Before you begin
Gather the information that materially affects your calculation or plan. Depending on the tool, this may include acreage, livestock counts and weights, feed quantities, prices, route points, equipment specifications, mapped features, or construction assumptions.
You do not need to complete every Optional or Advanced field. Start with the minimum required information, review the result, and then refine assumptions as needed.
Step 1: Read the tool introduction
Every RanchAssist tool should begin with a short explanation of what it calculates or helps plan. Use that statement to confirm you are in the right tool before entering significant work.
Step 2: Enter required information
RanchAssist uses explicit units. Confirm whether the field expects feet, miles, acres, pounds, gallons, dollars, percentages, hours, or another unit.
On mobile devices, enter the most important values first. Secondary settings may appear in collapsible sections or a bottom sheet.
Step 3: Review assumptions
Fields marked Assumption affect the estimate but are not authoritative recommendations. Examples include waste allowances, utilization percentages, contingency, recovery periods, shrink, safety factors, and cost assumptions.
Adjust them to match the conditions you are actually planning for.
Step 4: Inspect warnings and validation
RanchAssist uses plain-language warnings when an input is missing, outside an expected range, or creates a planning conflict. Read both the warning and the suggested correction.
A warning does not automatically mean the project is unusable; it usually means an assumption or result deserves review.
Step 5: Read the primary result
The main result is intentionally placed before supporting detail. Then review:
- secondary metrics;
- cost or quantity breakdowns;
- scenario comparisons;
- tables, timelines, maps, or gauges;
- notes and warnings.
Step 6: Open Calculation Details
When available, select View Calculation Details to see how the tool arrived at the result. This is especially important before using an estimate for purchasing, scheduling, budgeting, or operational planning.
Step 7: Save or export
Use the right action for your goal:
- Save Project — preserve the complete editable state in a
.raproject file. - Export PDF / Print — create a human-readable report.
- Export CSV — move tabular results into a spreadsheet or another system.
- Export PNG / Map — preserve a visual output where supported.
- Export GeoJSON — exchange map geometry where supported.
- Email / Copy Summary — communicate results.
Saving and exporting are different. A PDF or CSV generally cannot restore the entire editable project.
Step 8: Clear the session when appropriate
Use Clear Session or Start Over when you intentionally want to remove the active project from the browser session. Saved .ra files and previously exported files on your device are not deleted by clearing the session.
