How an estimator uses this

1. Landing → Open Sample. No account. No card.
2. Plan is the drawing. Takeoff is the grid. BOM is the Excel sheet. Bid is the letter. Verify is the gold pack.
3. Click a type in the navigator. Marks highlight on the sheet. Click a mark to jump to the line.
4. Replace drawing (header, or the teal control in the navigator) to drop your own PDF.

Open the sample job

• Click and hold to pan. Scroll wheel zooms on the cursor.
• Full screen hides the job header and tabs. Esc or the exit control brings them back.
• Sheets on the left. Symbols and homeruns on the right. Click a symbol to highlight it on the page.
• Exclude a sheet with Off next to the name. It drops out of the takeoff.
• Ribbon: Home, Draw, Annotate, View, Select, Measure, Sheet, Assembly. Right-click the sheet for the same tools.
• Calibrate scale on a known dimension. No scale, no invented footage.

• I'm unsure is first when marks are weak. Sorted lowest confidence. Click a row — the sheet opens on that mark. Keep or drop. Dropped marks leave the takeoff.
• Takeoff is the grid: fixtures, receptacles, switches, specials on lighting and power plans.
• Floors stitches split sheets (E201 / E202 of the same level). Match-line marks count once. Overall sheets are not a second takeoff.
• Homerun arrows become pipe, wire, couplings, straps. Orthogonal runs — 90s, not fan curves.
• Loops between fixtures are the circuit, not extra EMT.
• Legend, schedules, and cover sheets are catalog. They are not the takeoff.
• Existing-to-remain on the same sheet as new work: (E) stays, new marks count. Demo sheets treat (E) as remove — labor only.
• Type a Takeoff cell to override. Re-run fills empty cells only. It will not wipe a number you already changed.

• The panel schedule is the index of the job. Pick a panel, then a circuit. Devices on that homerun sit on the right. Click a device to land on the sheet.
• Spare / space is a labor allowance. It is not a floor-plan device.
• Homeruns: fill from the breaker, LF from a measured run or a calibrated orthogonal to the panel. No scale, no invented footage — LF stays UNKNOWN.
• Voltage drop is percent on that length. Over 3% on a branch, we suggest the next AWG. We do not invent a price for the wire.

• Excel-style grid: filter, sort, copy, paste, insert row above or below, hide columns, named sheets.
• Right-click a row for the same commands as the ribbon.
• Hours come from assemblies. You set $/hr.
• Kind column: counted vs derived. Derived is fittings, drops, and footage from the recipe — not a glyph on the plan.
• Save edits to the shop book for the next job. Restore defaults any time. Named revisions keep a snapshot.

• The Bid tab is the letter you send. Takeoff by type with hours and material, devices by drawing, proposal numbers, scope, exclusions, assumptions, payment, schedule, stamp, then print.
• Labor rate, labor column (normal / difficult / very difficult), and markups live on Bid. Edit a box. The letter updates immediately.
• Stamp is the print version. Print stays locked until you stamp. UNKNOWN material is not $0 — stamp stays blocked until those quotes are in and intake (name, GC, scope) is done.
• Quote packages are named on day one. Lighting, gear, controls, and fire alarm stay UNKNOWN until an RFQ returns. A blank amount is not a silent $0, and the letter will not claim a lump while they are open.
• OFCI lives in italics inside the include line: “Install light fixtures. *Light fixtures furnished by owner.*”
• Order of precedence: this letter → addenda → specifications → drawings.
• Change a quantity, a markup, or a letter field and the stamp drops so you do not send a stale letter.
• Empty scope, exclusions, payment, and schedule print the shop defaults. Type over them when this job is different.

• Start with the bid package, not the PDF. Name, GC, and a written scope before you stamp.
• Count one system at a time: lighting by type → switches → receptacles → specials → gear → fire alarm. Never count the legend, the schedule, or the detail bubble.
• Assemblies do not include branch. Fixture = fixture + hangers. Homeruns are their own pass.
• Raw hours live in the assembly. Productivity factor (typical 1.3) lives on Bid. Specialty cable is sold on reels — cost the roll.
• Multifamily is a hybrid: job stays commercial. Price one typical unit, multiply, cut labor −5 to −20% on stacked floors only. Do not cut material.
• House nets come from a Crescent/Graybar file the shop owns. Identity SKU or blank. Blank is honest. There is no public customer price book to download.
• Think tab holds the full playbook. Corpus and Verify hold gold drawings — not chat uploads.

• Verify is the gold pack. Drop a drawing PDF and the shop Excel for that job. One file, several Excel sheets, a bulk drop, or a folder.
• The drawing is the takeoff. The Excel is the answer key. Quantities never paste onto the count.
• View any uploaded file in place. Download one file or the whole pack.
• The Verify tab on a job is that job’s inbox. Send drawings here — they stay in the shop database.

• Four books, not one dump: item master (identity), price book (shop overlay), labor book (shop hours), assemblies (primary qty → secondaries). Branch is not buried in the device assembly.
• Drop a Graybar / Crescent / house CSV on Catalog → Import. Nets land on the same families. Unmatched rows stay identity-only. Blank stays UNKNOWN.
• Public lookup hits one SKU at a time on storefronts. We do not invent a price.
• Fixture packages: paste the quote. Commodity (EMT, wire, fittings) comes from the book.

• Measure a run on the plan — that LF feeds the BOM (couplings, straps, wire follow).
• Click a symbol to bump the takeoff on that sheet.
• Annotate → Teach: click a missed glyph, name it (e.g. WP recp). Then Match sheet to takeoff copies of that ink on the open sheet.
• Teach is per job. It remembers on the next sheet of this drawing.

• BOM → Vendor RFQ: the lines that still read UNKNOWN. Send pack downloads a cover letter, the RFQ CSV a distributor can upload, and a needs-quote sheet.
• Load the file they send back. Your Price lands on the catalog number. Blank stays UNKNOWN — never a silent $0.
• Shop BOM Excel the estimator can filter. Shop book JSON for the next computer.
• Print the plan with tags for the field. Print the letter after stamp.

• Homerun missed: Runs pane → type that run’s LF. Couplings and wire follow that run. Other runs stay.
• Wrong device: type the Takeoff cell, or Teach the mark.
• Symbols disappeared: Show all in the symbols pane. Hide is a filter, not a delete.
• Sheet says Opening… : wait for the PDF page. If it hangs, Replace drawing and drop the file again.
• Laptop dies: guest jobs do not follow you. Export Excel and JSON before you switch machines.

Still stuck? FAQ.