The measurement tools

There are five measurement tools, a Ruler, the Read like one tool, and a Select tool for changing what you have already drawn.

Tool	Shortcut	How you use it	What it produces
Count	C	One click per item	A number of items
Line	L	Drag from one end to the other	A length
Polyline	P	Click each corner along a run	A total length
Area	A	Click each corner of the shape	An area
Rectangle	R	Click one corner, then the opposite one	An area
Ruler	U	Click each point along a run, double-click to finish	A length to read off — nothing is saved
Read like one	X	Draw a box around one symbol, inside one patch or across one line	Every one like it on the page, for your review

Length, area, count and rectangle, each feeding a different kind of field.

Read the drawing

Every way of taking a quantity off the drawing itself is behind the magic-wand button: on the selected field’s row, and in the panel’s header beside New field. Press it and a pop-up opens beside the panel with the tiles for the field you have open:

• A count field gets Symbols like one, Windows and openings, and Items per one.
• An area field gets Rooms, Areas like one, and Outside walls.
• A length field gets Rooms, Windows and openings, and Lines like one.

Count everything in the legend sits under the tiles and needs no field. Pressing a tile closes the pop-up, and so does a click anywhere else.

The magic-wand button on a count field opens Read the drawing: Symbols like one, Windows and openings and Items per one, with Count everything in the legend beneath.

A tile that cannot run yet says why when you hover over it: no field chosen, or no scale on the page.

Under the tiles are the AI’s buttons: Measure with AI for the open field, Draft this take-off… for every field at once, and Where does the draft stand?. They are paid from your AI credit: see AI measuring. The tiles themselves read the drawing’s own lines and cost nothing.

The three “like one” tiles arm the Read like one tool (X on the keyboard, or the box on the toolbar). Draw a box and the page is read by what the field measures: around one symbol for a count, inside one patch for an area, across one line for a length. The box shows on the drawing as you move to the second corner. The tool stays armed for the next box, and V goes back to Select.

Whatever lands is flagged for review, and nothing counts until you accept it. The review strip pinned to the foot of the fields panel says what was read and offers Accept all and Discard run. It stays in view however far you scroll the list. The same run shows as a pill over the drawing, beside the shapes being judged, with the same two buttons.

Let the drawing do the counting

A PDF printed from a design program is not a picture: every wall is a filled shape, every door a handful of short lines, every room name a piece of text with a position. Take-Off reads those back, and that costs nothing. Everything it finds is placed for your review, drawn in the field’s colour and flagged, and nothing counts until you accept it.

It needs that line work. A scanned drawing has none, so on a scan these tools have nothing to read. Symbols like one hands a scan to the AI instead: see Symbols like one on a scan.

Symbols like one

With a count field open, press Symbols like one, or use the Read like one tool, and draw a box around one symbol on the drawing: click one corner, then the opposite corner. Every copy of that symbol on the page is pinned for review:

• A door is found by its swing, and only doors of the same width are offered: a 720 is not an 820.
• A round symbol (floor waste, downlight, pier, column) is found by its size.
• Anything else is matched line for line against the box.

Count everything in the legend

An electrical or landscape plan prints a legend: one symbol per row with its name beside it. In the Read the drawing pop-up, press Count everything in the legend… and draw a box round the whole legend, symbols and names together. No field needs choosing first.

Every row is read and its symbol counted over the page, the same way Symbols like one counts one. A window lists the rows with how many copies each has on the page and where the count goes: the count field whose name already matches the row, or a new field named after it. New fields go under the assembly you pick. Rows with no copies on the page, colour and texture swatches (turf, mulch, gravel: those are areas, use Areas like one) and headings start unticked.

Press Count and each field gets its own run in the review strip, so you accept or discard a legend row at a time. Nothing counts until you accept it.

It needs a drawing with line work, and a legend with a symbol on each row: a row that is only an abbreviation is read as a heading and left out. Check each row’s count before you accept it.

A landscape legend read in one box. Turf, mulch and gravel are areas, so they start unticked: measure them with Areas like one. The trees and shrubs are counted.

