You’ll find the Area Takeoff Tool button on the Home Tab’s ribbon bar, in the Takeoff section. The Area Takeoff Tool allows you to calculate square footage, yards, meters, etc.
Area takeoffs are useful for calculating areas for concrete, carpet, flooring, roofing, pavement, sod, grids, joists, etc. The top half of the Area button performs an area takeoff. The drop-down half is a drop-down menu that provides area takeoffs with more powerful functions, such as creating an area takeoff with a single click calculation and performing area takeoffs for cubic yards, grids, and joists.
A Quick Look at the Area Takeoff Tool and Drawing Area Takeoff
Calculating square foot areas in PlanSwift is simple:
- Open a plan image in the PlanSwift software
- Click the upper half of the new "Area" button from the Toolbar
Selecting the lower half opens a drop-down menu of tools based on the basic area object, such as the Joist Tool.
The Basic Linear Properties window opens.
- Enter a Name for the Area Takeoff Item and choose a Color and a Fill Type if desired
PlanSwift automatically picks a random color; if you would like a different color, simply click the drop-down menu under Color.
- Click on OK
If you have not scaled your Page, you are prompted to do so.
Notice that the Digitizer Record button is red; this indicates that the on-screen digitizer is now working.
- Perform the area takeoff by clicking the corners of the object you want to measure (see Related Articles for more information on various Area Takeoff Tools)
- After the area is completed, right click your mouse and choose Stop. Notice the square footage is reported next to the area's name underneath the plan image that contains the area. To continue digitizing a different section with the same area, press the green button next to the item in the pages list, or you can right click on the area and select New Section.
You can double-click to complete an area, this will also leave Digitizer Record on so you can continue digitizing areas. An example of this would be if you are digitizing a square area: double-click while picking third point, the area will close, and you may continue with a new Area. The new area(s) will be grouped with the previously closed area, similar to selecting an area and clicking the New Section button.
- End the on-screen digitizer by pressing Esc or by clicking the Digitizer Record button
In the Properties window, clicking Advanced shows you many additional properties/functions for the Area Takeoff Item.
 Performing Basic Takeoffs | Linear Takeoff Tool  |
Related Articles