Takeoff

Takeoff is where you measure quantities straight off your drawings — lengths, areas, volumes and counts — and push them into your estimate as priced line items. Measure once, and a change on the drawings flows through to your pricing instead of being retyped.

Cost codes first. Every takeoff item is tied to a cost code, so make sure your codes are set up before you start (see Jobs & Job Cost).

How takeoff fits together

• Takeoff is done against a project and a specific estimate — you choose which estimate you’re measuring for.
• A document set is a named, versioned collection of drawings (e.g. “Working Drawings — Rev A”). You can supersede a set when newer drawings arrive.
• Each drawing in a set is a page you measure on, with its own scale.
• A takeoff item is a named quantity (tied to a cost code) — you draw measurements on the drawings and they add up against the item.
• When you’re done, you export takeoff items to the estimate, where they become line items you can price.

Step 1 — Open takeoff and pick the estimate

Open the estimate for the job and select the Takeoff you’re measuring for. Everything you measure is held against that estimate, so you can keep separate takeoffs for separate revisions or options.

Step 2 — Create a document set and upload drawings

1. Create a document set — give it a name, a version/revision (e.g. “Rev A”, “v2”) and the drawing date.
2. Upload your drawings into the set. You can upload PDFs or images (JPG, PNG, etc.), and multi-page PDFs are split into individual drawing pages. You can upload several files at once.

The set’s files are stored in the Documents app behind the scenes, so your drawings live alongside the rest of the job’s documents.

While your PDFs convert

A drawing set isn’t measurable the moment the upload finishes. Each PDF page is first converted into a drawing image you can measure on, and a large sheet takes a moment. CortexPM does this in the background, so on a forty-sheet working-drawing set you’re not left waiting on a frozen screen — you can see where it’s up to and start work as sheets become ready.

What you’ll see:

• In the upload panel each file’s status becomes Converting… once the transfer finishes, and a banner reads Converting N PDFs to drawings. You can keep this open, or close it — the drawings will appear when they’re ready.
• While you’re creating a new set, the Documents tab is labelled Documents (Converting…). Open Set still works — it opens the set now and the rest of the sheets land as they finish.
• On the takeoff toolbar a progress chip reads Converting page N of M with a bar beside it. Before the page count is known it reads Preparing drawings….
• Pages appear one by one as they’re ready, not all at the end, so you can start measuring on sheet 1 while sheet 40 is still converting.

Tip: you don’t have to wait on the screen. The takeoff screen keeps itself up to date while anything is still converting, so you can close the upload window, go back to the job, and the drawings will be sitting there when you return.

Watch out: if a large set takes more than five minutes, the upload panel shows PDF conversion timed out. It may still finish — refresh shortly. The conversion is usually still running — refresh the takeoff screen and the sheets will appear as they finish. A file that genuinely can’t be converted reports the error against that file instead.

Managing document sets

• Switch which set is the current, active one you’re working in.
• Update a set’s name, version or details.
• Supersede a set when a newer revision arrives — the old one is kept for history.
• Swap a drawing to replace a single page’s file with an updated one while keeping all the measurements already drawn on it — handy for minor drawing revisions. Before you pick the replacement file, record the New Revision (e.g. “Rev B”, “Issue C”), the Revision Date and any Notes (e.g. “Coordinated with structural”), then Select File.
• View swap history on a drawing that has been replaced — every swap keeps the old filename, its revision and the date, so when a quantity is queried six months later you can show which sheet it was measured off.
• Delete a drawing or a set you no longer need.

Step 3 — Set the scale

Before you measure, calibrate each drawing so distances are real-world accurate.

1. Open a drawing and choose Set Scale. The Set Drawing Scale panel opens.
2. Either calibrate or enter the ratio: - Calibration Mode — draw a line along something with a known dimension (a grid spacing, a door opening, the scale bar) and type that dimension into Actual Length (mm). This is the reliable option, because it measures the sheet as it actually printed. - Or set Scale Ratio directly — 1:5, 1:10, 1:20, 1:50, 1:100 (the default), 1:200, 1:500, or Custom for anything else (e.g. 1:150).
3. Set the Page Size — A1, A3 or A4 — and choose Apply.

Watch out: the page size matters as much as the ratio. A 1:100 plan issued at A1 and printed to A3 is really 1:200, and a PDF carries no memory of that. If the ratio and the page size don’t match what you’re looking at, every quantity off that sheet is out by a fixed factor — which is exactly the kind of error that survives all the way to a signed contract sum. When in doubt, calibrate.

Watch out: if you change a drawing’s scale after measuring, CortexPM recalculates all the measurements on it so your quantities stay correct — but always confirm the scale is right before you do a lot of measuring.

Step 4 — Create takeoff items

A takeoff item is the thing you’re counting up — for example “External wall — brickwork” or “Slab — concrete”. Create an item with:

• Cost code — what this quantity will be costed against (required). The item’s description defaults from the cost code if you leave it blank.
• Measurement type — what you’ll actually draw: Lineal, Area or Count.
• Quantity types — a single measurement can produce up to three results at once. For example, a lineal measurement of a wall can give you length and, with a height, an area. Available types include Length, Area, Volume, Count, Perimeter, Surface area, Both sides, and Top and bottom.
• Dimensions — width, height and depth (in millimetres) used to derive area and volume from what you draw (e.g. a wall’s height to turn a length into an area, or a slab’s depth to turn an area into a volume).
• Count shape and colour — for count items, the shape to drop; the colour distinguishes the item’s markups on the drawing.

