Takeoff

Arm tools, the takeoff ledger, measured / derived / allowance, typical units, assemblies and BOM, exports, snapshots.

Takeoff turns markups into quantities: every count, run and area placed with a tool chest tool becomes a takeoff item, and the takeoff ledger adds them up by item, floor, suite, circuit or page. Takeoff needs an estimating profile: Electrical estimating, Plumbing & HVAC estimating, Estimating — other trades or All features.

The workflow

Set the scale on every sheet you measure (Measure).
Arm a tool in the tool chest and click on the drawing (next section).
Watch the quantities in the takeoff ledger.
Let the app find the rest: Symbol search finds every other copy of a symbol for you to accept.
Export to Excel, or freeze the estimate.

How to take off with the tool chest

Open the Tool chest (box button on the right rail, or Takeoff → Tool chest).
Click a tool to arm it. Count tools start the Count tool, run tools start Polylength, area tools start Area.
Click on the drawing: each device for counts, along the run for cable, conduit, pipe or duct (finish with double-click or Enter), around the area for areas. See Finishing drawings.
The armed tool's name shows in the status bar with a × to stop it; Esc or Takeoff → Stop tool chest tool stop it too.

Each markup carries the tool's trade, family, type, class and assembly. For electrical devices you can assign the circuit while counting: see Electrical.

Tagging markups you already drew

Select measurements (counts, lengths, areas), right-click → Takeoff item…. Pick a tool and click Apply tool, or change family, type, spec, class, assembly, circuit or wiring for all of them at once.

The takeoff ledger

Open it with the Takeoff ledger button in the status bar (it shows how many takeoff markups the file has) or Takeoff → Takeoff ledger. It opens under the drawing with three tabs: Quantities, BOM & estimate and Changes.

On the Quantities tab:

Group: two levels from Trade, Family, Item, Location / suite, Floor / zone, Panel, Circuit, Page, Class and Assembly.
Filter box, trade buttons (the trades this document holds), class buttons (Measured, Derived, Allowance), This page, and Prototypes / schematic to show lines that are not totalled.
Columns: Item, Location, Circuit, Page, Assembly, Measured, Derived, Allowance, Total, UOM.
m / ft switch for lengths.
The columns button adds computed columns such as "+10 %", "75 m coils" or "Labour $" (edit them in Takeoff library → Custom columns).
Warnings above the table: pages without a scale, unknown panels or circuits, wiring notes that were not understood, and so on.
Click rows to select them, then Show on drawing to find their markups, or edit those markups right below the table.

Measured, derived and allowance

Quantities are kept apart so you always see what was really measured:

Measured: drawn on the plans.
Derived: calculated from what was drawn: typical units multiplied out, verticals and makeup, SET fittings and pipe hangers, unit exceptions.
Allowance: added on purpose, e.g. a tool's waste %, or tools whose class is Allowance.

Typical units (multi-family buildings)

Take off one suite, then multiply it:

Draw a Space around the typical suite (Measure group → Space) and take off everything in it.
Right-click the space → Use as typical unit prototype… and name the unit type.
Open Takeoff → Typical units. For each unit type, add the suites of that type (name, floor, M = mirrored, P = this is the suite that was drawn).
Use ± on a suite to add exceptions (e.g. one fewer receptacle) compared with the prototype.

The ledger multiplies the prototype into one derived line per suite. Tools marked Shared (shared equipment) are never multiplied. Draw spaces first: a space becomes a unit prototype.

Assemblies, BOM and labour

Tools point to assemblies in the Takeoff library (Takeoff → Takeoff library): an assembly lists the materials and labour for one unit of the item.

The BOM & estimate tab shows materials, quantities, labour hours, unit cost and extension, with Labour rate $/h and the labour cost. Warnings list unknown assemblies, unit mismatches and unpriced materials.
Prices come from the library's Price list (Import price CSV).
Assemblies are company data: only a Library admin can edit them.

Labour units and pipe-support spacings shipped with the app are placeholders until WOW and SET set their own. Check them before relying on labour totals.

Estimate snapshots and changes

Freeze: on the BOM tab type a Snapshot name (e.g. "Tender") and click Freeze, or use Takeoff → Freeze estimate snapshot. A snapshot is a frozen copy of quantities, BOM and pricing that never changes later.
The Changes tab compares two estimates (Current (live) or any snapshot): before / after per item, By item (change order), delta material and labour, and Change order draft to Excel.

Exports

Takeoff → Export takeoff XLSX, or XLSX on the ledger.
CSV: every kind is in the Takeoff menu (and Ctrl+K): Export takeoff CSV — summary, — items, — detail and — bill of materials. CSV on the ledger offers the same four: Summary (quantity rows), Items (measured / derived / allowance), Detail (one row per point / run part) and Bill of materials.
Live export to file (Live on the ledger): pick an Excel file once; it is rewritten whenever quantities or pricing change. The status bar shows the file and how many times it was written; click × to stop. If the workbook is open in Excel, writing can fail (the status turns to a warning): close it in Excel.

Quantity legends on the drawing

Takeoff → Insert quantity legend (or Legend on the ledger): choose the Scope (This page, A space (suite / room) or Whole document) and a trade, click Place on drawing, then drag where the table goes. The legend lists accepted quantities, updates itself and is never counted.

Bringing in quantities from elsewhere

Takeoff → Import Bluebeam measurements… turns Revu measurements in the file into iCOS takeoff items (counts keep one point per counted item; item, layer, colour and author are kept). Replace the originals hides the Revu markups now and removes them when you save, so nothing shows twice; Ctrl+Z brings them back.
Takeoff → Import vendor takeoff (CSV)… reads results from another takeoff service as pending detections to review: nothing counts until accepted (Symbol search).

iCOS → Material request from takeoff… and RFQ draft from takeoff… create drafts in iCOS (iCOS).
Takeoff markups are private by default: File → Export shared copy… leaves them out unless you tick them in (Pages and files).

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