Explainer

How the take-off works

The short version: your drawings already contain the numbers. This tool reads them, adds them up the way you would, and puts them in your sheet, with a record of how it got each one.

The problem it solves

Today a job means measuring every item in PDF-XChange, then typing each measurement into the allowance document as a long sum like =4.10+3.25+4.10+2.80…. On a mid-sized fit-out that can take a couple of days. When the client asks for options or a drawing is revised, the typing starts again, and a single slip in a typed sum is hard to spot.

What's inside a marked-up PDF

When you draw a distance line in PDF-XChange, it doesn't just paint red on the page. It saves a measurement in the PDF: where the line starts and ends, plus the drawing scale you set (1 mm = 0.1 m at 1:100). Area shapes save their corner points, and circles are saved as separate objects. The tool reads those saved measurements and works out each length and area from the geometry and the scale, exactly as PDF-XChange does.

Tested against a real marked-up job: every measurement matched the figure PDF-XChange shows on screen, and the totals matched the hand-typed allowance document wherever the drawings were the only source. Where they differed, the check tab says why.

From drawing to spreadsheet line

Each drawing is matched to a line in your allowance document automatically, from its file name (item, height band such as "3600 high" in the 3300–3600mm line, ff/gf) and the line's unit (m, m², nr). Anything it isn't sure about is put in front of you to pick.
Lengths are summed for lines priced in metres, areas for m², and counted circles × height for column casings. One line per opening gives the number of doors.
Several drawings can feed one line (ff + gf add together). Lines your sheet links with a formula like =B8 are left alone and follow automatically.

The safety checks

It never changes your original file. You always download a new copy.
It shows its working. The Take-off check tab lists every line's drawings, markup count, quantity, the previous figure and any warning.
It checks units. Drawings calibrated in metres, millimetres or centimetres are converted to metres. Anything else is listed, never guessed.
It flags rather than guesses. Big differences from your previous figure, drawings with no markups, and markups left behind by "Save As" are highlighted for you to decide.
It tracks revisions. Run it again after a drawing changes and it tells you which lines moved and which drawings changed.

Your files stay with you

The page is a set of instructions your browser follows. When you drop in drawings and a spreadsheet, they're read and processed on your own computer. Nothing is uploaded, and nothing is seen by us or anyone else. Every part of the page, including its code libraries and fonts, comes from this one site, and the page's security settings stop it from contacting anywhere else.

To save you redoing work, your browser keeps two things on your computer only: any matches you changed by hand, and the last run's quantities (so it can show what changed). More options → Forget remembered matches on the Take-off page clears them.

What it doesn't do (yet)

It doesn't measure for you. You still mark up the drawings, which is where your judgement goes.
Hand calculations written as notes on a drawing (e.g. a quick area sum in a text box) are listed in the check tab but not added in.
Allowances you add on top of a measurement (e.g. =120+15) need a rule agreeing. For now, the measured figure goes in and the old sum is shown.
It's a proof of concept, built and tested on one real job. Matching relies on the file names. A full version could also read a short code you type into each measurement in PDF-XChange, and handle several tabs or options at once.