Estimating that doesn't
slow you down.
Web-native PDF takeoff for electrical estimators. Count fixtures, measure runs, and roll up your BOM right in the browser — on a property model that turns the canvas into your estimate, with AI assists that stay out of your way.
No install · Runs on Mac, Windows, Linux · Real-time multi-user
The plan editor, with live property panel and group rollups
Built for electrical estimators
- Cedar Electric
- Northbrook Trade
- Vance & Sons
- Sentinel Power
- Bell Mountain Mfg.
- Ridgeline Electric
The problem
Estimating software is stuck in 2002.
The desktop tools most contractors use were designed before web apps. They run only on Windows, lock each plan to one machine, and still hand off counts to a separate spreadsheet.
-
Pain · 01
Per-seat licenses that punish growth
Legacy per-seat licenses tie each plan to one Windows machine and make adding an estimator a budget event — not something you do mid-bid when the work piles up.
-
Pain · 02
Windows-only, Office-coupled
Half your team is on Mac, but your takeoff tool isn't. So a single estimator becomes the bottleneck — and the only one who can open last quarter's plans.
-
Pain · 03
Spreadsheets that don't talk to the plan
You count on the plan, type it into Excel, then catch a typo three days later. Your BOM and your markup live in different files, edited at different times.
See it work
Count a full sheet in one drag.
Pick a symbol, drag a box around one example, and TakeOn stamps every match across the page. A real plan — no edits, no narration.
Chat with your spec book
Ask the spec book. Get the page.
Drop in a 600-page spec book and ask it a question in plain language — "what conduit is required for branch circuits?" — instead of thumbing through Division 26 by hand.
Every answer cites the exact pages it came from, and one click jumps you straight there. It's grounded in your document, not the open internet — so you can trust what it says and verify it in a tap.
Property templates & live totals
The spreadsheet's data model, on the canvas.
Define a Lighting fixture template once. Give it
properties for type, wattage, voltage, circuit, mount. Use value
lists so estimators pick from a dropdown — and don't type
"2x4" three different ways.
Mark a property conditional and it only appears when another property has a specific value. Mark one sticky and it carries forward to the next placement, so you don't re-enter the same circuit all day.
Annotations with the same template but different property values become separate groups — each with its own color and live count. The right-side rollup is your BOM, computed as you draw.
Real-time collab & checkpoints
Two estimators, one takeoff.
Open the same plan in two browsers. See each other's cursors. Edits propagate as they save. There's no file passing, no merge dialog, no "let me know when you're done so I can open it."
Before addenda land, save a named checkpoint. After they land, overlay the new sheet on the old one and export the diff — quantities changed, added, removed. Price your change orders from a real document, not from memory.
-
4h → 45m
Per-takeoff time
Typical contractor self-report
-
100%
Web-native
Zero installs, runs on Mac too
-
3-deep
Live takeoff totals
Group · page · plan, as you draw
The time figure is illustrative until we publish a case study with real customer data. Coming soon.
Why TakeOn
The takeoff tool you'd build if you started over in 2026.
Bluebeam was designed in 2002. PlanSwift in 2008. They're great PDF tools that estimators stretched into takeoff workflows. TakeOn was designed from day one for the actual job — and for browsers.
-
In the browser.
No install, no Windows VM, no licensing dance. Open a PDF on any laptop and start clicking.
Mac · Windows · Linux
-
Properties, not symbols.
Templates with value lists, conditional fields, sticky values, bracket-name formatting. The estimating spreadsheet's data model — finally on the canvas.
Schema-driven
-
Group by anything.
Same template, different property values = separate groups, separate colors, separate totals. Roll up by whatever your estimate needs.
Property-based rollup
-
Two estimators, one takeoff.
Real-time multi-user with live cursors and per-resource sharing. Open the same plan in two browsers and watch each other work — no file passing, no merge conflicts.
Realtime · presence
-
Bid before the set's final.