After two or three pins, the rest is offered

Pin a symbol by hand two or three times and Take-Off looks for more of what the last pin sits on. A strip under the field says Found N more like the last one on this page, with Add N for review. Place the pin on the symbol itself rather than beside it, so there is something to match.

Rooms

With an area or length field open, press the Rooms tile. The window that opens, Rooms on this page, lists the rooms read from the walls and named from the room names printed on the plan, with each one’s floor area, perimeter and the number of doors in its walls. Tick the ones that belong to the field:

• An area field takes each room’s floor, to the inside of the walls.
• A length field takes each room’s perimeter, or the perimeter with the doorways taken out, which is the skirting.

Doorways are closed before the floor is measured, so a half-open door’s quarter circle is not left out and the room is not cut short at the door. Two rooms with nothing between them (a kitchen open to the dining room) come as one space with both names.

The page needs a scale first, and a room that is not named on the plan is not listed.

Let AI pick the rooms, in the same window, ticks the rooms that belong in the field and says why on each row: see Let AI pick the rooms.

Windows and openings

With a count or length field open, press Windows and openings. Every break in the walls on the page is listed (windows, doorways, cased openings, the garage door), grouped by the size code printed beside it on the plan (1806 SH, 21.30 OXXO SGD) or, where there is none, by kind and width, with the rooms each one serves. Tick the rows that belong to the field:

• A count field gets one pin on each opening.
• A length field gets each opening’s width, as a line across it.

A door field starts with the doorways ticked; any other field starts with the windows and openings. A row with a size code is one the plan names. A row that says “read from the walls” was found from the line work alone, so look it over before you add it. The list can include breaks that are not windows at all, such as a cupboard or a nib, which is why you tick.

Items per one

Hardware is never drawn on a plan (no hinges, lever sets or door stops), so it cannot be counted off one. With a count field open, press Items per one to make fields for what comes with each one: hinges 3, lever set 1, door stop 1, or whatever you type. Each new field is fed by the count times that number, the same link the Field tab offers one at a time, so it follows the count as it changes. Nothing is drawn for them.

Areas like one: turf, paving, render

With an area field open, press Areas like one, or use the Read like one tool, and draw a box inside one patch of what you want: a patch of turf, a paved path, a rendered face on an elevation. Every patch like it on the page lands for review:

• A painted colour is matched by colour, as it shows on the page. Turf under the house is not turf, so the house comes out of it.
• Hatching (brick coursing, cross-hatched aggregate) and a scatter (gravel dots) are matched by the pattern.
• A plain patch is read as the space closed in by the lines around it: a rendered face on an elevation, a concrete path.
• On an elevation printed as a picture (most are), brick and board textures are followed in the picture itself, so brick coursing stops where the coursing stops. Faint textures (render stipple, fine-texture cladding) are too light to follow and are read from the lines around them instead, so two claddings with no line between them come as one face: box each and draw the split.

Openings inside a patch, such as a window in a brick face, are taken away. With Deduct on, the patches subtract instead: box the turf, then box the gravel with Deduct on, and the field holds the turf less the gravel. The review strip quotes any figures the plan prints, such as “TURF (APPROX. 106m²)”, so a big difference shows at once. Check a landscape area against the plan before you accept it: gravel printed as dots over green, for example, still reads as turf until you deduct it.

One box inside the turf on a landscape plan. The patch lands for review with the house and other openings taken out; the gravel still needs deducting before you accept it.

Outside walls

With an area field open on a floor plan, press Outside walls. The outside face of the external walls is read from the plan, with every window and door in it and the height each one’s size code gives (1806 SH is 1.8 high). Type the wall height, untick what should stay, and the field gets the walls as a run round the house times the height, less the openings. The elevations are not needed for that sum; use them to split a face between brick and render with Areas like one.

