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Takeoff

Measure areas, lengths and counts on a calibrated drawing in BuildX Studio, import rows from a CSV, price them per item, and export a CSV or PDF takeoff summary.

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Takeoff in BuildX Studio is tied to a drawing file inside a submittal. Each takeoff row (description, quantity, unit, category, and rates) belongs to one drawing file and flows into the job’s estimate workbook and the Unit Rates library.

What you can do

  • Set a page’s scale and measure areas, lengths and counts on the drawing.
  • Add takeoff rows to a drawing file with Import rates CSV.
  • Set a unit rate per row and export the rows with Export (CSV or PDF).
  • See your rows priced in the estimate workbook.

Add takeoff rows from a CSV

  1. Make sure the job has a submittal with at least one PDF uploaded. Rows need a drawing file to belong to.
  2. Go to Unit Rates in the sidebar and click Import rates CSV.
  3. Click Pick a CSV file. The file needs a header row with a description column. Studio also reads quantity, unit, mat_rate, labor_rate, and category (it accepts common variants such as qty, uom, material_rate, trade).
  4. Check the preview. Rows with a blank description, a negative or non-numeric quantity, or a bad rate are listed under “need attention” and skipped. A blank quantity counts as 1, and a blank category becomes “General”.
  5. In Add to sheet, pick the drawing file the rows belong to.
  6. Click Confirm import. Studio says how many rate rows were added.

Each row now shows on the job’s estimate page and in the Unit Rates library. Studio keeps each row’s category, quantity, and rates. It labels the row with its category and type, for example “Drywall · area takeoff”, and sets its unit from the unit column: sq ft, sf, or m2 become an area row in sq ft; ft, lf, or m become a linear row in ft; anything else becomes a count row in ea. The description text from the file isn’t kept, so use the category column to tell rows apart.

Price and export from the drawing preview

  1. Open the submittal and click the eye icon on the drawing file. The Drawing Preview opens.
  2. Click Export in the preview toolbar (it’s active once the file has takeoff rows). Export Takeoff Data opens.
  3. Review the Summary (Total Items, totals by type, Estimated Total).
  4. Under Unit Rates, type a rate per row. Rates save to the row and show Saved.
  5. Set a Filename, then click Export CSV or Export PDF. The PDF is a takeoff summary (default name “takeoff-summary”).

Measure on the drawing

The drawing preview has a toolbar with Select (V), Area (A), Linear (L), Count (C), and Scale (S). Pick a measuring tool to measure on the sheet. Clicks snap to the drawing’s own lines and corners when the PDF has vector geometry.

Set the page’s scale first

Scale is set per page. Area and length need it; counts don’t.

  • From the title block: pick the drawing’s scale (for example 1/4” = 1’-0”) in Scale p. above the sheet.
  • From a known length: pick Calibrate on a known length… (or the Scale tool), click both ends of a dimension you know, type its length in feet and inches, such as 24'-0", and click Set scale.

Studio confirms “Scale set for page 1”. If you try Area or Linear on a page without a scale, Studio asks you to set it first and saves nothing.

Measure

  1. Pick Area, Linear, or Count.
  2. Click points on the sheet. For an area, outline the shape; for a length, click along it; for a count, click each item.
  3. Give the measurement a label, such as “Drywall” or “Baseboard”, and click Save. The label becomes its category in the workbook.

While measuring, Esc cancels the current measurement and Backspace removes the last point. Saved quantities are real units: square feet for areas, linear feet for lengths, and each for counts. They stay with the sheet after you reload.

You can still add rows from a spreadsheet with Import rates CSV.

Unit Rates

Unit Rates (“Unit rate library”) rolls up every takeoff row across your jobs:

  • Stats: Catalog entries, Jobs contributing, Rows measured, Priced entries, and a Catalog coverage bar (entries with both material and labor averages).
  • Table: Description, Category, Unit, Mat avg, Labor avg, Combined avg, Jobs, Last used, each tagged Priced or Unpriced.
  • Edit the material or labor rate under each average. The edit changes the most recent row that used that item.
  • Use in estimate opens the estimate for the job where the item was last used.
  • Search, and filter by category.

Good to know

  • MyBuildX also has a Takeoff page. Studio takeoff rows don’t show up there; the two keep separate data today.
  • Deleting a submittal deletes its takeoff rows.