QtoTakeoff

★Overview — What is QtoTakeoff?

1Installing & Activating

Installation

1. The installer shows a License Agreement page (the End-User License Agreement, Disclaimer, and Privacy Policy combined — see Legal) — you must accept it to continue.
2. Choose an install location (or accept the default) — the installer lets you change the installation directory.
3. Choose whether to create a Desktop shortcut and Start Menu shortcut (both are offered by default).
4. Finish — QtoTakeoff launches.

The installer window title and the installed program both show the exact version number (e.g. "QtoTakeoff Setup 3.1.0") — useful for confirming you have the build you expect, especially if support asks which version you're running.

Activation (first launch)

The activation code is tied to several hashed hardware identifiers on your computer, but tolerates minor hardware changes — e.g. replacing a failed hard drive alone won't invalidate an existing license, since only 3 of 4 identifying components need to still match.

License Information (after activation)

• A status chip — "Active — Lifetime", or "Active — N day(s) remaining" for a time-limited license.
• Customer — Name, Company, Email, Phone, Address.
• License — License Number, License Type, Product name/version, Purchase Date, Activation Date, Expiry Date (or "Never (Lifetime)").
• Machine — this computer's short activation code.
• Replace License... — import a renewed/upgraded license file, effective immediately.
• Remove License — deactivates the license on this computer (asks for confirmation first).

2The Interface at a Glance

Here's the full top toolbar (ribbon), labeled. Refer back to this any time you're not sure where something lives.

• Left panel — tabs for Conditions, Zones, Layers, Sheets, and (when open) BOQ-related lists. Collapsible via the pin/chevron at its top.
• Center — the drawing canvas, with a tab strip above it (Dashboard, each open Sheet, BOQ Report, Drawing Compare when active).
• Right panel — Properties for whatever's currently selected (a condition, an annotation, or a "set style before placing" form for an armed tool).
• Status bar (bottom) — project name, active drawing, units, current scale, save status, and zoom %.

3Starting a Project

1. Open QtoTakeoff.
2. Toolbar → New Project (top-left icon), or start from the Dashboard.
3. You land on an empty canvas with the Conditions/Zones/Layers/Sheets panel on the left.

4Importing a Drawing

QtoTakeoff works directly on top of a PDF drawing — no CAD file, no conversion step.

1. Toolbar → Import/Export tab → Import.
2. Pick your PDF file.
3. Choose an import DPI (100–400) — higher looks sharper but takes longer and uses more memory. 150–200 is a good default for most drawings; go higher only for very detailed sheets.

Multi-page PDFs import as one Sheet per page — see Sheets & Multiple Pages.

Very large sheets at very high DPI: browsers (and this app) can't create an unlimited-size image canvas. An extremely large sheet (e.g. a 34″×44″ drawing) at a very high DPI can hit that ceiling — QtoTakeoff automatically renders it at the highest DPI that still fits safely and tells you with an on-screen notice, rather than silently producing a blank sheet. If you see this notice often, try importing at a lower DPI.

5Setting the Scale

Before any measurement means anything, tell QtoTakeoff how big the drawing really is. This is per-sheet — every sheet (and every Additional View) needs its own scale set once.

1. Toolbar → Measure tab → Set Scale.
2. Click two points on the drawing where you know the real-world distance (e.g. both ends of a dimension already printed on the drawing).
3. Type in that real-world distance and its unit, confirm.

Every measurement you take afterward — length, area, volume — is calculated from this calibration. If it's off, everything downstream is off by the same factor. Hold Shift while picking your two points to snap to perfectly horizontal/vertical (Ortho).

6Sheets & Multiple Pages

Sheet Properties

Deleting a sheet permanently removes every takeoff item, dimension, and note on it — and cannot be undone. If the sheet has any Additional Views cropped from it, the confirmation dialog warns you those are deleted too (a view has no meaning without its parent sheet).

7Additional ViewsMulti-scale sheets

1. Toolbar → Measure tab → Create View.
2. Drag a rectangle around the second drawing/detail on the current sheet.
3. A new sheet is created — a crop of exactly that region — and you're dropped straight into Set Scale for it, since a view has no principled relationship to its parent's scale.

A view's resolution and drawing always follow its parent — Sheet Properties for a view shows both controls disabled, pointing you to the parent sheet instead. Re-rendering the parent (Change Resolution, or accepting a drawing revision) automatically re-crops and re-renders every one of its views too.

8Conditions — Overview

A Condition is a category of thing you're taking off — e.g. "Duplex Receptacle" or "3″ Conduit". Every measurement you draw belongs to a Condition, and QtoTakeoff totals them up automatically as you go.

1. Conditions tab (left panel) → +.
2. Pick a Style: Count (individual items), Linear (length/runs), Area, or Volume.
3. Give it a name, color, and marker/line style, choose what quantities it should calculate, then Save.

9Condition Properties — Full Reference

This is the most detailed dialog in the app — here's every field, tab by tab. It's the same dialog whether you're creating a new condition or double-clicking an existing one to edit it.

Always visible (above the tabs)

General tab — Dimension

General tab — Appearance

General tab — Results (up to 3 quantity slots)

General tab — BOQ & Notes

Supply/Installation Rate is deliberately not set here — you enter it directly, inline, in the BOQ Report itself.

Advanced tab

10The Conditions Panel

11Count / Linear / Area / Volume Takeoff

Count

1. Click a Count condition to arm it.
2. Click once on the drawing for each item — a marker drops at that spot.

Linear

1. Arm a Linear condition.
2. Click a start point, then click along the run — each click adds a segment/bend.
3. Press Enter to finish (or double-click the last point).

