scopesift
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Guide

How ScopeSift works.

From a plan set to a sourced bid file: what happens at each step, how siding and HVAC quantities are actually measured, and how to work the drawing editor quickly.

5 steps · 2 trades in production · every number traceable to the sheet

01 · The workflow

Five steps, one afternoon.

  1. 01

    Create the project

    Name the job, add the builder and job number, and pick the trade for this run — siding or HVAC. Each run measures one trade so quantities stay accurate; run the other trade on the same project afterward.

    Setup tab
  2. 02

    Drop in the plan set

    One PDF or several, up to 100 MB each. Uploads resume if your connection drops. ScopeSift reads the sheet titles itself and finds the elevations or mechanical plans — no page tagging.

    Setup tab
  3. 03

    Draft the measurements

    Start the takeoff and watch the progress ring count through the sheets. It's safe to close the tab — the run continues and the project picks up where it left off. If any page couldn't be fully measured, you'll see a warning that says exactly which.

    Setup tab
  4. 04

    Review on the drawing

    Every quantity is drawn on the sheet it came from. Check the shapes against the plan, drag a vertex, redraw a run, delete a shape or a whole material — totals update live as you work.

    Drawings tab
  5. 05

    Set waste and export

    The results table shows every condition with its source sheet. Adjust waste per line, pick your columns, and export CSV or Excel your estimating workflow can take straight into the bid.

    Results tab

02 · How each trade measures

A takeoff is trade-specific. So is the measuring.

Each trade reads different sheets, measures in different units, and gets verified differently. Here is exactly what each one does with your plan set.

Siding

In production
Reads
Exterior elevation sheets, the material legend and key tags on each sheet, and the roof plan for eave and rake runs.
Measures
Cladding fields per material SF with windows and doors cut out, so quantities are net, not gross. Trim and fascia LF along eaves, rakes, and openings. Soffit runs LF along the eave line.
Verifies
Drawing scale is measured from the dimension strings drawn on the sheet — not just the printed scale note, which lies on plan sets that were reprinted at a smaller size. Overlapping regions are resolved so nothing is counted twice.
You get
One editable condition per material — lap, board and batten, shake, masonry — each traceable to the exact polygons on the elevation that produced it.

HVAC

In production
Reads
Mechanical plan sheets, the duct size tags along each run, and the equipment schedules.
Measures
Duct runs LF split by size tag and system — supply, return, exhaust. Registers, diffusers, and grilles EA counted from the plan symbols. Riser, flex, and waste allowances as explicit formula line items tied to the runs they derive from.
Verifies
The printed scale note is cross-checked against dimensions drawn on the sheet. If they disagree, duct quantities are held for your review instead of guessed. If a page couldn't be fully traced, it's flagged — never silently measured.
You get
Per-size duct line items plus fixture counts, every row carrying the mechanical sheet it came from.

Other trades are in development. They can show up inside a run, but they aren't tuned to lead one yet — the trade picker labels exactly what's production-ready.

03 · The drawing editor

Every shape is yours to change.

The Drawings tab is a full editor, not a preview. Select any shape to drag its vertices, draw new polygons, runs, and count markers with the toolbar, or switch to delete mode and clear mismeasures in a few clicks — one shape at a time or a whole material at once. Every edit is undoable.

Clicking a row's crosshair button in the Results table jumps the viewer to the exact shapes that produced the number, and while you hover the sheet, a crosshair with a feet-and-inches readout tracks your cursor on any page with a verified scale.

Keyboard

Deselect, or close an open menuEsc
Confirm the shape you're drawing or editingEnter
Delete the selected shapeDelete
Reject the selected shape (kept in history, out of totals)R
Undo while editing⌘Z
Redo while editing — ⌘ Y works too⌘ShiftZ
Save your edits⌘S
Nudge the active vertex or shape — hold Shift for ×10Arrows
Insert or remove a vertex on the selected shapeAltClick

⌘ is Ctrl on Windows.

04 · Numbers you can defend

Every quantity shows its work.

Hover any row in the Results table and the formula bar shows what built the number — the measured geometry, the sheet it lives on, and the result:

fx =AREA(3 polygons on A2.1) → 2,788 SF

Waste is yours to set per line — the table keeps raw and net quantities separate so nothing hides inside a multiplier. And when you export, every row carries its source sheet into the CSV or Excel file, so anyone downstream can check the takeoff against the drawings without asking you how it was built.

05 · Coverage & limits

What it does — and what it won't pretend to do.

  • Siding and HVAC are production trades. Everything else is experimental and labeled that way in the product.
  • Unverifiable scale means held quantities. When the sheet's scale can't be confirmed against drawn dimensions, affected quantities wait for your review rather than shipping a guess.
  • Partial coverage is called out. If a page couldn't be fully measured, the run says which page and why — no silent gaps in the takeoff.
  • The estimator has the last word. ScopeSift drafts; you decide. Every shape is editable and nothing exports until you say so.

Try it on a real job

The first takeoff is free.

Bring a plan set you've already bid and compare the numbers against your own.

Start a free takeoffSee pricing

No card · no sales call