Takeoff w/ Toolbox |
Now that we have the scale set, we are ready to do a takeoff. If you click on the Examples folder, you will see some more folders drop out. Let’s click on Roofing, and inside of this folder you will see some sample assemblies.
Assemblies are the tools you will use to measure with. There are three different kinds of assemblies: Area, Linear, or Count assemblies.
(Note: For now, we will use the sample assemblies in these folders, but after we are finished, I will show you how to create your own assemblies.)
To measure the plan, simply click on an assembly… SqFt of Flat Roof in this case. When you click on the assembly, you should see the name of that assembly on the toolbar in the bottom left corner of your screen where it used to say “No Assembly Selected”.
Now the mouse cursor should be a crosshair when you put it on the drawing screen. This means you are ready to takeoff a drawing.
To measure with an assembly, simply click on the first corner of the area you want to takeoff. It should make a blue dot. Now click on the next corner of the area you want to takeoff and continue to click around the corners until you are finished.
You will notice that the assembly you are measuring with is in Polygon mode, which means that it automatically connects the endpoints of the figure you are taking off.
When you are finished with a particular area, click on the Start New Figure button on your toolbar. It is the button with the red checkmark, the yellow square, and the green circle all the way on the right. This means that you are done drawing that figure and you are ready to start drawing another polygon.
Just to show you some other features of the drawing screen, let’s go ahead and draw a second figure around the scale text. This time after you have finished, do not hit the Start New Figure button.
Now, if you went to try and draw a third figure on the screen, you will see that it stays connected to the last point you have drawn on the second figure.
To back up, simply hold down the Ctrl button and hit Z on your keyboard. This is the Undo feature, and you can back up as many as 10 times if you happen to make a mistake during a takeoff.