1. Tag As You Measure
Takeoff reads your tags, so what you tag is what you get. Every tag carries a category, and the category is what decides how the quantity is totaled — area categories total in square feet, linear ones in linear feet, count ones in each.
This is why defining your categories properly is the single highest-leverage setup in the app. The same categories are the canvas palette, the takeoff grouping, and the structure of your price book.
- Tag categories decide the unit: SF, LF, or EA.
- Window and Door are built in and open their own measurement dialogs.
- Pin and View are markup — they carry no quantity and no price.
2. Open Takeoff
Takeoff groups your placed tags and totals each group. You can group two ways, and the choice is about who's reading it: by category is the supplier's view, and by location is the walk you'd do on site.
Each line shows how many tags it came from, so a number you don't believe is one tap from the tags that produced it.
- Group by category — the supplier's view, and the default.
- Group by location — the order you'd walk the house.
- Every line names how many tags it aggregated.
- Windows and doors group together.
3. Match Products And Fill The Gaps
Lines match to price book products by category, and where a product is style-aware the match can key off the tag's own style. A line with nothing behind it is flagged rather than quietly priced at zero.
Fix gaps in place. Choose a product for an unassigned line, or enter a missing price without leaving takeoff — the moment the price lands, the line re-renders with its flags cleared and its waste applied.
- Unassigned lines are flagged, never silently zero-priced.
- Choose a product or add a price without leaving the screen.
- The takeoff heals itself as soon as the price is set.
4. Waste And Order Units
Measured quantity isn't order quantity. Each product carries its own waste factor, and where it's bought in supplier units — bundles, boxes, pallets — its coverage figure converts your measurement into whole units you can actually order.
A waste check reviews the factors before you commit, so a category with no waste set doesn't quietly under-order.
- Waste is applied per product, not guessed once at the end.
- Coverage converts SF or LF into whole supplier units.
- The waste check catches products with nothing set.
A line reads "order 14 BDL +10% waste" — that's the measured area, plus waste, converted into whole bundles.
5. Send It To The Supplier Or The Estimate
Copy Order List gives you the whole takeoff as text you can paste into an email or a text message to your supplier — quantities already in order units with the waste included.
When the supplier quotes back, Import Quote reads their numbers in. And when you're ready to price the customer, Create Proposal hands the takeoff to the estimate editor as line items — grouped into the same sections, with rates from your price book.
The drawing has to be linked to a job before you can create a proposal from it. That's the rule that keeps every measurement attached to real work.
- Copy Order List — the whole takeoff as pasteable text.
- Import Quote — read a supplier's quote back in.
- Create Proposal — carries the takeoff into the estimate.
- The drawing must be linked to a job first.
6. When The Drawing Changes
Drawings change after the estimate is written. Re-sync from the drawing shows exactly what moved — quantities that changed, tags that are new, and lines whose tags are gone — and you choose which changes to take.
Nothing is applied silently. That matters, because the estimate may be a document your customer is already looking at.
- Quantity changes, new items, and removals are listed separately.
- You pick what to apply.
- A signed contract can't be re-synced — that's a change order.