A guide to conducting quantity takeoffs with Drawboard PDF

Import your construction drawings

First thing’s first, you’ll need to import the drawings you’re working with into Drawboard PDF.

Drawboard PDF offers multi-platform access, meaning that users can upload and annotate drawings on any device through the Windows, iOS, macOS, or Android apps, as well as via their browser using the web app.

Users can open files locally from their device or they can open and edit files from their preferred cloud storage service including Google Drive, OneDrive and SharePoint with all edits syncing back to the service in near real-time. Users can also have email attachments automatically uploaded to their Drawboard PDF account to speed up their workflow.

Switch-on content snapping

Need to take measurements? In order to set an accurate page measurement scale and take precise measurements, it’s important to ensure that content snapping is toggled on (available on the web app and Windows app).

Content snapping makes measuring accurate and precise. With content snapping your cursor snaps to embedded content on the page like the corners on a floor plan or the edges of an object. This means you don’t need to rely on how you place your cursor; it will snap into place to help you work faster and with more precision.

Tip: Customize your content snapping settings to fit how you work. Drawboard PDF enables users to set their cursor to snap to line edges, to line midpoints, to line intersections and/or to line endpoints (vertices).

Set your page scale

Before you can begin taking measurements, you need to establish the scale of the drawings. This is crucial for ensuring that your quantity takeoffs are accurate.

In Drawboard PDF setting the page scale for documents is a simple process. If you have a known measurement on your drawing, such as the length of an interior wall or an object, you can easily calibrate it.

Simply select the calibrate tool and use your cursor to click and drag along the known length on your drawing. Once you release your cursor, the page scale settings will appear. From there, you can set the unit you’re working with, your scale and the precision to which you would like your measurements to display.

Once the page calibration is set in Drawboard PDF, a scale legend will display in the bottom left corner of the canvas.

Tip: Apply your page calibration settings to all pages or auto apply your settings to all documents to help you work faster

Select your tools and give them subjects

Now it’s time to grab your tools, apply a subject to each and start counting or measuring.

Users can select from a range of markup and measurement tools from the toolbar. Measurement tools include length, poly length, rectangular area and polygon area measuring tools. Drawing tools include pens, highlighters, straight lines and polylines, as well as various shapes.

By adding tool subjects, you can streamline the process of identifying and quantifying different types of items within your PDF document. This efficiency can save time and reduce the likelihood of errors during the takeoff process. It also makes it easy to sort by selected materials to see your quantities and measurement sums at a glance.

Note: In Drawboard PDF users can add multiples of the same tool to their toolbar and add a unique tool subject to each to easily distinguish between them.

Count and measure your quantities

Want to tally your materials quickly? Use an annotation tool, such as the pen or highlighter, to mark dots on your document for quantity counting. Ensure to assign a tool subject to the pen you're utilizing to count specific objects or materials on your drawing. This guarantees clear visibility of your count totals within the Annotation History.

Measuring flooring materials? Add an area measurement tool for each flooring material you’re working with and set a relevant tool subject to each. This makes it possible to sort your measurements and data by material via the Annotation history so that you can see your quantities clearly and easily.

Sort your data and view your totals

In Drawboard PDF you can sort your annotation data in various ways via the Annotation History (Advanced view). Users can group and sort data by page, timestamp, author, tool type, tool subject and more.

To quickly and easily see your material quantities and measurements, group your data by tool subject. If you would like to see a combined total of your area measurements, view the area column and ensure that it is set to ‘sum’.

Tip: Group your data by tool subject in order to quickly see combined totals of your measurements and counts.

Export your survey data

Once your survey data is formatted in a way that makes sense to you and your team, export it as a CSV. Use this data to draw up your Bill of Quantities (BoQ) or to keep a record of your material estimates and each step of the estimating process.

The exported file will display in the format that is set in Drawboard PDF, for example if your Annotation History table is formatted from left to right with Page, timestamp, author, this is how it will display in your exported CSV.

With the right tools and techniques, you can optimize your quantity takeoff process and set your construction projects up for success.

Drawboard PDF helps construction professionals to streamline the way they mark up, collaborate and conduct quantity takeoffs.

To try it for free, get started with a 7-day free trial.

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