Counts and Area Takeoffs

Once your plan sheets are scaled you are now ready to start creating takeoffs. In the top bar of the takeoff page you will notice the Area tool, the Linear tool, the Segment Tool as well as the Count tool. The icons on the right of the count tool are collaboration tools, and we will discuss those further in another video.

For now, let’s look at the Area tool, when you select the area tool a New Area window will open. Notice that the Name window is where you can enter the name of the items that you are measuring, the measurement type window has a drop down that will allow you to measure Flat Area, Area with Wall Height, Area with Depth, Sloped Areas and Sloped area from an Elevation.

You will also see a Measurement section where you can select what measurements you would like to use as your primary measurement; this is measurement 1. If you choose Area for Measurement 1, this will show up in your reports as measurement 1 and as your quantity. If you select the plus button a measurement 2 will appear and you can select any of the measurement types in the drop down. You can do the same for measurement 3. These can be changed at any time, and your changes will not affect your takeoffs, but only the type of quantity. We will discuss this further in a future video.

For this video we will select Area as our measurement 1 and select the Start Takeoff Button. Start by clicking the mouse over the area that you wish to measure, if you make a mistake, you can hit backspace on your keyboard and that will remove the last point counted., If you select delete again it will remove the last point prior to the one we just deleted. When you are finished measuring this area and would like to measure another on the same page, just click N on your keyboard and start the new area. When you are finished just hit escape on your keyboard or click on the green check mark on the top bar.Let’s start the same takeoff in another page, remember you do not have to start a whole new takeoff for that item, you just hover over the that measurement icon in the takeoffs tab on the right side of your screen and when the dot turns green, select it by clicking on the green dot and start your new measurement.

We have other videos on how to use the Arc tool, and how to continue measurements. All of these practices that we covered in this video work for Count, Segment and Linear Takeoffs as well.

So, while we are here, let's take a look at counts. You will notice after selecting the count option located on the top bar, you can enter the name of the takeoff, as well as select the type of icon you wish to use and the color. But when you select the dropdown in the Measurement Type window, there will be more options for counts. For circle counts you can choose: count with diameter to calculate the area of the count, as well as the circle with diameter and depth to calculate the volume in a count. The last option is for circle with diameter and wall height, to calculate volume and wall height and surface area. All of these will also scale the count on your plans for more accurate takeoffs as well as create your volume, areas and wall areas accurately.

We can also choose the square symbol type and when selected you will see in the measurement type dropdown: count, count with length and width, count with length, width and depth and count with length, width and wall height. All of these can be used to calculate areas, volume and surface areas.

The remaining three symbols: Diamond, Triangle and Star will only have the measurements of count or count scaled.

To perform takeoffs with counts, you just need to start by clicking on the count icon, input the name of the count, make a selection of the measurement types, choose your colors and set the opacity if needed and select Start Takeoffs.

Please remember if you make a mistake, you can hit backspace on your keyboard to delete the last count or hit backspace one more time to delete the last two counts. When you are finished, hit escape or the green check on the top bar.

Updated on: 06/10/2025