takeoffquote

Measuring — the seven tools

TakeoffQuote measures with seven tools: One-Click Area (click inside a room), Area (trace a boundary), Rectangle (two clicks), Linear (click points, double-click to finish), Surface Area (wall SF from a traced run), Count (one click each), and Select (edit anything after the fact). Deducts subtract voids, the zone check answers "what's in this wing?", and snapping pulls clicks onto true drawing corners.

Every tool commits into the active condition and refuses politely without a scale. While tracing: ⏎ or double-click finishes a shape, ⌫ pops the last point, Esc abandons the trace. A held click that moves becomes a pan instead of placing a point.

The seven tools

  • One-Click Area (O) — the fastest way to measure a room: click inside it, and the linework bounds a flood fill, the boundary traces itself, and the vertices snap to true corners. What comes back is a dashed proposal — keep clicking rooms to add them, review the grips, then ⏎ Create. Nothing enters the takeoff until you commit it. When it can’t trace (an open doorway, dense hatching), it says why instead of guessing.
  • Area (A) — click vertex by vertex around the space; close it at three or more points. The committed shape reads SF and perimeter LF. A Straight / Curve switch (Q) handles bowed walls and radius corners mid-trace — an arc is three clicks and it’s a real circle.
  • Rectangle (R) — two clicks: one corner, then the opposite corner. Between them the cursor chip reads live — width × height, SF.
  • Linear (L) — an open run: click point by point, double-click (or ⏎) to finish → LF. If the condition carries a thickness (T), the run also yields SF = LF × T⁄12 for borders and strips.
  • Surface Area (S) — trace a wall run in plan; wall SF = traced LF × the condition’s height (H). Select a committed wall to override the height for just that one.
  • Count (C) — one click, one marker, one EA. Counts commit immediately on click and are the one measurement that works without a scale.
  • Select (V) — click a shape to edit it: drag a corner to move a vertex, drag an edge to move the whole line, drag the body to move the shape, ⌫ deletes. Quantities recompute live, and every completed gesture is one undo step (⌘Z).

Deducts (D, ⇧D)

The Cut Out menu subtracts voids: Deduct shape (D) traces a polygon, Deduct rectangle (⇧D) boxes one. A deduct belongs to the active condition and subtracts its SF from that condition’s total — columns, shafts, openings, anything inside a traced area that shouldn’t be in the number. Deducts draw in dashed red and carry their negative sign into the report’s shape audit.

Zone check

Zone (toolbar button) answers “what’s in this wing?” without touching the takeoff. Trace a region — a phase, an area, a building wing — and a panel lists every condition whose shapes sit inside, with quantities computed by the same rules as the Report. It’s a reading, not a takeoff: nothing is saved, and Esc clears it.

Snap and the angle lock

The Snap toggle pulls your cursor onto true PDF endpoints — real corners extracted from the drawing’s own vectors; corners always win over axes. The 45° toggle (on by default) quietly locks segments to 0°/45°/90°/135° when you’re within a few degrees, so walls come out dead square. Scans have no vector endpoints, so Snap has nothing to grab there — the tools still work on the rendered pixels.