Snapshot before addenda land. Overlay revised pages on the old set to see what changed. Export against a prior checkpoint to price change orders — quantities diffed line by line.
Checkpoints · diff exports
-
AI that doesn't get in the way.
Chat with your spec book and get cited pages. Find every matching symbol in one drag. Auto-name pages from the title block. OCR notes straight off the PDF. Every AI feature shows its work and waits for you to accept it.
Spec chat · Find Similar · OCR
Versus the incumbents
What modern takeoff looks like.
Side by side with the desktop tools most estimators still pay for.
| Feature | TakeOn Recommended | Bluebeam | PlanSwift |
|---|---|---|---|
| Runs in a browser (no install) | |||
| Works on Mac, Windows, Linux | |||
| Custom property templates | Limited | ||
| Property-based grouping for the BOM | |||
| Conditional / sticky properties | |||
| Bracket-name auto-formatting | |||
| Live takeoff totals while drawing | Manual | ||
| Real-time multi-user collaboration | Limited | ||
| Checkpoint diff for change-order pricing | |||
| Find similar symbols (one drag) |
Based on publicly documented features as of 2026. Some incumbent gaps may have third-party workarounds.
Estimators in the field
What contractors are saying.
-
We were bidding three or four jobs a week in Bluebeam, paying for two seats, and still copy-pasting fixture counts into Excel by hand. TakeOn killed the spreadsheet step entirely — properties on every annotation, groups roll up live.
Marcus L.
Senior estimator · Mid-size commercial contractor · OR
-
I work from a Mac. That used to mean a Windows VM or borrowing the one machine in the shop with a license. Being able to open a plan in Chrome on my laptop and just start counting is the whole pitch.
Devin R.
Owner / lead estimator · Residential service shop · ID
-
Find Similar is unreal. 40,000 sqft of office remodel — 187 lighting fixtures across four floors. I dragged a box around one, and it found all of them. That used to be an hour of clicking.
Sara K.
Project estimator · Industrial / electrical · WA
-
Do I install anything?
No. TakeOn runs in any modern browser — Chrome, Edge, Safari, Firefox. Sign in, drop in a PDF, and start counting. There's no installer, no driver, no Windows VM, and no IT ticket.
-
Does it work on Mac?
Yes. TakeOn was browser-first from day one. We have Mac, Windows, and Linux estimators using the same workspace.
-
Can my team collaborate on the same plan live?
Yes. Two or more estimators can open the same plan and see each other's cursors and markups in real time. Edits propagate as they're saved — no file passing, no merge conflicts.
-
What about my existing Bluebeam files?
Bluebeam .bax import is on the next-up list. Today you can re-create tool sets as TakeOn templates (often in 10–15 minutes per trade) and use them across every project from then on. If your old markups need to live on, keep using Bluebeam alongside TakeOn for those legacy plans.
-
Is my data private?
Yes. Each workspace is isolated. We don't train models on your plans. You can export your projects to PDF and Excel at any time, so your data is never trapped.
-
How do I get access?
TakeOn is rolling out with hands-on onboarding right now. Schedule a short demo and we'll walk you through the product on a real plan set, then get your workspace set up so you can run a live bid.
-
I'm coming from PlanSwift / On-Screen Takeoff. Will it feel familiar?
The core motions translate directly: pick a tool, calibrate scale, count and measure. What's different — and what most users like immediately — is that TakeOn groups your annotations by their properties, so the BOM rolls up exactly the way your estimate needs without a separate spreadsheet.
-
Does TakeOn support architectural and civil scales?
Both. Calibrate by picking two points on a known dimension, or pick from common imperial / metric architectural and civil scales directly. Per-page scale is supported — including detail blowups via boundary overrides.
Ready when you are
Stop wrestling with software older than the iPhone.
See a real takeoff end to end and get straight answers on switching — book a 20-minute walkthrough.
No install · Runs in any browser · Your data exports cleanly