What is a piping MTO?
MTO stands for material takeoff. On a piping job, the MTO lists every material on the job with its quantity: pipe, fittings, flanges, valves, gaskets, bolting, and supports.
Cory LaChance
Founder, TakeOffTrak ·
BOM, MTO, and takeoff
| Term | What it is | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| BOM | The material table printed on an ISO | One drawing |
| MTO | Every BOM on the job, rolled up by item, size, and spec | The whole job |
| Takeoff | The work of pulling quantities off the drawings | The process |
You do a takeoff. The MTO is the result. See how to take off a piping ISO for the steps.
What goes in a piping MTO
- Pipe, by size, schedule, and material, in feet or meters.
- Fittings: elbows, tees, reducers, caps, couplings, and olets, by size. Reducing items carry both sizes, like 6 x 4.
- Flanges, by type, size, and rating.
- Valves and inline items, by size and rating.
- Gaskets and bolting for each flanged joint.
- Supports, by type and size.
- A shop and field split.
Welds are labor, not material, so they are not part of the MTO itself. They are counted from the same drawings.
How to build an MTO
- 1
Take off the BOM on every ISO
One row per BOM row, with the drawing number on each row. The drawing number is how a quantity traces back.
- 2
Group like items
Group by commodity code. Where a row has no commodity code, group by description, size, and spec.
- 3
Sum the quantities
Pipe in length. Everything else by each.
- 4
Split shop and field
Keep shop and field in separate columns or sheets.
- 5
Check it against the drawings
Pick an ISO, find its rows in the MTO, and confirm every BOM row is there.
How TakeOffTrak builds the MTO
TakeOffTrak reads the BOM on each ISO you upload and marks each row on the drawing, so every line traces back to where it came from. You review the rows, fix anything that is wrong, and export.
The Materials export puts every row on one sheet with the drawing number, shop or field, spec, type, commodity code, description, size, quantity, and unit. A pivot table in Excel rolls it up by item and size. See piping MTO for the full layout.
Common questions
- What does MTO stand for in piping?
- Material takeoff: the list of piping materials and quantities for a job, rolled up from the BOM on every ISO.
- Is an MTO the same as a bill of materials?
- No. A BOM is the table on one drawing. The MTO is all of those tables rolled up for the whole job.
Keep reading
- How to take off a piping ISOA piping takeoff from ISO drawings, step by step: title block, BOM, shop and field split, weld count, supports, and the MTO rollup.
- Shop weld vs field weldThe difference between a shop weld, a field weld, and a field fit weld on a piping ISO, and how to count each one.
- Piping MTOTurn the BOM on every piping ISO into an Excel MTO, split shop and field. Each row is highlighted on the drawing it came from, so every quantity traces back.
- Weld takeoffCount butt, socket, and olet welds on every piping ISO, split shop and field, and export the weld takeoff to Excel. Every weld is marked on the drawing.