Using the AI Takeoff Analyzer
Upload plans and BuiltUp extracts measurements, counts and areas — with a confidence score on every line so you know what to trust. Then push the ones you're happy with straight into your scope.
- • A project open on Scope → Estimate
- • A PDF or image of the plans
- • Free users get 3 lifetime takeoff credits; Pro and Ultimate plans are unlimited
The Takeoff Analyzer is the feature to reach for when you want measurements you can verify before they touch your scope. It's different from AI Scope Generation: instead of building a whole priced scope in one shot, it returns a clean measurements list with confidence scores (HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW) so you can review and selectively push items into the scope. This is the tool estimators and quantity surveyors trust most because nothing gets invented.
Click the Takeoff button
In the Scope section you'll see five inner tabs across the top — Takeoff · Scope · Estimate · Summary · Forecasts. Click Takeoff (the first one).
The Takeoff Analyzer modal opens with an optional focus-areas textbox, a file uploader, and a legend explaining the confidence levels.
When to use Takeoff instead of AI Assist:
- You want to verify measurements before anything lands in your scope
- Your plans are good quality and you want the AI to count rather than estimate
- You're doing a quantity-surveyor-style takeoff as a standalone deliverable
- The job is mostly about accurate counts (schools, hotels, multi-unit residential) rather than pricing strategy
Optionally narrow the focus
The Focus areas textbox is optional but useful. Leave it empty and the AI counts everything it can — doors, windows, fixtures, linear wall runs, areas. Fill it in to narrow the scope:
- *"focus on doors and windows only"*
- *"electrical — outlets, switches, light fittings"*
- *"flooring areas by room"*
Narrowing the focus makes the AI faster and keeps the results table short enough to review in one go. For big drawing sets with lots of fixture types, one focused pass is usually better than one pass that tries to count everything.
Your scope is empty
Click AI Assist to upload plans and let BuiltUp build the rooms, materials, and labor for you.
Upload your plans
Drop in any combination of PDF, PNG or JPG files. BuiltUp handles PDFs automatically — it converts each page to an image the AI can read, so multi-page drawing sets work fine.
For the best results:
- Use the original architect's PDF export, not a scan of a printed copy
- Include the sheet with the scale bar or dimensions if you can
- If you only have one key floor plan sheet, that's enough to get started
Hit Run takeoff and BuiltUp works through the plans live on screen — reading them, locating dimensions, counting fixtures, tagging confidence. Takes 45-90 seconds for most residential jobs, longer for big commercial sets.
Read the confidence column
This is the important bit — what makes Takeoff different from scope generation.
Every row comes back with a confidence score:
- HIGH (green) — the dimension or count is explicitly drawn on the plan. Trust it.
- MEDIUM (amber) — implied or counted from symbols, or estimated from a scale bar. Usually right, worth a glance.
- LOW (red) — inferred from context only. Always verify manually before using.
BuiltUp is trained to mark LOW rather than invent. If the plans don't explicitly show a dimension, the AI tags LOW or omits the row entirely. This is the safety net — a small set of HIGH-confidence rows is more valuable to an estimator than a large set of guesses.
The modal defaults to pre-selecting all HIGH rows for you, so the "happy path" is: review the table, click Add N to scope, done.
Edit, filter, and push to scope
You've got three bulk actions at the top of the results table:
- Select all — everything that isn't already in the scope
- HIGH only — just the rows you can trust without checking
- Clear — unselect everything
You can also edit quantities inline — if the AI says 28.4 m² but you know from the plan it should be 30, just type over it. Your edit is what gets pushed into the scope.
When you're happy with your selection, click Add N to scope and BuiltUp creates components on the matching rooms (and creates the room if it doesn't exist yet). The measurements table stays visible so you can come back and push more rows later — nothing is lost when you close the modal.
You've got a takeoff you can defend. Every number in your scope comes from either a confidence-tagged row you verified or a quantity you edited yourself. That's the estimator's safety net.
Generating and sending quotes
Turn your scope into a branded quote the client can review and accept online. Covers the quote builder, PDF preview, sending, and what happens when the client opens it.
More in Estimating
The three-stage estimating flow (Takeoff → Scope → Estimate)
BuiltUp splits estimating into three linked stages the way professional estimators actually work. Here's what each stage is for, how they flow into each other, and why running them separately gets you tighter quotes and fewer disputes.
Creating your first project
Projects are the container for everything BuiltUp does — scope, quotes, invoices, files, messages. This guide walks you through creating one, understanding the status workflow, and knowing what to fill in now vs. later.
Generating a scope with AI
Upload a set of plans, write a one-line brief, and BuiltUp's AI Scope Architect builds a full priced scope — rooms, materials, labour, waste factors. Here's how to get the most out of it.
Building a scope manually
When you'd rather build a scope from scratch — or edit what the AI gave you — here's how the scope editor actually works: rooms, components, quantities, waste factors, and the material search.