The phrase "upload your drawings" makes it sound like the feature only works for jobs that already have a full architectural set — which rules out most day-to-day service work. In practice, a takeoff can start from something much rougher.
What actually works as input
- A real set of drawings or a schedule of values, if you have one
- A spec sheet from the manufacturer or the client
- A photo of a hand-drawn sketch — even a napkin sketch, as long as the key dimensions are legible
- A plain-text description of the scope, typed in your own words
What the AI actually does with it
It reads whatever's uploaded and proposes quantities — so many square feet of shingle, so many linear feet of drip edge — matched against real product data, either your own catalog or the marketplace's. It doesn't invent pricing. Anything it can't confidently match against real product data comes back unpriced, flagged for you to fill in rather than guessed at.
Why that matters more than the convenience
The risk with any AI estimating tool is a confident-sounding number that's quietly wrong. Grounding every line item in your actual catalog — rather than letting the model estimate a price from general knowledge — is what keeps a takeoff useful as a starting point instead of something you have to double-check line by line.
Where it goes from there
A takeoff produces a reviewable list, not a submitted document — you can adjust quantities, then either order the materials directly or send the same list out as an RFQ to your own distributors before committing to anything.