--- title: "Quantity takeoff from drawings" role: estimator slug: quantity-takeoff status: ready today updated: 2026-08-23 canonical: https://aiagents.construction/roles/estimator/quantity-takeoff/ --- ## The job At a $5–10M GC, takeoff is usually one estimator with a PDF set and a deadline: measure everything, twice if the addendum lands late. It is the slowest, most mechanical part of getting a bid out, and it caps how many bids the company can chase in a month. “Done” for this job: a quantity sheet by trade, tied to sheet references, that the estimator has reviewed and would defend in a bid interview. The agent's output is never “done” — it's the draft the estimator marks up. ## Use Several products run computer vision over your drawing set and return editable first-pass quantities [[1]](#cite-1) [[2]](#cite-2) [[3]](#cite-3). The workflow is the same regardless of which you pick: 1. **Upload the set.** Full architectural set, best available scale. Auto-detection quality tracks drawing quality — a fuzzy scan gives a fuzzy takeoff. 2. **Run the automatic pass.** The tool detects rooms, walls, and counts [[1]](#cite-1). Treat the output as a junior's first attempt, not a result. 3. **Review by exception.** Walk the set and correct: split, merge, and reclassify what the model got wrong. This is where the estimator's hours now go. 4. **Export to your pricing.** Quantities out to Excel or your estimating system [[1]](#cite-1) — these tools do takeoff, not costing. Keep pricing where your cost history lives. Vendor accuracy and speed claims are marketing until they happen on *your* drawings; independent research is thinner and more cautious than the ads [[4]](#cite-4). The pilot below is how you find your own number. Published research recycled from the prior listing found AI plus manual cleanup about 70–76% faster and most adjusted quantities within 5% of On-Screen Takeoff on a small architectural sample; it also says not to bid the raw AI. ## Build A general-purpose model with vision can read plan sheets and produce door, fixture, and room schedules and rough area estimates from a PDF. It can help with counts and schedules, or provide an independent sanity-check against purchased output. Precise measured quantities need purpose-built tools; don't bid off an LLM's scale reading. > A workable v1: a prompt template that returns a CSV door/room/fixture schedule with sheet references, run per addendum. Keep the transcript with the bid file so counts are auditable. ## Deploy 1. Pick a recently completed bid where you trust the numbers—your answer key. 2. Run the agent on that set and time upload, automatic pass, estimator review, and export. 3. Diff against the answer key by trade; record failures and whether review caught them. 4. Decide using a threshold set in advance. If it misses, stop and retry later. Use your drawings, not a vendor demo set. Buy only if the full cycle returns time and the estimator will still check every sheet. ## Manage - **Human review is a rule.** No quantity leaves takeoff without an estimator's pass. - **Confirm scale on every sheet.** Auto-detection is a hint, not acceptance. - **Know the failure modes.** Clean architectural floor plans are the best fit. Civil/site, structural, elevations, RCPs, poor scans, and busy annotations require more manual work [[1]](#cite-1). - **Do the seat math yourself.** The published Growth price is $299/user/mo billed yearly. It must beat hours saved on your actual bid volume. - **Keep exports.** Quantities can leave in a spreadsheet; classifications and chat history may not. - **Check data handling.** Drawings can be under NDA. Review security claims and contract terms before uploading. ## Tools cited 1. [Togal.AI](https://www.togal.ai) — Cloud takeoff; auto-detects rooms, walls, and counts from uploaded sets, with estimator editing and Excel export. Public pricing $299/user/mo billed yearly (Growth); claims SOC 2 Type II. Weakest on civil/site and elevation-heavy work. Last verified 2026-08-23. 2. [STACK](https://www.stackct.com) — Cloud takeoff and estimating platform with AI-assisted measurement; broader estimating features, takeoff automation less central than [1]. Last verified 2026-08-23. 3. [Autodesk Takeoff](https://construction.autodesk.com/products/autodesk-takeoff/) — 2D/3D takeoff inside Autodesk Construction Cloud; strongest if your sets already live in ACC. Last verified 2026-08-23. 4. [University of Kansas study on AI takeoff (2025)](https://www.togal.ai/case-study/peer-reviewed-study-togal-ai-vs-on-screen-takeoff) — Independent academic evaluation of automated takeoff accuracy; more conservative than vendor claims. Prefer this over marketing numbers. Last verified 2026-08-23. ## Changelog - 2026-08-23 — Page created; absorbed and replaced the /listings/togal-ai/ vendor review.