Plans and Takeoff

01Upload documents

From any project’s detail page, switch to the Plans tab. The first time you visit, you’ll see the empty state.

1. Plans tab. One of the project tabs. Every project has its own Plans tab.
2. + Upload Document. Top-right button. Click to open the upload sheet.
3. Empty state. “No documents uploaded yet” placeholder until you add the first plan.

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The upload sheet itself accepts:

• PDFs, images, Word docs, and Excel files. All four formats are supported.
• Document type: Plan/Blueprint, Permit, Contract, Photo, or Other. The type drives how the document is categorized later.
• Name: defaults to the filename; override if useful.
• Upload progress: the file goes directly to cloud storage with a live progress bar.

Multi-page plan sets are handled natively. A 30-page plan set is one upload, not 30.

02The plan viewer

Open any uploaded PDF to enter the plan viewer.

1. Stacked scroll. Pages stack vertically; scroll like a normal document.
2. Zoom. Hold Cmd (Mac) or Ctrl (Windows) and scroll. Up to 3x magnification.
3. Pan. Click and drag when zoomed in.
4. Page arrows. Use the previous and next arrow buttons in the top toolbar to move page by page.
5. Page indicator. The non-editable label between the arrows shows the current page and total, such as 5 / 30.

03AI section detection

Open the Sections sidebar and click Auto-Detect. Conduit’s AI reads the entire plan set and identifies sections by trade.

1. Trades detected: Electrical (yellow), Plumbing (blue), Mechanical (orange), HVAC (cyan), Structural, Architectural, Civil, and more.
2. Page ranges. Each section gets a start/end page so you can jump directly.
3. Title block parsing. Reads the official title block (typically right side, bottom-right of each page) for accurate identification.
4. Schedule sections. Detected separately from drawings.
5. Background processing. Large plan sets (50+ pages) run in the background; you’ll see results when ready.

04Section navigation

Detected sections appear in the left sidebar of the plan viewer.

1. Click a section to jump to its page range.
2. Filter by trade. Show only Electrical, only Plumbing, etc.
3. Color-coded badges. Match the trade colors above.
4. Delete misidentified sections. The original PDF is untouched; you’re just removing the section marker.
5. Manual section. Add your own if the AI missed something.

05Layers (optional)

Layers are optional. Use them when you want to organize markups by trade, scope, phase, or any other project-level grouping across multiple sheets. If you do not create a layer, your markups still work and can still be priced.

1. What a layer is. A layer is a named filter for markups in this project. For example, you might create Electrical, Plumbing, Demo, or Added Scope.
2. When to use one. Create layers when a plan set has enough markups that you want to turn groups on and off or keep trades visually separated.
3. Create a layer. Switch the left sidebar from Sections to Takeoff, open the Layers tab, click + New, enter a name, pick a color, and click Create.
4. Active layer. Click a layer row to make it active. New markups you draw will be assigned to that layer.
5. Layer color on the canvas. Markups assigned to a layer use that layer’s color on the plan. Unlayered markups use the default tool colors.
6. Visibility. Use the checkbox beside a layer to show or hide that layer’s markups while you work.
7. Bid behavior. Visibility controls what’s in the bid. A layer that’s toggled off is hidden from the canvas AND excluded from any bid you generate. Same for the Unlayered row. Toggle layers on or off to scope a bid to a specific trade.

06Scale calibration

Before any measurement is meaningful, calibrate the scale.

1. Activate the calibration tool (toolbar at top of viewer).
2. Click two points on a known dimension. Example: a wall labeled “12 ft”; click each end of the wall.
3. Measurement line appears between your two points.
4. Enter the real-world distance and unit (12, feet).
5. Apply to all pages if the scale is consistent across the plan set (it usually is for a single plan).
6. Save.

Now every measurement you take on this plan is accurate.

07Markups, measurements, and pricebook links

Once calibrated, the plan viewer’s takeoff tools let you measure, count, annotate, organize, and push quantities into a bid.

1. Measure length. The toolbar’s length tool measures runs such as conduit, trenching, fencing, or pipe after scale is calibrated.
2. Measure area (freeform polygon). The area tool measures irregular rooms, pads, ceilings, and other polygon shapes.
3. Measure area (rectangle). The rectangle tool is a click-and-drag shortcut for square or rectangular areas.
4. Count. The count tool drops count markers for fixtures, devices, doors, valves, and repeated items.
5. Callout. The callout tool adds notes directly on the sheet for scope reminders, exclusions, or field questions.
6. Cutout. Select an area markup, then use Cutout to subtract openings or holes from that measured area.
7. Takeoff sidebar. Switch the left sidebar from Sections to Takeoff to review markups, toggle visible layers, edit markup details, delete markups, and jump back to a markup on the sheet.
8. Carry forward. Use carry-forward from the Takeoff sidebar when the same measured condition repeats on later pages.
9. Link each markup to a pricebook item. From the Takeoff sidebar’s Markups tab, click Link to pricebook on any markup row, pick the catalog item, and set quantity multiplier (default 1) and waste % (default 0). Only visible pricebook-linked markups appear in the bid form’s From Takeoff import.
10. From Takeoff. Use From Takeoff in the bid form, or use Create bid from takeoff from the Markups tab to start a new bid prefilled with visible pricebook-linked markups in this project.

That’s plans and takeoff. Next category: Sub-Bid Requests for the GC-to-sub workflow.