The measurement tools

There are five measurement tools, 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

Count

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

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 or press Enter. 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.

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.
• 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
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

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, or Esc, to back out of the arc without losing the 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.