Takeoff by hand
Select and navigate
Move around the sheets, pick a shape, reshape it, copy it, move it to another condition, and undo.
Getting around
| Do | How |
|---|---|
| Zoom | Mouse wheel (toward the pointer), pinch, or / in the top bar |
| Pan | Drag open canvas with Select; or hold Space and drag, or drag with the middle or right mouse button (any tool); two-finger scroll or Shift + wheel |
| Fit the sheet | in the top bar or the corner tools |
| Next / previous sheet | ‹ and › beside the sheet name |
| Any sheet | Click the sheet name (1 in the layout): every sheet and file, grouped |
| All sheets as pictures | G, or ⋯ > All sheets…: the sheet gallery |
| More room for the drawing | focus mode, F |
There is no pan tool: you never have to switch into panning.
The sheet gallery and open sheets
G opens the gallery: one card per sheet with its sheet number, a picture, how many shapes it holds and whether its scale is set. Open one sheet, several as tabs, or up to four side by side (one zoom moves them all; each keeps its own scale). The N open menu in the tool row lists the open sheets: jump to one, add or remove it side by side, or close it.
Careful: A trace cannot cross from one side-by-side sheet to the next: the gap between them is not real distance. To measure a floor split at a match line, stitch the sheets in the gallery first.
Select a shape
Arm Select (V) and click a shape. A filled area never hides what is on top of it: a count, a line or a wall run over an area stays clickable.
With a shape selected:
- Drag a corner to move it. It snaps to the drawing's own corners.
- Click a corner, then Backspace, to delete just that point.
- Drag the middle of an edge to move the whole edge.
- Press anywhere else on an edge to add a point there and drag it out (a + shows where it lands).
- Drag inside the shape to move it. Moving never changes the quantity.
- Backspace with no point picked deletes the shape.
The quantity updates as you edit. Editing a shape crux drew marks it as corrected and keeps crux's original beside it.
The Edit menu
Edit in the tool row:
| Item | Key | Does |
|---|---|---|
| Copy | Ctrl+C | Copy the selected shape |
| Paste | Ctrl+V | Paste onto the sheet under the pointer, at that sheet's own scale |
| Duplicate | Ctrl+D | A copy in place |
| Flip Horizontal / Flip Vertical | none | Mirror the shape; the quantity does not change |
| Tidy shape | none | Straighten a jagged outline (a traced room with stair-stepped edges): extra points between true corners are merged and near-square walls are squared; the corners on the drawing never move |
| Finish shape | Enter | Close the shape you are drawing |
| Undo last point | Ctrl+Z while drawing | Remove the last point |
| Undo last shape | none | Delete the newest shape on these sheets |
| Redo | Ctrl+Shift+Z | Put back what you undid |
| Delete selected | Backspace | Delete the selected shape |
Move a shape to another condition
Select the shape, then click another condition: a row in the Takeoffs panel or a pinned condition in the tool row. The shape, and its quantity, move. The number keys 1 to 9 never move a selected shape; they only change the active condition.
Undo
Ctrl+Z undoes, Ctrl+Shift+Z redoes, up to 100 steps: creating shapes (a whole One-Click Create or an Approve is one step), every finished edit, a move to another condition, a label change, a delete, a paste, and placing or lifting an approval stamp.
Careful: Some things are not on the undo list: deleting a condition (crux asks first, and its shapes go with it), changing a sheet's scale and restoring a revision (both clear the list), and markup moves. Save a revision before anything risky.
Common mistakes
- A drag instead of a click. A press that moves pans the drawing; release without moving to place a point.
- Expecting a digit to move a shape. Click the condition instead.
- Pasting onto a sheet with no scale. It is refused; set that sheet's scale first.