Ornova CivilWorks · Documentation

Ornova CivilWorks docs

Professional estimation, BOQ and contract management for Windows.

Installation

Ornova CivilWorks is a Windows desktop application. Download Ornova-CivilWorks-Setup.exe from the download page and run it.

Windows shows a blue “Windows protected your PC” notice because the installer is not yet code-signed — choose More info → Run anyway. To confirm the download is genuine first, compare its SHA-256 with the value published on the download page:

certutil -hashfile Ornova-CivilWorks-Setup.exe SHA256

Nothing else needs installing; the .NET runtime is included. Administrator rights are not required — without them the installer offers to install into your own user profile instead.

Requirements: Windows 10 (1809 or later) or Windows 11, 64-bit, about 200 MB of disk space for the program plus room for your rate library.

Upgrading: run the newer installer; it replaces the existing version in place and leaves your data untouched. From 2.1.1 the application checks for updates itself.

Getting started

A new installation has an empty rate library, so the first job is to load a schedule.

1. Load a schedule of rates. Open CivilWorks Library and either download a published schedule from the Content Hub, import a .ocwp package, or upload a CSV from Settings. Several schedules can be held at once — a DSR part and a state USSOR, for example — and you pick the active one on the home screen.
2. Add the analysis of rates. Settings → Manage AOR Data imports the analysis behind each item. This is what allows material consumption to be worked out later.
3. Record your office details. Inside a work order, Office Profiles sets the header printed on exports and Agencies & Works holds your contractors.
4. Activate the computer. Use Activate at the top right and sign in with your Ornova account. A new installation runs as a 30-day trial with full function.

Then start a job from + New Project: a zonal work order, a tender schedule, or a proposal.

Features

Zonal work orders. Build a bill of quantities from a survey sheet. Quantities can be entered directly or built from a measurement break-up — number, length, breadth, depth — which stays attached to the item so a checking officer can see how a figure was reached.

Tender schedules. Organise a tender into sub-works, each with its own bill of quantities, then apply departmental and general charges, overheads, percentage additions and lump-sum items to produce the schedule in the expected format.

Proposals and costing. Price a proposed work from the rate database against a proposal number and name of work, for sanction and approval.

Bills and material consumption. Running-account bills that carry cumulative quantities and amounts across bills, with material consumption derived from the analysis of rates behind each billed item. Bills can also be raised for works with no prior work order.

Schedule library. Hold several schedules side by side with their analysis of rates and reference PDFs. Searching an item number opens the reference PDF at the match and highlights it.

Content Hub. Download schedules published by Ornova Labs. Each package is verified against a published signature before installing, so an altered or truncated download is refused rather than imported.

Exports. Survey sheets, work orders, tender schedules, proposals and bills all export to Excel with your office details as the header.

FAQ

Does it need an internet connection? No for day-to-day work. A connection is used to activate a computer, verify the licence periodically, download content and check for updates. Between checks the application keeps working offline for 30 days.

Is there a trial? Yes — 30 days with full function, no account required.

Can I use it on more than one computer? Each activated computer uses one seat of your licence. Additional seats can be purchased, and a computer you no longer use can be released from the licence portal to free its seat.

Where is my data stored? On your computer, under %LocalAppData%\OrnovaCivilWorks. Estimates, bills and project data are not uploaded to Ornova Labs.

Which schedules are supported? Any schedule you can supply as a CSV, plus schedules published through the Content Hub. DSR, USSOR and departmental schedules are all handled the same way.

What happens if my licence lapses? Existing projects stay open, printable and exportable. Creating new work requires an active licence.

Troubleshooting

“Windows protected your PC” when installing. Expected — the installer is not yet code-signed. Choose More info → Run anyway, or verify the SHA-256 first.

“All seats are in use”. A rebuilt or replaced PC counts as a new computer. Sign in to the licence portal and deactivate the one you no longer use; nothing on that machine is deleted.

The rate library is empty. No schedule has been loaded. Open CivilWorks Library and download, import or upload one.

Material consumption is missing or zero. Material figures come from the analysis of rates. Import it through Settings → Manage AOR Data; if a particular item has no material lines in its analysis, no materials can be derived for it.

Item search returns nothing. Item numbers match from the beginning, so 5.6 works but a middle fragment will not. Check the active schedule as well.

Reference PDFs will not display. The viewer uses the Microsoft Edge WebView2 runtime. Installing it from Microsoft resolves this on older systems.

The licence will not verify. Connect to the internet and reopen the application. A computer whose clock is badly wrong can also fail verification — correct the date and time and try again.

Anything else. Error logs are kept in %LocalAppData%\OrnovaCivilWorks\Logs. Attaching the most recent file to a support email usually identifies the problem quickly.

Release notes

Current version 2.2.0 (26 August 2026). Full history on the download page.

2.2.0 — no licence key to type: sign in with your email and password, through your browser, or with a code on your phone. Offline activation by file exchange, unattended deployment for IT, automatic release of abandoned seats, and a permanent free edition when a trial ends.

2.1.4 — a Sample CSV format button on the AOR and master-rate import screens shows the expected columns before you import; Settings page layout fix.

2.1.3 — licence renewals are now signed by the computer they come from; multi-seat holders can set up an organisation and manage members themselves.

2.1.2 — fixed an update installing a second copy on computers where the application had been installed without administrator rights.

2.1.1 — automatic updates, verified against Ornova's signature before running.

2.1.0 — accounts and per-seat activation, organisations, Content Hub, errata patches, bills and material consumption, and reference-PDF search. This release also corrected analysis-of-rates batch sizes, cross-reference rows zeroing a material, items with no MATERIAL heading, and rounding in the procurement summary — all of which affect calculated figures.

Keyboard shortcuts

Tips

Search by item number, not description, when you know the code. Item numbers match from the beginning, so typing the first part of a code narrows quickly.

Use measurement break-ups rather than typing a total. They cost nothing extra at entry time and answer the checking officer's question before it is asked.

Keep the reference PDF alongside the schedule. Being able to jump to the printed page for an item makes disputes about rates much shorter.

Save drafts often. Drafts are named and reloadable, so keeping a draft per revision gives you a history to fall back on.

Check the active schedule before starting. Most surprising rates turn out to be the right item priced from the wrong schedule.

Best practices

Take a backup before importing. Settings → Database Backup → Backup Now takes seconds, and a bulk import that turns out to be wrong is then one restore away from undone.

Distribute schedules as packages, not spreadsheets. Exporting a .ocwp package carries the schedule, its analysis of rates and its reference documents together, so every office is estimating from the same data.

Fill in the office profile once, properly. It is printed on every export; correcting it later means re-exporting finished documents.

Import the analysis of rates even if you only want BOQs today. Material consumption cannot be reconstructed later for bills already raised without it.

Release computers you have stopped using. A seat tied to a decommissioned PC is a seat you cannot give to a colleague.