Take off a plan in feet and inches

Open the regional settings and set the measurement system to imperial, the number format to US and the currency to USD. From here on every quantity you are shown is in feet, square feet, cubic yards, pounds and short tons.

Why: Setting this after the takeoff means re-reading every quantity you already checked. Setting it first is the difference between a bill you can hold against the drawing and one you have to convert in your head while the client is on the phone.

Upload the architectural and structural sheets into the project files exactly as they were issued, with the revision letter and the issue date recorded alongside them.

Why: Drawings get reissued during a bid period. When the scope argument comes, the only thing that settles it is being able to say which revision your quantities were measured on, and to open it.

Open the sheet in PDF measurements, draw the calibration line across a grid bay or an opening the drawing dimensions, and type that dimension in feet and inches. A bay called out at 24 feet 6 inches is entered as 24 feet and 6 inches, not as 7.468 metres.

Why: A PDF that has been printed to fit, rotated or reissued at a different sheet size no longer honours the scale in its title block. Calibrating against a dimension the drawing states is the only scale you can defend, and the product records where it came from so a later reader does not have to guess.

Work the sheet trade by trade: area for slabs, roofing and finishes, polyline for footings, curb and partitions, count for doors, fixtures and columns. Name each measurement after the scope it belongs to rather than after the shape you drew.

Why: Named measurements are what let a second estimator check your numbers, and what lets you re-measure only the part that changed when the sheet is reissued. An unnamed pile of shapes has to be redone from scratch.

In the takeoff register, group the measurements by scope and turn areas into the quantities a rate is actually against: slab area times thickness gives concrete in cubic yards, wall length times height gives the square feet of framing and board.

Why: This is where a takeoff either stays a set of shapes or becomes a quantity a subcontractor can bid. Doing it in the register rather than in a side spreadsheet keeps the thickness you assumed attached to the number that used it.

Send the quantities to the bill and price each line in the unit the trade quotes in: square feet for slab finish and drywall, linear feet for curb and base, cubic yards for concrete, pounds or tons for reinforcing. Where a quantity is a dimension rather than a total you can type it the way the drawing writes it, as 12'-6 3/4", and the line takes the value.

Why: A rate you can compare against last job and against the sub's quote is a rate in the unit both of them used. Pricing per square metre and converting at the end is how a bid loses an argument it should have won.

Run validation over the priced bill and clear what it finds: a line still at zero, a quantity that does not tie back to a measurement, a weight priced against a ton where the quote was per pound.

Why: A short ton is 2000 pounds and a metric tonne is about 2205, so a steel line that quietly swapped one for the other is out by nine percent before anyone has argued about the rate. This pass is where that gets caught.