User guide

Everything you need to know about using Takeoff for PDF measurement and structured take-offs.

1. Overview

Takeoff turns a PDF layout drawing into a measurable, auditable set of quantities. Every measurement becomes a tagged markup with quantity, unit, trade and any custom column you need. The result exports cleanly to CSV for pricing in Excel.

Workflow at a glance: Open PDF → Calibrate → Measure → Tag → Total → Export.

2. Getting started

Opening a PDF

From inside the app, click Open PDF in the header (or drag a PDF file onto the window). Multi-page PDFs are supported — use the page arrows in the header. Calibrations are stored per page.

The interface

Area	What it does
Header	Open PDF, page navigation, zoom, cloud save / projects, CSV export, account.
Left panel	Tool palette, default markup attributes (subject / colour / trade / location), calibration status, snap toggle, per-tool default units.
Centre	The rendered PDF page with a live SVG markup overlay. Scroll to pan; Ctrl/Cmd + scroll to zoom.
Right panel	Two tabs — the filterable Markups List with totals, and a Properties editor for the selected markup.

3. Calibrating the drawing

Calibration tells the app how to convert PDF coordinates into real-world units for the current page. Without it, measurements show as raw PDF points (pt).

Calibration is per-page. Re-calibrate every sheet that uses a different scale.

Method 1 — Click against a known dimension

Pick the Calibrate tool from the left panel.
Click one end of a printed dimension. Move to the other end and click again. Snap-to-geometry locks onto witness lines for accuracy.
Enter the real distance and unit (m / mm / ft / in) in the dialog and press Apply.

Method 2 — Set a 1:n drawing scale

If the drawing is published at a known scale and hasn't been resized, click Set drawing scale (1:n) in the calibration status box. Enter the ratio, the paper unit (mm or in) and the real-world unit you want to work in.

When 1:n is unsafe: Many PDFs are subtly resized when re-published, scanned, or exported with non-standard paper sizes. If a printed dimension exists on the drawing, prefer Method 1.

4. Measurement tools

All measurement tools share the same drawing pattern: click points, then finish with double-click or Enter. Press Esc to cancel; Backspace to undo the last vertex.

Tool	Use
Select	Click a markup outline to select it. Press `Delete` to remove.
Calibrate	Two-click tool that opens the calibration dialog (see §3).
Length	Open polyline. Skirting, pipe runs, fencing, anything linear that may bend.
Perimeter	Same drawing flow as Length but defaults to `m`. Use semantically when tracing the outline of an item.
Area	Polygon. Floor finishes, plastering, roofing, ceilings.
Rectangle	Two-click axis-aligned rectangle. Door / window openings, panel cut-outs.
Count	Single-click; each click drops a count marker. Set the Subject before counting so all clicks land in one group.

5. Snap to drawing geometry

Snap dramatically improves accuracy by locking the cursor to features extracted from the PDF's vector content. It's on by default — toggle in the left panel under Snap.

Indicator	What it means
Orange box	Snapping to a vertex — either an existing markup vertex, a PDF endpoint, a wall corner or a rectangle corner.
Green diamond	Snapping to the nearest perpendicular foot on a PDF edge. Useful for hitting a window opening along a wall.

Snap engages within ~10 screen pixels of a target. Hold Shift to bypass momentarily. Snap is active for Calibrate, Length, Perimeter, Area and Rectangle. It's disabled for Select and Count to keep free placement.

6. Display units

Every length / area markup carries its own display unit. You can mix freely on the same drawing — measure window widths in mm while keeping floor areas in m².

Per-tool defaults

The Default units section of the sidebar has four selectors — one for each measurement tool. New markups inherit the current default for their tool.

Per-markup override

Select a markup, switch to the Properties tab, and pick a different unit from the dropdown. The label on the drawing, list row and totals all update.

7. The markups list

The Markups List is the take-off schedule attached to the drawing.

Column	What it shows
(swatch)	Colour of the markup.
Pg	Page number where the markup lives.
Type	Tool used (length, perimeter, area, rect, count).
Subject	Free-text description.
Trade	Optional trade tag (decorator, plumber, joiner...).
Loc	Optional location tag.
Qty	Computed quantity in the markup's display unit.
Unit	Unit label (m, mm, m², ea, ...).

Filtering, totals, custom columns

Type in the filter box — matches subject, trade, location, notes, type and page.
Switch the page filter between All pages and Current page.
Below the list, totals are grouped by unit — combine the filter and page filter to total just one trade or one floor.
Add custom columns (SOR Code, Rate, Status...) from the Properties panel — they show up on every markup and in the CSV export.

8. Properties panel

Switch to Properties to edit the selected markup. Changes apply immediately to the drawing label, list row and totals. Editable fields: subject, colour, trade, location, unit (length / area markups), notes, custom fields. The quantity is computed and read-only.

Set defaults before measuring. Subject, colour, trade and location values from the left-panel Tool options are copied onto every new markup. Set them up first and you'll have far less per-markup editing later.

9. Cloud projects

Click Save to cloud in the header to store the current take-off against your account. The first save asks for a project name; subsequent saves overwrite. Click My projects to load any project back.

The PDF itself is not uploaded — only the take-off data (calibrations, markups, custom columns, defaults). To resume a project, re-open the original PDF locally and load the saved markups on top.

From your account dashboard you can see all saved projects, their sizes and last-update times, and delete projects you no longer need.

10. Keyboard shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
Save to cloud	`Ctrl/Cmd + S`
Select tool	`V`
Calibrate	`C`
Length / Perimeter / Area / Rect / Count	`L / P / A / R / N`
Finish current measurement	`Enter` or double-click
Cancel current measurement	`Esc`
Undo last vertex	`Backspace`
Bypass snap (momentary)	`Shift` (hold)
Delete selected markup	`Delete` or `Backspace`
Zoom	`Ctrl/Cmd + scroll`

11. Tips & troubleshooting

Set Subject + Colour before measuring. The Markups List becomes far more useful when items are tagged consistently.
Use Trade and Location. They're the easiest filters in the list when generating sub-totals for tender packages.
Add a Rate custom column if you want to export estimating-ready CSV (Excel will compute total = qty × rate).
Calibrate against the longest available dimension. Longer reference distances dilute pixel-level slip.
Save often (Ctrl/Cmd + S). The browser will warn you about unsaved changes, but a saved project is the only safe state.

Symptom	Likely fix
Measurements show as `pt`	Page is uncalibrated — use the Calibrate tool or set a 1:n scale.
Snap not engaging	Toggle is off, you're holding Shift, you're on a non-snap tool, or the PDF is image-only.
Numbers feel slightly off	Calibration drift — re-calibrate against a longer printed dimension, snapping to its endpoints.
Cloud save says "unauthorised"	Your session expired. Refresh and log in again; the in-progress project will warn before reload.