Counting and Measuring on Plan PDFs

Use the Material Takeoff tool to count items and measure linear/area on plans.

The **Takeoff** page lets you measure and count directly on your plan PDFs, and keeps a record of which sheet each quantity came from.

Upload and open a plan

Select **Upload Plans** on the Takeoff page and choose a PDF. The first upload creates a plan set for you and opens the PDF immediately. Use **Tools** → **Manage Plans** later to name plan sets, label revisions and remove files.

Move between sheets with the **‹** and **›** buttons above the drawing, or type a sheet number in the sheet box.

Make room while you measure

Takeoff opens with the main OwnerDraw navigation narrowed on a computer, so more of the plan is visible. You can expand that navigation again yourself; when you leave Takeoff, OwnerDraw restores the navigation preference you had before.

The toolbar keeps the plan file, sheet controls, zoom, **Fit Sheet**, **Fit Width**, **Set scale**, **Items**, **Help**, **Quantities**, **Tools** and **Expand Workspace** above the drawing. **Tools** holds less-frequent actions: **Manage Plans**, **Calculators** and **AI Helper**.

Use **Items** to close or reopen the item list. On a computer, drag the list edge to resize it. Your selected item, named measurement and search stay in place when the list reopens.

Use **Expand Workspace** for longer measuring sessions. It hides the surrounding OwnerDraw navigation and header without using browser fullscreen. Select **Exit Expanded View** to return to the normal page.

Measure something

1. Select **+ Takeoff Item**.
2. Name it as you would say it — *Flooring*, *Exterior Walls*, *Toilets*.
3. Choose the **Measurement type**: **Area** (SF), **Linear** (LF), **Count** (ea), **Wall SF** (SF) or **Volume** (CY). Wall and volume items also ask for a height or a depth.
4. Select **Add and start measuring** and draw. **Rectangle** takes two opposite corners; **Polygon**, **Linear** and **Wall SF** take a series of clicks, finished with a double-click, Enter or **Done**. **Count** is one click per item.

Each item holds **named measurements** — *First Floor*, *Second Floor* — and the item total adds them up. A named measurement can hold several shapes and still counts once.

Set the scale

**Count** needs no scale. Everything else needs a scale on that sheet before a quantity can be saved.

Select **Set scale**, then either pick a **Standard scale** from the sheet's title block or **Calibrate** by clicking two points along a dimension you know and typing its real length. Scale is stored per file and per sheet, so details and enlarged plans keep their own.

If you draw before setting a scale, OwnerDraw says *Set the scale first* and leaves your drawing on screen — set the scale and it saves itself.

Changing a scale on a sheet that already has measurements asks **Recalculate this sheet?** first. Confirming recalculates the quantities on that sheet only; your shapes, openings and heights stay exactly as drawn.

Pan and zoom

Use zoom out, the zoom percentage and zoom in for manual zooming. **Fit Sheet** fits the whole page in the available workspace. **Fit Width** fills the available width.

When the plan is zoomed in, hold **Space** and drag on the drawing to pan temporarily. This does not cancel the active measurement or remove unfinished points, and it is ignored while you are typing in a field.

Read and export your quantities

**Quantities** shows the totals for the selected plan set, with each named measurement's file, sheet and subtotal. **Summary CSV** downloads one row per item; **Detailed CSV** downloads every named measurement.

Totals belong to the plan set you have selected — different revisions are counted separately and never combined.

Takeoff does not touch your money

Takeoff measures. It does not add waste, convert to purchase units, hold prices, change your Budget, create an expense or order anything. Take the measured quantity, add your own waste and unit price, and enter it on the **Budget** line yourself.

The full walkthrough is *Measuring Your Plans with Takeoff*.