Takeoff, markup and reporting

Getting on the drawing

The scale comes first, because everything hangs off it.

A takeoff sheet belongs to the project and reads from its vault. Tick a drawing set in the Plans rail to load it and click a page thumbnail to work on it. Only PDFs tagged as drawings are offered — a measurement taken off a photograph of a specification would not be a measurement.

Read from the sheetAutomatic

Where the title block states it, the scale is picked up and the sheet is ready to trace. You can see what it read and change it.

TypedImperial or metric

Type it the way the drawing writes it — 1/16" = 1'-0", or a metric ratio — into the bar across the top and click Set scale.

CalibratedTwo clicks

Calibrate on a dimension you already know: click across it, type what it really is. For a drawing that has been printed, scanned and reduced, this is the honest way in.

Per pageNot per file

Scale is held for each page, so a detail sheet at 1:20 sitting in the same PDF as a roof plan at 1:100 is not a problem.

Rotation and snapWhile you trace

Rotate a sheet that was scanned sideways, and snap to hold lines true when you are following a grid.

Nothing is measured until it can be Until a page has a scale, the measure tools stay switched off and say why in the strip rather than only in a tooltip. The alternative — letting someone trace a roof at no scale and handing them a number — is how a bad quantity gets into a bid.

Measuring

Six tools, and openings you take out by tracing them.

AreaSF · SM

Click the corners and click the first point again to close. Roof planes, wall elevations, anything with a perimeter.

Cut outDeducted

Trace a rooflight, a plant deck or a stair opening and tick it out of the area it sits inside. The parent area carries the deduction, and both shapes stay on the drawing where the next person can see what was taken off.

PolylineLF · LM

Click along a run and press Enter to finish. Upstands, gutters, edge trims, flashings.

LineLF · LM

A single straight length between two points, for the runs that are not worth a polyline.

CountEA

One click, one item. Outlets, vents, fixings, brackets, penetrations.

AngleDegrees

Read an angle off the sheet where a pitch or a splay decides which detail applies.

Each measurement is named as you save it, and every one stays listed in the Takeoff library beside the drawing — so a figure is never an orphan number you have to take on trust. Click one and it is highlighted back on the sheet it came from.

Try the doubtful roof twice A takeoff sheet can hold more than one snapshot — a separate attempt at the same drawing set. Duplicate the first, re-trace the part you are unsure about, and compare the two, instead of destroying a good afternoon's work to test a hunch. A snapshot whose measurements already feed a pushed bill line cannot be erased.

Into the estimate

A measurement becomes a bill line, and shows its working.

Tick the measurements you want in the Takeoff library, open the Bill lines dock with \, type a description and click Build line. To add more to a line that already exists, click Add on it — one measurement can feed several lines, and one line can be fed by measurements from several pages.

Takeoff sheetRoof plan · 3 of 14 pages measured

Description	Qty	Unit	Origin	Status
Single ply membrane to main roof	1,240	SF	VEC 3 areas − 2 cut-outs	Confirmed
Perimeter edge trim	318	LF	VEC 4 polylines	Confirmed
Rainwater outlets	6	EA	VEC count	Confirmed
Parapet capping — north elevation	—	LF	GAP elevation not issued	Open

Push to estimate · choose the estimate and the section

Units are checkedNot advisory

An area cannot feed a linear-foot line. The mismatch is refused at the point you try it, not discovered in the totals.

The working is keptOn the line

A quantity says which measurements make it up, so a reader can see 1,240 SF is three traced planes less two cut-outs — not a figure somebody typed.

Every line is confirmedOne at a time

Nothing crosses into an estimate on its own. You click Confirm on each line, then Push to estimate and choose where it lands.

Suppliers earmarkedOptional

Mark a line for the supplier you expect to buy it from as you build it, so the enquiry writes itself later.

Typed quantities welcomeMANUAL

Some things you already know. Type them straight in and they are tagged as yours, confirmed as entered — recorded honestly rather than dressed up as measured.

