PlanSwift - Avis

There were a few things that I enjoyed about this software, the ease of finding all of the tools you need to do a take off was very convenient. Also being able to do a take off then drop in the material you are needing and having the software do an estimate for you is also very convenient.

A con would be that sometimes when you upload a set of drawings they come in messed up, they will be upside down or aligned wrong. The drawings also tend to be uploaded without their sheet names.

PlanSwift gives a high level of user control for the published result of the takeoff. I can modify takeoff colours, add notes, create my own legend (with notes), insert lines, arrows, etc. The takeoff functions are well designed. Adding an area to the same layer is easy, subtracting a section is just as easy & displays very nicely as a blank space which doesn't interfere with other layers or the original drawing. Modifying a takeoff shape or colour is very easy, as well as drawing curved shapes, copying shapes to same or new layer. Various layers don't interfere with each other, don't "fall behind", etc. Layers can easily be turned off & on. Scaling is excellent with preset dropdown & custom input available, allowing you to work in metric or imperial & scale in either without limiting your output unit selection (ie. scale in metric & get takeoff output in imperial units if desired).

It appears to me that a lot of attention went into the design of the takeoff features. There are a lot of little things that make it much easier to use. For example, drawing a shape can take several minutes sometimes, & if you are interrupted & need to use another program you just have to move to another screen or minimize the program & when you come back you can carry on. Lots of programs force you to resolve the function you were engaged in before minimizing, but PlanSwift doesn't. This little thing makes a big difference when referring to another drawing on a pdf that has to be zoomed, or moved, etc while doing the takeoff.

The published pdf is very easy to read, & looks clean & professional - a very high quality finished product is possible with this program.

The loading time is the biggest drawback. If I load too many drawings into the program at a time, opening the program, publishing a pdf, & organizing files within the program can take a long time. This also causes my desktop to freeze so that I cannot move files around or into folders until I restart windows, wait for my screensaver to come on, or sometimes it just fixes on it's own. This is silly, but it seems that the program loads every drawing in it's database when I open the program, so to keep loading times reasonable, I need to remove files from it's database when I finish with them. It's an annoying & unnecessary hassle. It may be that the program is designed to load several drawings for a single project & then file the whole project when complete; so this might indicate I am using the program in a way it wasn't intended. However, I don't want to file away each drawing when I'm finished & start a new project. The takeoff is the project for me, so creating a project for each drawing will end up costing me even more time, if that is how it is designed.

Twice with complicated, multi-layered projects, I've had the program freeze when attempting to publish a pdf. Generally at the end of the day when I've already stayed a bit late to finish, & the takeoff is needed asap. This sucks. Restarting, loading the program & trying again takes 10-15 min. In both case it has not worked after 3 tries & I've had to relay the info verbally or use a screenshot instead of a published pdf. Honestly, out of 600+ takeoffs, that's not terrible - I'm assuming it has something to do with the file format and/or amount of info I tried to publish. I've had lots of complicated takeoffs with many layers & pages work just fine.

I found it easy to learn and it became the go-to program for viewing, measuring, and recording any info relating to architectural drawings. On many occasions, if I thought of some action I would like to see the program perform, a little research revealed that it was already built into the program. I have been surprised many times by the wealth of things this program can do.

One thing the program doesn't do well anymore is load drawings. When I first purchased about two years ago, the drawings loaded very well, and viewed as clearly as the source pdf file. But after a month or so, and a couple of hundred drawings later, the program began to have trouble loading drawings. Sometimes the program would just stall during upload, or if it did upload, a lot of lines would be missing from the drawing. It was possible to still do take-offs, but I would often have to keep the source pdf drawing open on another monitor. The latest batch of drawings I loaded were a real mess. Internet forums discuss this problem, but last time I looked no one had a solution. I contacted the company when this problem first appeared, but they were no help. I now regard a take-off program as indispensable, so I'm now shopping around for something to replace the Planswift program.

Value of the product and intuitive design for getting started for a beginner, easy to teach

Autocount is not very accurate
It would be good to see some feature that auto-centers your takeoff mark over the object since you can fly through a takeoff if you could rely on the computer to center your marks, somehow integrated with the OCR it should be able to do that

Take off portion is super user friendly. You learn how to use it in a couple of hours.
Price is very reasonable.
Huge savings in prints to bid jobs.
Database can be shared among all users.
You can create as many assemblies and unit price templates as you want.
You have access to formulas to calculate material quantities based on the take off.
Customer support is excellent and unlimited for simple take off questions.
Training is excellent
My sales person, Conner Livingston, still assists me when I need his help.

