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Tutorials TakeoffCraft

TakeoffCraft help

Quantity takeoff & estimating. Start at the top if you are new; jump to a walkthrough if you know what you need.

Written for TakeoffCraft 0.3. The same help is inside the app: press F1. Open TakeoffCraft

Getting started

  • What's new in 0.3

    A 3D check view stands the open sheet's walls, slabs and counts up on the drawing, and the side panels can now move to another side or a second monitor.

  • Getting started with TakeoffCraft

    What TakeoffCraft does, where it runs, and your first measured and priced item from a PDF plan set.

  • The TakeoffCraft screen

    A tour of the window by on-screen name - the toolbar, the sheets list, the sheet, the Items panel, the Quantities table and the status bar.

  • Files TakeoffCraft opens and saves

    PDFs in, a takeoff project file, spreadsheets and marked PDFs out - what each holds, where it goes, and what changes online, offline and between browsers.

Walkthroughs

  • Start a takeoff and open a plan set

    Open one or several PDFs as a plan set, find your way round the sheets, and move between them.

  • Set the scale

    Give each sheet a scale with a preset or by calibrating on a known dimension, check it, and understand why unscaled sheets are left out of the totals.

  • Create takeoff items

    Make linear, area and count items and set their unit, height or depth, waste and material and labor rates.

  • Measure linear runs

    Take off walls, piping, trim and other lengths as runs, with straight segments, arcs and the Shift 45-degree snap.

  • Measure areas with cut-outs

    Outline floors, ceilings and slabs, cut holes out of them, add curved edges, circles and round cut-outs, and read area and perimeter.

  • Count by hand

    Click each door, fixture or device to count it, check your counts, and fix mistakes.

  • Auto count a symbol

    Box one symbol, let TakeoffCraft find the others on this sheet or every open sheet, review the matches with the slider, and add them in one step.

  • Copy, paste and duplicate marks

    Copy marks with their items, paste them where you click or in the same place on another sheet, duplicate them, cut, delete and select all, each one step to undo.

  • Assemblies and formulas

    Add components to an item and let formulas turn its length, area or count into studs, plates, sheets of board, concrete and hardware, with a worked wall example.

  • Read quantities and the estimate

    Use the Quantities table by item and by sheet, the job total, highlighting, and the Incomplete warning.

  • Check the takeoff in 3D

    See the open sheet's walls, slabs and counts standing on the drawing, orbit round them, and click one to select its mark.

  • Export the estimate and a marked PDF

    Download the estimate as an XLSX workbook with live formulas or as CSV, and copies of your PDFs with the takeoff drawn in.

  • Save and reopen a takeoff

    Save the takeoff as a .takeoff.json project, reopen it with the same PDFs, and what happens when a PDF is missing or has changed.

  • Start a new takeoff

    Clear everything and start an empty takeoff without reloading the page, and keep your work safe first.

Coming from other software

Reference

  • TakeoffCraft settings

    Show inches to 1/16, 1/8 or 1/4, start new items with a waste percentage, choose where the Auto count slider starts, snap to 45° without holding Shift, and pick the 3D view's corner indicator.

  • Keyboard and mouse

    Every key, mouse, trackpad and touch action in TakeoffCraft, grouped, with the platform differences.

  • Length, rate and percent entry

    What you can type for distances, heights, money rates and waste percentages, with examples and the messages for input TakeoffCraft cannot read.

  • Scale presets

    Every preset in the Preset list - architectural, engineering and metric - and what each assumes about the PDF.

  • Formula language

    The rules for assembly quantity formulas - variables, operators, functions, rounding and every error message.

  • Units

    The units an item can report in, the units its formula variables use, and how imperial and metric mix.

  • Export columns

    Every worksheet and column of the XLSX export and the CSV, with the formulas the Estimate worksheet carries.

Troubleshooting and limits

  • Troubleshooting

    Symptoms, causes and fixes for the messages and surprises you may meet in TakeoffCraft, quoted as the app shows them.

  • What is not built yet

    Takeoff features this build does not have, and what to do instead today.

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