Takeoff
Measure it on the drawings once. Every quantity follows.
Open the plans on the estimate, set the scale, and trace walls, floors and openings or click to count fixtures. Each measurement feeds a named quantity, and every line that uses it reprices when the measurement changes.
Bring the drawings in
Upload a drawing set to the estimate as a PDF, or a PNG or JPG scan, up to 150 MB. If the plans are already filed in a job’s documents, pick them from there instead of uploading them again.
Set the scale, page by page
Choose the scale printed on the sheet: architectural from 1/16" = 1'-0" to 3" = 1'-0", engineering from 1" = 10' to 1" = 100', or metric from 1:1 to 1:1000. A scanned image asks for the resolution it was scanned at.
Or calibrate: draw over a dimension printed on the plan and type its real length the way you would write it, 12' 6", 12.5 ft or 3.8 m. Calibrate whenever a PDF has been shrunk to fit a smaller sheet, because it is no longer at its printed scale. Each page keeps its own scale and reads in imperial or metric.
Four ways to measure
Ridgepole refuses to total a length or an area on a page with no scale, rather than quietly leaving one wall out. Measurements can be named, grouped and colour-coded, and undo and redo work across the whole session.
- Length: click along a wall, a run of footing or a fence line
- Area: trace a floor or a roof plane, and cut out openings such as a stair well or the windows in an elevation
- Perimeter: the distance around an outline, for baseboard or a slab edge
- Count: click each outlet, pot light or fixture
Measurements feed the estimate
Each measurement, or a whole group of them, feeds a named quantity on the estimate, such as wall_length or slab_area, in the unit you choose: inches, feet, yards, millimetres, centimetres or metres, or the square of any of them.
Estimate lines use those quantities in formulas. Studs at 16 inches on centre with a dozen extra is ceil({wall_length} * 12 / 16) + 12. Sheathing is {wall_length} * {wall_height}. Change the wall length and every line built on it reprices, with the margin at the top moving as you watch.
Formula takeoff without drawings
No plans yet? Type the quantities in by hand and the same formulas work. Formulas can add, subtract, multiply and divide, and use round, ceil, floor, min, max, abs, pow and sqrt, and nothing else. Save a set of quantities and formula lines as a takeoff template, and the next deck or basement starts from it.
Built for how it works in Canada
Imperial and metric, on the same job
Canadian drawings come in both. Each page reads in its own system, and each quantity is kept in the unit you price it in, so a metric site plan and an imperial floor plan can feed the same estimate.
Feet and inches the way you write them
Type 12' 6", 12'6 or 3.8 m when you calibrate. Ridgepole reads them the way a builder means them.
Labour taxed as labour
A formula can drive a labour line as easily as a material one, and that line takes your province’s starting tax treatment for labour rather than being lumped in with materials.
Questions builders ask
Which plan is takeoff on?
Growth and Enterprise. It covers measuring on drawings, quantity formulas and takeoff templates. The 14-day free trial runs with Growth features, so you can try it on a real set of plans before you pay.
Does it work with scanned drawings?
Yes. Upload a PNG or JPG and give it the resolution it was scanned at to use a printed scale, or calibrate it from a known dimension on the sheet.
What if the PDF was printed to fit a smaller sheet?
Then it is no longer at the scale printed on it. Calibrate instead: draw over a dimension you know and type its real length, and every measurement on that page uses it.
Can my field crew see the drawings and measurements?
No. Estimates, the drawings on them and the measurements are for owners, admins and project managers.
Who does the measuring?
You trace and click, and Ridgepole does the arithmetic. Every quantity on the estimate is one you measured and can point to on the sheet, and your drawings are never handed to an AI.
Works with
- EstimatingSections, assemblies and your own cost catalog, with markup and margin side by side.
- Proposals and e-signatureThe client signs on their phone, and the job is set up with its budget before you get back to the truck.
- PurchasingPurchase orders, deliveries checked on site, and supplier bills matched to the order before anyone pays them.
- DocumentsDrawings, permits and contracts in folders on the job, with every version kept.
See it on your next job.
Start free. 14 days to decide. Questions go straight to someone who knows Ridgepole inside out.
14 days free. No credit card. Use it on a real job. Cancel any time, there is no contract and no exit interview.