Lines like one: fences, retaining walls, the boundary

With a length field open, press Lines like one, or use the Read like one tool, and draw a box across one line: the boundary, a retaining wall, a fence. Every line drawn in that style on the page (same colour, width and dashing) is chained end to end into runs, dashes included, each named by the label printed beside it, such as “EXISTING RETAINING WALL”.

One box across the boundary line. Every line drawn the same way is chained into runs, named from the plan, and waits in the review strip.

Count

Click once on each item. Every click is its own measurement, so you can delete a single miscount without disturbing the rest.

Each pin can be worth more than one. In the field’s settings, Each pin counts as makes one click count as two (twin downlights) — and a count field isn’t the only place a pin can go. Set a default factor on a length or area field and a pin into it is one standard piece: 3.6 LM of rail panel, 1.44 m² of window. Until that is set, the Count tool stays off for that field and says why.

Use it for doors, windows, downlights, taps, posts, tie-downs — anything you would otherwise tally on paper.

Line

A single straight length, drawn with one drag. Best for one-off dimensions, and for checking a figured dimension when you are verifying a page scale.

Polyline

Click each corner along a run, then double-click or press Enter to finish. Use it for anything that changes direction: skirting, footings, kerbs, fencing, wall runs.

Area

Click each corner of the shape, then double-click, press Enter or press C to close it.

Snap to the drawing’s lines. The crosshair button beside Snap makes new points jump to the corners and crossings of the PDF’s own linework as well as to your shapes, so a click near a wall corner lands on it exactly. Native PDFs only - a scan has no lines to read. Switch it off on a busy sheet if it grabs the wrong line. Take-Off closes the shape back to your first point automatically — you do not need to click it again.

Rectangle

Click one corner, move to the opposite corner — the rectangle follows the cursor with its area in the readout — and click again. Two clicks, not a drag, so you can zoom and pan between them. It is saved as an ordinary area: rooms, slabs, sheets and panels that really are rectangles, without four careful clicks and a double-click.

Ruler: check a length without measuring

Sometimes you only want to know how long something is - does this room take a 3.6 m sheet, how far is the meter box from the switchboard - without it going into any field. That is the Ruler (U): click each point along the run and double-click (or press Enter) at the last one. Each leg shows its own length and the total sits at the end and in the readout. For a straight length, click one end and double-click the other. Nothing is saved, nothing reaches the BOQ, and it needs no field chosen, so it works for people who can only view the take-off. It snaps to the corners of your shapes (and the drawing’s lines, if that switch is on) like every other tool, Shift keeps a leg straight and Ctrl+Z takes back the last point. The line stays on screen until you start another, change page or tool, or press Esc. The page needs a scale first, or there is no length to give.

Making it accurate

These five habits are the difference between a take-off you can defend and one you cannot.

• Hold Shift to constrain to 0° / 45° / 90° from the last point. Walls and slab edges are overwhelmingly square, and this is the difference between a tidy take-off and one that is half a degree out everywhere.
• Points snap to nearby corners of measurements you have already drawn, so shapes that share an edge meet exactly rather than nearly. When you want a point that just happens to sit near one you have already placed, press S — or the Snap button in the toolbar — to switch snapping off. Hold Alt to flip it for a single point without changing the setting. The choice is remembered.
• Zoom in. The accuracy of a take-off is limited by how precisely you can click, so zoom in on corners rather than working at fit-page.
• Every leg shows its own length while you draw, and on the shape you have selected. A mis-clicked corner shows up as one wrong leg the moment it lands, not as a total that is “a bit high” at the end.
• Pan without losing the shape. Middle-drag, or hold Space and drag, mid-shape. A corner that is off-screen is not a reason to start again.
• Ctrl+Z takes back the last point. Misclicked a corner? Undo it and carry on, rather than abandoning the shape and starting again. Press it repeatedly to walk back point by point. An arc counts as one step, so it comes off whole.

Deducting openings: windows, doors and voids

A wall is rarely a plain rectangle. You measure the whole elevation, and then the windows, the doors and the garage opening have to come back off it. A deduction is a measurement that subtracts from its field instead of adding to it.