Hold Shift while drawing to snap to horizontal/vertical/45° (Ortho). Drag a vertex with Alt held to pull out a curve handle for a rounded bend.

Area & Volume

1. Arm an Area or Volume condition.
2. Click around the perimeter of the space (3+ points).
3. Press Enter to close the shape.

12Select, Move & Undo

1. Click any drawn item to select it (drag a box around several to multi-select, Ctrl+A selects everything on the sheet).
2. Drag it to reposition; drag a corner/vertex handle to reshape it.
3. Ctrl+Z undoes, Ctrl+Shift+Z (or Ctrl+Y) redoes.
4. Select something and press Delete to remove it.

What undo does not cover: editing a Condition's own settings (rename, recolor, any Condition Properties field), editing a Layer's name, or a Zone's name/color/opacity/visibility — none of those are undo-tracked. Also, deleting a sheet, deleting a condition, starting a new project, or opening a project file each clear the entire undo history (not just skip one step) — there's nothing left to undo afterward. Undo/redo itself keeps the last 100 actions.

13Zones

1. Zones tab (left panel) → +.
2. Click points around an area, press Enter to close it (minimum 3 points).
3. Toggle a zone's visibility from its checkbox in the panel; double-click its name to rename; click its color swatch for a color + opacity picker.

Zones on the same sheet can never overlap — QtoTakeoff blocks a draw/move/reshape that would create an overlap, so which zone a point belongs to is never ambiguous. A Linear run that physically crosses a zone boundary has its quantity split proportionally between the zones it passes through.

14Layers

• Create a Layer: + icon at the top of the Layers panel.
• Rename: double-click its name.
• Delete: trash icon — conditions on a deleted layer simply fall back to "no layer," nothing is lost.

15Symbol Library

Built-in catalog

Building your own symbol

1. New Symbol to start fresh, or click an existing custom symbol thumbnail to re-edit it.
2. Draw with the tool palette: Circle, Rectangle, Triangle, Polygon, Line, Arc, Freehand, or Text. Select/Move and Trim (cut away a piece where two shapes overlap) round out editing.
3. With 2+ shapes selected, use Union, Combine, Fragment, Intersect, or Subtract to build compound shapes — plus Align, Rotate 90°, and Mirror for single or multi-selections.
4. Name it (required) and optionally give it a Section to group it under, then Save.

Import/Export buttons in the left column let you share a whole custom symbol library as a JSON file with a colleague.

16Annotations & Markups

Beyond takeoff quantities, the Annotate ribbon tab lets you mark up the drawing itself — text notes, shapes, arrows, clouds, stamps, images, and more. Every annotation tool follows the same pattern: pick it, optionally set its style first in the Properties panel, then click/drag to place it.

Every annotation type

Editing a placed annotation

17Dimensions

Dimension lines label a real-world distance directly on the drawing — Dimension has its own button in the Annotate group, separate from plain Lines.

1. Click the Dimension button in the Annotate group.
2. Pick a style from the flyout: Horizontal, Vertical, Aligned, or Angular.
3. Click two points (or a vertex + two rays for Angular).

A placed dimension's offset distance from the measured line is draggable, exactly like a CAD dimension.

18Takeoff Summary & Takeoff Workbook

19Bill of Quantities (BOQ) ReportEditable · Live Excel formulas

Layout

What's editable, directly in the report

Spreadsheet-style editing

• F2 or double-click a cell to start typing; arrow keys move between cells like a spreadsheet; Esc cancels an edit.
• Ctrl+D fills the value from the cell directly above (Code, Description, or Rate) into the selected cell — same as Excel's Fill Down.
• Typing =120+30 or +120+30 into a Rate cell is recognized as a formula (basic +, −, ×, ÷ with parentheses) — the calculated result is what's used everywhere, and reopening the cell shows your formula again, not just the number.

Export to Excel

• Live formulas — every Rate/Amount/rollup cell is a real Excel formula, not a baked-in number. Change a Rate in Excel and every total above it recalculates.
• Cell protection — the sheet is protected; only Code, Description, and the two Rate columns are unlocked and typeable. Every calculated cell is locked.
• Frozen header rows — the two header rows stay pinned while scrolling down. Horizontal scrolling is unrestricted (no columns are pinned left-to-right), matching the on-screen report exactly.
• A column you've hidden on-screen exports as a genuinely hidden Excel column (not omitted), so formulas that reference it still work if you unhide it later.

20Drawing CompareNew

Comparison is computed at full resolution — zooming in shows genuine detail, not a blurred-up approximation. If the two drawings are noticeably different sizes, a warning banner appears, since the comparison may not be spatially aligned in that case.

21Exporting Your Work

Every export format in the app, and where to find it.

22Saving & Autosave

1. Toolbar → Save (or Ctrl+S) to save at any time.
2. Toolbar → Open to pick it back up later — everything is exactly as you left it.

QtoTakeoff autosaves every 2 minutes once a project has been saved at least once (a small "Autosaved" notice appears each time). A brand-new, never-saved project isn't autosaved yet — save it manually once first to turn autosave on for that project.

23Settings

24Keyboard Shortcuts

General

Selection & Editing

Drawing & Measuring

Toolbar → View tab → Pan arms a dedicated pan tool, so a plain left-click-drag pans too — useful on a mouse/touchpad where middle-click isn't convenient. Press Esc, click Pan again, or pick any other tool to leave it.

Conditions Panel

BOQ Report

25Licensing Reference

26Legal — Disclaimer, License Agreement & Privacy Policy

Disclaimer shown every launch

End-User License Agreement

Privacy Policy

27Troubleshooting & FAQ