My fill spread across the whole drawing
The boundary has a gap. Close it with the Manual Border tool and fill again, or lower Color Tolerance if the fill crossed between similar colours.
Measure quantities from your drawings
Everything you need to take off areas, lengths and counts from construction PDFs with PixelTakeoff, from first install to the exported summary you price from.
Start here
Section titled “Start here” Getting started Install to first exported takeoff in about twenty minutes. If you read one page, read this one.
Setting the drawing scale Every quantity depends on it. How to set it, calibrate it from a known dimension, and verify it.
Tour of the editor The toolbar, the canvas, the view controls and the right panel, so the rest of the docs read easily.
Projects and your workspace How jobs are organised into projects, drawing sets and drawings, and where your work is stored.
Taking off quantities
Section titled “Taking off quantities” Area takeoff Paving, lawn, planting, concrete. Choosing the right region tool and fixing a fill that misbehaves.
Linear takeoff Edging, kerbs, fencing and pipe runs. Drawing modes, curves, and the areas a length can drive.
Counting Trees, fittings, fixtures. Manual markers, and Auto Count for finding every instance of a symbol.
Find Pattern Show the app one example of a detail and see everywhere it appears, before you measure it.
Zones Split one sheet by phase, block or plot, and report each part separately from a single takeoff.
Summary, export and import The summary table, takeoff sheet PDFs, Excel output, and sharing live work with another user.
Reference
Section titled “Reference” Keyboard shortcuts Every shortcut in one printable table.
Settings Every setting explained, with its default.
Glossary Every symbol and term on screen, in plain takeoff language.
Troubleshooting Fixes for the problems that actually come up, ordered by how often they do.
Common questions
Section titled “Common questions”My quantities look wrong by a consistent factor
The drawing scale is almost certainly wrong. Recalibrate against a known dimension, then verify on a second one.
I need to measure only part of a sheet
Draw a Zone around the part you need, for example a single phase, and read its quantities separately.
A material is missing from my export
It is almost always hidden. A hidden group is excluded from totals and exports. Unhide everything and export again.
Getting help
Section titled “Getting help”Go to Settings → Advanced → Export Support Bundle and send us the file. It contains diagnostic logs and no drawing content, and it usually tells us immediately what went wrong.