1. Measure the wall as normal.
2. Press D, or click Deduct in the toolbar. It turns dark orange.
3. Draw the window exactly as you drew the wall — same tools, same snapping, same arcs.

The field total drops by what you drew. Deduct mode stays on, so a run of six windows is six shapes and not twelve keystrokes — and it turns itself off when you change field, so it cannot quietly carry over into the next thing you measure.

A deduction goes into the field that is selected when you draw it

Take the window out of the wall by having the wall’s field active — not a separate “openings” field, which would subtract from the wrong quantity.

A deduction is drawn with a dashed outline and no fill, its label carries a minus, and it is genuinely punched out of the shape it sits inside — so a window in a wall looks like a window, not a darker patch. The marked-up PDF export prints it the same way, and the summary page lists it as “Deduct p3”.

To turn an existing measurement into a deduction (or back), click the + / − button on its row in the field list. It is the same control the BOQ’s calculation sheet uses, and it means the same thing.

It is not only for areas: a run of skirting can have the door openings taken out of it, and a count can be deducted where a schedule double-counts.

Changing what you have measured

Switch to the Select tool (V) and click a measurement.

Measurements are locked until you switch on Move. Click Move in the toolbar, or press M. Until then clicking selects a measurement and Del still deletes, but dragging does nothing — so a drag you meant as a pan can’t shift a wall a few millimetres without you noticing. Move switches itself off when you pick another tool, open another drawing, or press Esc; the button and a banner on the drawing show while it is on.

To do this	Do this
Save the marked-up PDF into Documents	The arrow beside Export › Save to Documents › Take-off. Plain Export downloads it
Unlock moving	Click Move, or press M
Move a corner	With Move on, drag the point
Move the whole shape	With Move on, drag one of its edges
Add a corner	With Move on, double-click the edge where you want it
Remove a corner	Click the point, press Del
Delete the measurement	Click it, press Del with no point selected

Several at once. Ctrl+click shapes or rows to build a selection, or drag a box on empty drawing to take everything inside it. A bar appears over the drawing with one action for the lot: delete, move to another field, set a height, factor or pitch, or flip them between adding and deducting. With Move on, the arrow keys nudge the whole selection (Shift for bigger steps) and dragging one selected shape moves them all. A plain click on empty drawing, or Esc, clears the selection.

The quantity updates as you drag, and so does anything in the BOQ priced against it.

You cannot reduce a shape below the number of points it needs — an area needs three corners, a polyline two. Take-Off will offer to delete it instead.

There is no undo once a measurement is saved

While you are drawing a shape, Ctrl+Z takes back the last point as many times as you need. Once the measurement is finished and saved, there is no undo — select it and adjust it, or delete it.

Curved walls and bay windows: arcs

While drawing a polyline or an area, press A. The next two clicks are:

1. a point the arc passes through, and
2. the arc’s end.

The arc is drawn, and the tool goes straight back to drawing straight lines. Anything you had already placed is untouched.

The arc starts wherever your path already is, which is why only two more clicks are needed.

• Press A again to back out of the arc without losing the shape. Esc cancels the whole shape.
• The hint under your cursor always says which click is expected next.

This is the same gesture PlanSwift uses, so if you have taken off there it should feel familiar.

Worked example: a bay window

You are running a polyline around the external wall of a house that has a bay window on the front elevation.

1. Press P and click along the wall until you reach the point where the bay begins. Hold Shift to keep the straight runs square.
2. At the start of the bay, press A. The hint changes to “Click a point the arc passes through”.
3. Click the outermost point of the bay — the middle of the curve.
4. Click where the bay meets the wall again. The arc is drawn.
5. Carry on clicking the remaining straight runs as normal, and press Enter at the last corner.

The whole perimeter, curve included, is one measurement with one length.

Why a finished arc has lots of points

Arcs are stored as a fine series of points, accurate to well under a millimetre on the sheet. That means an arc can be reshaped point by point like any other measurement — but it also means you cannot grab a finished arc and re-bend it as a single curve. Delete and redraw it if you need it different.