Tutorials TakeoffCraft help Walkthroughs
Use TakeoffCraft with an AI assistant
Let your own AI assistant or script read the takeoff's quantities and estimate, and export it: permissions, connecting through CadCraft Studio, and the activity log.
Written for TakeoffCraft 0.4. The same help is inside the app: press F1.
What you will learn
How to let an AI assistant (or a script you wrote) work with TakeoffCraft, and how to decide what it is allowed to touch.
TakeoffCraft has no AI of its own and sends nothing anywhere. You bring the assistant: Claude Desktop, Claude Code or any program that speaks the Model Context Protocol (MCP). TakeoffCraft only gives it tools, and you choose which.
Turn it on
- Open Settings (the gear in the app bar, or ⌘,Ctrl+,) and go to the TakeoffCraft tab.
- Under Assistants, tick Let AI assistants and scripts use TakeoffCraft. It is off until you do.
- Choose what it may do: Read is ticked to start with; tick Edit, Save or Export only when you need them.
Tools outside the permissions you ticked are not offered to the assistant, and if it asks for one anyway, TakeoffCraft refuses and writes it in the activity log. Turning the switch off ends every connection at once; Reset TakeoffCraft settings turns it off too.
Connect your assistant
Assistants connect through CadCraft Studio on your computer: Studio runs a small server only this computer can reach, protected by a token it makes each time it starts. In Studio, choose Connect an assistant and copy the address and the token into your assistant (Studio shows the exact settings for Claude Code, Claude Desktop and other MCP clients). Never share the token.
You stay in charge
- Every change is one undo step, labelled with the assistant's name for it (for example "Assistant: …"). ⌘ZCtrl+Z takes back the assistant's last change as a whole.
- You know when one is connected. A button in the app bar names the assistant while it is connected; click it to see what it may do, or to Disconnect it.
- Activity. Settings › TakeoffCraft › Assistants › Activity lists every call: when, which tool, done or refused. Save the log keeps a copy.
What an assistant can ask for
| Tool | Permission | What it does |
|---|---|---|
app_info, sheets_list | Read | The takeoff open, its PDFs and sheets, each sheet's scale and marks |
items_list | Read | The items with their units, rates and assembly formulas |
takeoff_quantities | Read | Quantities per item or per sheet; marks on sheets with no scale are listed, never counted as zero |
takeoff_estimate | Read | The priced estimate as TakeoffCraft computes it, with its totals |
takeoff_export | Export | TakeoffCraft's own CSV or XLSX export |
An assistant can't draw or change marks in TakeoffCraft yet: it reads, and exports when you allow it.
The same quantities and estimate are available without opening TakeoffCraft: the CadCraft MCP server opens a .takeoff.json file in a folder you name (takeoff_open, takeoff_quantities, takeoff_estimate, takeoff_export), and cadcraft info Job.takeoff.json prints them on the command line.
If something doesn't work
- The assistant sees no TakeoffCraft tools: check that the switch is on in this window, and that the window is open in Studio.
- "needs the export permission": tick Export under Assistants, then ask again.
- "401" or "token" errors: the token changed (Studio restarted, or New token). Copy the new one into the assistant's settings.