — suction, liquid, CO₂ supply/return, and glycol supply/return — so you can see exactly what drives the cost.
What about display case counts and demo scope?
Aginera extracts case schedule rows from refrigeration schedules and classifies them separately from physical case counts. Schedule rows (circuit/fixture data) are marked as metadata, while physical case install and removal are flagged for visual verification against demo plans and case legends. This prevents the common error of bidding 141 schedule rows as 141 physical cases.
How does the estimate compare to manual pricing?
In testing against a major retailer refrigeration remodel, Aginera produced a $1.68M estimate — within the $1.65M–$2.05M range established by independent analysis. The LLM judge scored the estimate 65/100 with 17/20 on structure and organization. The primary gaps are in display case counts (which require visual plan reconciliation) and equipment detail — areas Aginera flags for human review rather than guessing.
Which grocery and retail chains does this work for?
Aginera has been tested on plan sets from major grocery chains, big-box retailers, and specialty grocers. The piping schedule parser handles multiple formats including Circuit ID + System Type + tab-separated pipe data and PIPING SCHEDULE RACK + circuit row layouts. The system adapts to any commercial refrigeration drawing set that contains piping schedules with estimated route lengths.
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