You also set the export quantity — which of the item’s quantities is the one sent to the estimate.

Step 5 — Measure on the drawings

With an item selected, draw on the drawing to record measurements:

• Lineal — trace a run (walls, footings, services).
• Area — outline a region (slabs, roofing, paint areas).
• Count — drop markers on items (downlights, piers, fixtures).

Each measurement adds to its takeoff item’s total, and the totals roll up live as you go.

Tip: turn on Continuous Mode in the toolbar for long runs — each click adds another point along a lineal path or around an area, and you finish the shape with a double-click, Space, or a right-click. Without it you’re starting a fresh measurement every time. Crosshair draws full-width and full-height guide lines through the cursor once you have a takeoff item selected, which helps when you’re lining up on a grid across a wide sheet.

Tip: Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y undo and redo measurements, so a mis-traced wall is a keystroke to fix rather than a hunt-and-delete.

Watch out: deductions are not yet available. You can’t currently mark a measurement as a deduction from the takeoff screen. Handle openings and voids by measuring them as their own takeoff item and allowing for them in pricing — a void you’ve traced has not come off the total.

Step 6 — Export to the estimate

When your quantities are ready:

1. Select the takeoff items you want to export.
2. Export to estimate. CortexPM creates estimate line items from them, carrying the chosen export quantity, unit and cost code across.

Each exported takeoff item stays linked to its estimate line. Back in Estimating, Check takeoff sync shows any lines whose quantities have drifted from the drawings, and Update takeoff quantities pulls the current measurements through — so a revised drawing updates your pricing without re-keying (see Estimating).

Marking up drawings

Measuring tells you how much. Markup tells the next person what you meant — the clouded revision, the note that says the slab step is confirmed, the arrow at the detail that doesn’t match the engineer’s. Turn it on with Toggle Markup (the highlighter icon) on the takeoff toolbar, and the draggable Markup toolbox appears. Drag it by its header to park it somewhere out of your way.

Markup sizes

Markup sizes are in points — the same unit as printed text. A 12 pt note is the same physical size on an A3 detail as it is on an A1 floor plan, so you set a size once instead of re-guessing it per sheet.

The tools

An empty text box is discarded and a very short arrow drag is ignored, so stray clicks don’t litter the drawing.

Tip: while a creation tool is active, existing markups stop responding to clicks, so you can draw straight over the top of what’s already there without grabbing it by accident. Press Esc to get back to the pointer.

Style controls

The toolbox only shows the controls that apply to the tool you’re using or the item you’ve selected, and its header tells you what you’re about to change: New markup when you’re styling the next thing you draw, or N selected when you’re restyling what’s already there.

• Colour — swatches plus a Custom colour picker; this sets stroke and fill together.
• Line weight — 0.25 pt through 6 pt.
• Line style — Solid, Dashed, Long dash, Dotted or Dash dot.
• Text size — 6 pt through 72 pt, with Bold, Italic and Underline.
• Text plate — a white backing behind the text so a note stays readable over dense linework. Worth having on for anything written across a hatched area.
• Revision cloud bump size — Fine, Small, Medium, Large or Coarse — and Cloud fill opacity. A cloud round a whole room and a cloud round one dimension both want to look right, and bump size is what does that.
• Opacity — a slider with a live percentage, for sitting a mark over linework you still need to read.

Restyling a selection also updates the defaults, so the next item you draw matches what you just set. Changing a style while the text editor is open keeps the editor open — you can watch the size change as you pick it.

Selecting, moving and tidying up

• Drag on empty canvas to marquee-select: anything the box touches is selected.
• Shift+click adds or removes items; Shift+drag adds a marquee to the current selection; Ctrl+A selects every markup on the page.
• Selecting a single item loads that item’s style into the toolbox, so the controls always show what you’re about to change.
• A selected revision cloud gets resize handles, and you can grab a cloud anywhere inside its bounds rather than having to hit the thin outline.
• Right-click for Copy, Cut, Paste, Delete, Bring to front and Send to back. Right-clicking an unselected item targets that item first.
• Clear all markup wipes every mark on the current page.

Watch out: markup is not saved. It’s held only while you’re on the screen — refresh the page, switch drawing sets or close the tab and it’s gone, and nobody else can see it. Right-click is the markup menu while markup is on, so pan with a middle-mouse drag instead.

Watch out: Ctrl+Z does not undo markup. Undo and redo apply to measurements only, so a markup mistake is fixed with Delete or the right-click menu, not by undoing.

Tip: because markup isn’t saved, treat it as something you produce in one sitting and then export. If a clouded revision or a note matters to anyone but you, get it into a PDF before you leave the screen.

Exporting a marked-up drawing

Export PDF on the takeoff toolbar produces a copy of the drawing with your measurements and markup on it — for checking your own work, sending a query to the architect, or keeping a record of exactly what was measured when a variation is argued later.

In the Export Drawing as PDF dialog, choose:

• Current View — exactly what’s on screen now, at the zoom and pan you’re looking at. Use it to pull out one detail.
• Full Page (2D only) — the whole sheet.
• Include measurements summary — adds a schedule of the measured quantities behind the drawing, so the sheet and the numbers travel together.

The PDF carries your markup shapes and annotations; selection handles are never included.

Where to next

Your measured quantities feed straight into pricing — see Estimating to turn them into a costed estimate, then approve it to create the budget in Jobs & Job Cost.