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Upload the set
Put the commercial PDF on the Project. When the addendum arrives, add that file to the same Project. The other office is not hunting an emailed copy.
Commercial preconstruction
Modern customizable construction software
Takeoff software built to save time. Simple real time collaboration for large to small organizations and teams. Google Docs for PDF markups.
- Scale read on the sheet.
- One collaborative project, not emailed PDFs.
- CSV with the page on every row, into the workbook.
- Browser, Mac, or Windows.
Your quantity names. Customizable when needed.
You self-perform one scope and subcontract another, often on the same bid. A desk that only knows one trade makes you rename the export before anyone can price it. You type the Subject. The list and the CSV use that name.
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The Subject is your estimate line
Type the name your estimating file already uses. Markups List groups the totals under it, so pricing does not start with a translation. Save that Subject on a Tool Chest tool on this desk and the next Length, Count, or Area starts with the name filled in. A Takeoff profile keeps those measure tools on the desk and can hide the ones you are not using.
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You choose who opens this Project
An Organization holds the Projects. Invite the precon team with View or Edit, including someone in another office, from Share. A sub or a consultant can join this Project as a guest without sitting in the company directory. Revoke access when the bid is over. There is no Session to start.
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We change the software to the missing step
Bring the set and the quantity template your team already uses. Where that template needs a name, a column, or a step the desk does not have, we change the software so the step is on the desk. You do not rebuild the estimate around a fixed list. We do not price the job.
What you get back on the set
The desk reads the scale, keeps one set for the team, and exports the list. You still confirm the dimension, and you still measure.
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Less time on scale
Typing the scale on every sheet of a large set is the first hour you do not get back. The desk reads viewports, scale text, and scale letters drawn as lines (scale detection). You confirm one known dimension. Skip that check and every length and area on the sheet is a guess.
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Your names in the list
Subject is the line your estimate already has. Markups List totals group by that name. Guardrail and handrail stay separate when your estimate separates them. You are not renaming a generic export the night the number is due.
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One current set
Put the PDF on a Project. Someone in another office opens that Project instead of a file in email. Two people with Edit can measure at the same time. The Markups List is the same list.
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No retype into the workbook
Export a CSV with Subject, page, length, area, count, and unit. Drop it into the workbook you already price. The page stays on the row, so a question in the pricing meeting goes back to the sheet.
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Same desk in every office
Open the same login in the browser or the Mac or Windows app. After you have opened a Document, keep measuring if the connection drops. The first open of a new PDF still needs a connection.
Where the hours go before the number is due
Preconstruction is not short of a place to type a price. It is short of a quantity the estimator and the person in the other office can both point at on the sheet.
The same desk covers a self-perform scope and a subcontract scope. You name each one. You do not keep a second tool for the second trade.
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An addendum the same day
When the addendum changes a sheet, you open that page, adjust the measures, and export again. You are not rebuilding the quantity file from a PDF someone emailed at 4pm.
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Another office, same measures
Anyone with Edit can measure while you do. You are not merging two markup files before the pricing meeting, and you are not waiting on one Windows install in one office.
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A quantity someone will question
Every CSV row carries the page. In a value-engineering review, or when a superintendent asks where the number came from, you open that sheet. You still decide what is in the bid.
Calibrate, then measure, then export
Four steps from the PDF to a CSV your estimators can price. The desk reads the scale when you open the sheet, including each AutoCAD viewport and scale letters drawn as lines (scale detection). You confirm a known dimension, measure in your Subject names, and export rows for the workbook. The addendum is a change on the page, not a new spreadsheet.
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Calibrate
The desk has already read the scale on the sheet, including each viewport. Confirm a known dimension before you trust a length or an area. One bad scale on a large set is a bad quantity in the estimate.
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Measure in your names
Length, Polylength, Count, and Area on the page. Set the Subject to the line your estimate already has. Totals update in the Markups List while you are still on the sheet.
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Export for pricing
CSV with the page on every row. Your estimating group prices it in the workbook they already use. Takeoff stays quantities.
Bring a set and the template you price from
Request access
Request access with a PDF your team would take off this month, and the breakdown already in your estimate. We run calibrate, measure, and CSV on that set, in your names. If the template needs a step the desk does not have, that is the change we make.
Request AccessHow it works
- Upload the set onto one Project
- Calibrate, then confirm a known dimension
- Measure in your quantity names
- Export the CSV into the workbook you price
How the Project and the handoff work
How the desk finds the scale on the sheet (scale detection), who can open a Project and who can measure, how that works in the browser or a Mac or Windows app after the link drops, and why the CSV is quantities rather than a price.
- Working together Who can open the Project, who can measure, and how you revoke access when the bid is over.
- Browser desk No install for the person in the other office. Same Project, same markups.
- Mac and Windows app The same desk in a Mac or Windows window when the estimator wants an app.
- How to choose takeoff software Measure desk, estimating system, or bid board. Pick the job before the product.
- Get Bluebeam takeoff into Excel Stop retyping the Markups List into the workbook you price.
- Takeoff vs estimating Quantities off the set, then price in your workbook.
Bring a set your team would take off.
Request access with the PDF and the quantity template. We set the desk up around that template, including the step it does not have yet. You measure on the page. Your estimators price the CSV. No public list price.