12.03.00 Drawing Area Takeoff

Drawing Area Takeoff video

Area takeoff is anything quantified with a 'square' measurement. Building objects such as carpeting, roofing, flooring, concrete floors, and ceiling tile are examples of construction items taken off as Areas. Square footage, volume (using the Condition's Thickness), and perimeter (lineal footage) can also be calculated.

Before drawing ANY takeoff, be sure to set and verify the SCALE on EACH page. See Verifying the Scale of an Image for instructions.

Auto Magnify

When an Area Condition is selected, hovering over a spot on the drawing automatically magnifies the region in a small pop-up box next to the cursor. This makes placing the cursor on the exact spot easier without having to zoom the page in closely.

The auto-magnifying popup only displays when the page zoom level is less than the magnifier's "Default Auto Zoom Level" as set in Tools > Options.

To disable this auto-magnifying function, click Tools > Options, and set the "Default Auto Zoom Level" to '0'.

Drawing Area Takeoff - Single Click (Rectangles)

Select an Area Condition from the Condition List, the cursor changes to the takeoff mode indicator
Click at the starting point, this is the anchor
Hold down the left mouse button and drag the cursor diagonally away from the anchor point
Release the mouse button when the area object is complete

Single-Click Area Takeoff makes it easy to takeoff multiple rectangular areas that are not exactly the same size when copying/pasting won't work.

Drawing Area Takeoff - Point by Point (Polygon)

To draw a polygon (something other than a simple rectangle),

Select an Area Condition from the Condition List, the cursor changes to the takeoff mode indicator
Click at the starting point, this is the anchor
Click once at each corner around the desired area
Double-click at the last point to complete the takeoff

When taking off an area, it is not necessary to draw the last segment - double-click at the final point and On-Screen Takeoff connects the current point and the starting point (this is called 'closing' an area takeoff).
When taking off an area that extends to a closed polygon (all linear objects connect) drawn using a Linear Condition whose Advanced Properties are set to "Connect to", a user can select an Area Condition and double-click within that polygon to 'auto-fill' the area. "Snap to Linear" must be checked in the Advanced settings of the Area Condition. For example, draw a square room's walls using a linear Condition where all four segments connect at the corners. Then, grab an Area Condition, double-click within the room defined by the linear objects and the Area will auto-fill to fit the room. It is much easier and faster to use On-Screen Takeoff's Patent Pending Multi-Condition Takeoff function!

By default, when using a mouse, On-Screen Takeoff 'snaps' to 15 degree angles while performing Area takeoff (Point-by-Point). Hold down the <Shift> key to temporarily override the Snap Angle Indicator and/or Snap settings. These settings may be changed program-wide by clicking Tools > Options and changing Snap Angle settings and/or disabling the Right Angle Indicator.

The Right Angle Indicator

To make drawing segments at right angles easier, the program displays the Right Angle Indicator and snaps the corners to 90 degrees by default.

To hide the Right Angle indicator, click Tools > Options and uncheck the Show right angle line indicator option.

When using the Right-Angle snap to draw a takeoff object, the segments may not be exactly the same length - although the image is a square, one segment may be fractionally larger than another. This can cause calculations to be a little higher if one of the results is Visible Grid or Visible Tiles and/or if the Condition is set to round segments. See Rounding Area Quantity for details on this option.

Taking off Curved Areas

To takeoff an area with curved segments, follow the contour as closely as possible using short segments. Override the Snap Angle holding down the <SHIFT> key while drawing the segments or disable Snap Settings in Tools > Options.

The curved area above was drawn by drawing five short, straight segments (six clicks for the curve).

Adding additional Vertices

After an area takeoff object is drawn, it may be necessary to add additional vertices (think of a vertex as a joint between two segments of an area takeoff's perimeter) to change the shape or size of the area takeoff. To add a vertex, perform the following steps:

Click the Selection tool
Click on the area takeoff object
Move the cursor toward the edge of the takeoff - the cursor changes indicating that clicking this point adds a vertex

Click once to add the vertex, notice that an additional vertex point appears on takeoff object

Once a vertex is added, to remove it, use the Selection Tool to drag it on top of an adjacent vertex.

Add as many vertices as needed (in example below, to add a 'bump-in' four vertices need to be added to the area takeoff segment).

To move the vertex points, move the mouse pointer over the vertex and the pointer changes to the move cursor - indicating the vertex is ready to be moved

Move the vertices vertically or horizontally to reform the shape of the area takeoff object

Unaccepted Actions (cannot close Area)

On-Screen Takeoff generates an unpleasant 'gong' sound when an Unaccepted Action is performed, for example, when the program does not accept a point when you are drawing Area takeoff. When you hear this sound, return to the last accepted point by hitting the <Esc> key and try clicking the point again (the <Esc> key backs-up the cursor position one point at a time).

The most common reason for being unable to set a final point to close an Area is crossing lines as shown in the screen shot below. In this example, point 4 cannot be set because it would cause the line 3-4 to cross line 1-2. It is very easy to cause this situation when completing the final segment - that is why it is advisable to allow On-Screen Takeoff to draw the final segment automatically by double-clicking at the last point.

Drawing Area Backouts