Contract estimating system utilizing a digitizing ruler

Claim 1

A contract estimating system comprising: an elongated substantially thin ruler having a length which is substantially longer than its width, at least a substantial portion of said ruler being divided into a plurality of equally spaced increments; a digitizer circuit within said ruler; a hand held probe connected to said digitizer circuit; said digitizer circuit generating an output signal indicative of the distance along said ruler touched by said probe; a digitizer board connected to said ruler digitizer circuit, said digitizer board having an upper surface with a menu thereon including a plurality of indicia, some of said indicia representing different types of materials or construction components and some of said indicia representing different sizes of components, said digitizer board generating an output signal representing one of said indicia touched by said probe; computer means having an input receiving information from said ruler digitizer circuit and said digitizer board, said computer means being capable of identifying a signal from said ruler and said board as a component identification, a component size or a length and including means for separately accumulating information concerning each type and size component, and means for displaying the information accumulated by said computer means.