What automated electrical takeoff means
A manual takeoff is a loop: find the sheet, find the symbol, click it, note the type, repeat. Automation replaces the loop with a pass over the whole set. The software finds the relevant sheets, detects the symbols, assigns types and builds the quantities. Your job shifts from counting to checking.
That shift matters most where the counts are large and repetitive, and on many commercial jobs that means lighting.
What InstantTakeoff automates
- Finding the lighting plans in a full drawing set, by scanning each sheet.
- Counting light fixtures, exit signs and lighting controls, including wall switches, with an AI-powered computer vision model.
- Typing each fixture from its tag, matched against the fixture schedule.
- Fixture schedule reconciliation: a type whose tags on the sheet have too few counted fixtures beside them gets flagged for a closer look.
- Branch wiring and home runs, traced from the circuit lines drawn on the plan or built from circuit tags such as L-5. When neither is readable, wiring is estimated instead of traced.
- Pricing from your price list: vendor price lists imported from Excel or CSV, vendor quotes, labor units and labor rates, and assemblies that price a fixture with its parts as one unit, with sales tax, overhead, contingency and profit.
- A bid summary and a proposal with your logo, as PDF or Word, plus Excel and CSV exports.
Why lighting
- Volume. Lighting plans are symbol-heavy, so counting time adds up fast across floors and buildings.
- A built-in check. Fixture types are defined in the fixture schedule, which gives the count something to be reconciled against.
- Cost of a miss. A missed fixture type means missing material, labor and wiring on the bid, and it is easy to miss on a dense sheet.
How automation fits your workflow
Automated takeoff should fit how you estimate. With InstantTakeoff you upload the set, check the counts in the browser, price them from your own vendor price lists and labor units, and download the proposal. Need the numbers somewhere else? Excel, CSV, the API and the MCP connector are all there.
You stay in charge of the numbers. Each count is a box on the sheet, so you can spot-check a floor in seconds, add a missed fixture, remove a wrong one or change a type, and the totals follow.
Automation you can audit
The useful question about any automated takeoff is not whether it is automated, but whether you can trust and verify its output before bid day. Look for:
- Counts you can trace back to a spot on the drawing.
- A schedule check that points you at gaps.
- Clear rules for what happens when part of a drawing is hard to read.
- A published method for how accuracy is measured. Ours is on the accuracy page.
Pricing: $300 per seat per month, billed monthly, or $3,000 per seat per year, billed annually. See pricing or try a sheet free.
Questions
What does InstantTakeoff count?
The lighting scope: light fixtures, exit signs and lighting controls, including wall switches, counted by type and checked against the fixture schedule. It also traces the lighting branch wiring and home runs.
Does it trace wiring or just count symbols?
Both. Branch circuits and home runs are traced from the circuit lines drawn on the plan or built from circuit tags such as L-5. When neither is readable, the wiring is estimated instead of traced.
Do I need to split the drawing set before uploading?
No. Upload the PDF set and InstantTakeoff finds the lighting plans by scanning each sheet.
How is accuracy measured?
The model keeps improving, checked against a held-out test set. The method and current results are on the accuracy page.