Every quantity carries where it came from

VEC traced off the geometry at the sheet's scale DIM read from a dimension on the drawing CALC derived from other figures EST estimated MANUAL typed by you GAP no number, and the reason why

A reader can tell a scaled dimension from a calculated one at a glance, months later, in a job they did not price. That is the whole point of the tag.

Drawing markup

The red pen, on the same sheet you measured.

Markup needs no scale and carries no quantity — it is there to say what you meant, to whoever reads the drawing next. Every mark is listed in the right rail under the measurements, click one to select it, Delete removes it.

Shapes

Box, Ellipse and Revision cloud — drag a rectangle on the sheet and the cloud draws itself around it. The cloud is what a drawing office expects to see around a change, so it is a first-class tool rather than a freehand approximation.

Arrows and lines

Drag from start to end; a toggle puts a head on it. For pointing at the detail that the specification and the drawing disagree about.

Text, labels and callouts

Text box and Label box — drag, type, Enter. A Callout takes a click on the thing you mean, then a drag to where the note should sit, and draws the leader between them.

Pen and highlighter

Hold and draw. The highlighter is translucent so what is underneath still reads — the same swipe you would make on a printed sheet.

Style, while you work

A style strip appears whenever a tool is armed or a mark is selected: colour, line width, opacity, fill pattern, font size and alignment. Set it once and the next mark takes it.

Room to work

The rails fold away and the drawing takes the whole screen. On a laptop on a site desk that is the difference between tracing comfortably and squinting.

Reporting

What you send when somebody asks how you got the number.

Marked-up PDFFrom the digitiser

Every page that carries a measurement or a mark, exported as a PDF with the traces drawn on it, and the quantity schedule with it. This is the document that answers a client, a checker or your own estimator in six months.

Takeoff spreadsheetFrom the sheet

Export spreadsheet gives you the lines, quantities, units and origins as XLSX — for the people who will always want it in a spreadsheet.

Filed automaticallyProject vault

Exports are filed in the project they came from rather than left in a downloads folder, so the job keeps its own paperwork.

Then the estimate's reportsFour of them

Once the quantities are on the bill, the estimate exports a client proposal, an internal cost report, a resource schedule or a full build-up drill-down — see feature 04.

Questions

The questions people ask about this.

What can I measure on?

PDF drawing sets uploaded to the project vault and tagged as drawings. A multi-page set loads as a set, and each page keeps its own scale, so a detail at 1:20 and a roof plan at 1:100 can live in the same file. Specifications and photographs are deliberately not offered as measuring surfaces.

The drawing does not state a scale. Can I still use it?

Yes. Calibrate on a dimension you already know: click across it and type what it really is. That is also the right approach for a sheet that has been printed, scanned and reduced, where the stated scale is no longer true. Until a page has a scale one way or another, the measure tools stay switched off and tell you why.

Can I deduct openings from an area?

Yes, by tracing them. The cut-out tool takes a rooflight, a stair void or a plant deck out of the area it sits inside, and both shapes stay visible on the drawing so the next person can see exactly what was deducted rather than wondering why the number looks low.

Does it measure the drawing for me?

The measuring is yours. What the software does is keep the arithmetic and the audit trail honest: it holds the scale, records which measurements make up which quantity, tags where every figure came from, and refuses to let anything reach an estimate before you have confirmed it.

What happens when a revised drawing arrives?

Take a new snapshot of the takeoff sheet. A sheet holds several snapshots — separate attempts at the same drawing set — so you can re-trace what changed and compare it against the earlier attempt instead of overwriting work you may still need. A snapshot whose measurements feed a bill line you have already pushed cannot be erased.

Can I give the client the marked-up drawings?

Yes. The export produces a PDF of every page that carries a measurement or a mark, with the traces drawn on it, plus the quantity schedule. It is filed in the project vault, so the exact document you sent can be produced again later.

Measure it. Mark it up. Send the sheet.