Determine quality, cost, strength, and quantity of required materials, and enter figures on materials lists.

“Determine quality, cost, strength, and quantity of required materials, and enter figures on materials lists.” is a core task performed by Architectural and Civil Drafters. Among the occupation's 28 rated tasks, workers place it 12th by importance (#17 most important). About 81% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Estimate project development or operational costs. in Estimating the Quantifiable Characteristics of Products, Events, or Information
• Determine resource needs of projects or operations. in Making Decisions and Solving Problems
• Document technical designs, procedures, or activities. in Documenting/Recording Information

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E2. Exposure with tools — software built on top of a language model (not the model alone) could cut the time by at least half.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.50. Automation potential label: T3.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Produce drawings, using computer-assisted drafting systems (CAD) or drafting machines, or by hand, using compasses, dividers, protractors, triangles, and other drafting devices. · importance 4.9
• Draft plans and detailed drawings for structures, installations, and construction projects, such as highways, sewage disposal systems, and dikes, working from sketches or notes. · importance 4.6
• Coordinate structural, electrical, and mechanical designs and determine a method of presentation to graphically represent building plans. · importance 4.4
• Analyze building codes, by-laws, space and site requirements, and other technical documents and reports to determine their effect on architectural designs. · importance 4.3
• Draw maps, diagrams, and profiles, using cross-sections and surveys, to represent elevations, topographical contours, subsurface formations, and structures. · importance 4.2
• Lay out and plan interior room arrangements for commercial buildings, using computer-assisted drafting (CAD) equipment and software. · importance 4.1
• Supervise and train other technologists, technicians, and drafters. · importance 4.1
• Determine the order of work and method of presentation, such as orthographic or isometric drawing. · importance 4.1
• Finish and duplicate drawings and documentation packages according to required mediums and specifications for reproduction, using blueprinting, photography, or other duplicating methods. · importance 4.0
• Draw rough and detailed scale plans for foundations, buildings, and structures, based on preliminary concepts, sketches, engineering calculations, specification sheets, and other data. · importance 4.0
• Correlate, interpret, and modify data obtained from topographical surveys, well logs, and geophysical prospecting reports. · importance 3.9
• Check dimensions of materials to be used and assign numbers to lists of materials. · importance 3.9
• Determine procedures and instructions to be followed, according to design specifications and quantity of required materials. · importance 3.8
• Supervise or conduct field surveys, inspections, or technical investigations to obtain data required to revise construction drawings. · importance 3.7

See all tasks on the Architectural and Civil Drafters page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-21933,
  title  = {Determine quality, cost, strength, and quantity of required materials, and enter figures on materials lists.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-21933}
}