To use the pricing portion you have to create your own assemblies. They are not pre-built.
Lacks security features to prevent deleting custom made reports. You have to back them up.
Lacks security features to prevent others to modify your database and custom made reports. You have to back them up.
Only two people at Planswift have knowledge about building reports and is not part of the regular customer support. Either you buy a Training package or pay by the hour so they can help you build the reports you need.

I love that we're able to take off drawings digitally, a lot different than I when used to have to take off projects when I was younger by hand. I love the support we're able to access when we have questions, everyone seems to be very knowledgeable about the software and knows how to answer our questions directly and effectively. I also like how we're allowed to disable the license each time we're finished using the software each day at the office - allows me to pick up different projects that I work on for personal projects at home with not having to buy two separate licenses (which can be costly)

The price can be overwhelming at times - we like to keep up with the maintenance/updates and support which is an additional couple hundred dollars every year.
Not to mention wanting to get a couple more computers with Planswift on each with their own license is impossible for us at this time, which is actually holding us back.

I really like the easy take-off process that is given by this software. It is time-saving and leaves a track in the drawings where we can later review our takeoffs. We can easily generate marked drawings with quantity summaries on those drawings whereas the consultant or client can easily check the quantities.

I prefer if it had the possibility to generate reports with drawing wise quantity summary.

I love this software. It is easy to use. Gives great measurements. Allows fairly accurate job costing. And it has a ton of functions that are very useful for so many aspects of construction.

The only thing that I do not like about this software is that yoy can only have one set of plans open at a time.

It is one the best quantity takeoff software that I have ever used. It really match with PDF format drawings and give you the ability to categorize and organize the bill of quantities inside the software and transfer them to Excel. You can also apply the unit rates and build up an estimate. Very appropriate for building works including residential and ICI.

The software has been designed mostly for 2D drawings. When it comes with 3D such as cut & fill takeoff, it doesn't work. I don't recommend the software for heavy-civil jobs.

It's really easy to use and you can do your estimates in very little time and with not that much effort by using PlanSwift.

The only complaint I have is that it takes about 2 hours on the phone for support to actually attend your call.

Easy to learn. Dead on accurate. Super easy to navigate. Also... you can learn how to customize PlanSwift to give you the Export into Excel anyway you would like. No limitations. No other software has this feature.

PRICE: Seems high but remember... this is a ONE TIME PURCHASE (no annual fees). Saves a TON of money compared to others who charge an up front fee PLUS their annual fee .

I can't find anything wrong with this software. Everything others lack, PlanSwift has it included. Again... I haven't found another digital takeoff software that even comes close. I would recommend this one and let readers know you can buy with confidence.

I work for a small construction company as the project estimator. I have to do takeoffs on basically every aspect of the home so I can put together budgets and bid out the project properly.

This is a seriously powerful tool for doing a full building takeoff. Almost all aspects of it are customizable, so you can make this thing do just about anything you want. I've got a template set up that that allows me to use one measurement to calculate quantities for multiple parts. And, if something changes, I can easily manipulate it to figure the new data. So, I measure for block work on foundation and I tell it how many courses I want and it will change the calculations based on the number I select.

For the most part, the customer service has been extremely helpful.

I am able to save and print views of the takeoffs. This has been extremely helpful when putting together ceiling joist and rafter layouts for my field team. This has helped eliminate a lot of wasted (expensive) lumber by the framers cutting up wood they shouldn't (like cutting up a 2x10x26 intended for a rafter and using it for headers).

Knowledge base: Sometimes the knowledge base can be a little tricky. It will often take you to outdated versions or may not show anything at all. Much of the information is not laid out in a very intuitive way.

Customer service: There have been a few times where I've run into glitches with the software. The costumer service was not helpful every time (though they have been 99% of the time). Sometimes they have been problematic. I use the labeled count feature regularly, but it doesn't always total up the counts properly. When I contacted customer service, the rep I spoke with just said, "I'm not sure. It's probably the computer." He said that about a couple issues. He never did a real review or provided a resolution. I've found ways to work around it, though.

Extremely simple measurement takeoffs, and excellent features for organizing information. It is also intuitive to use as far as the takeoffs go. The detailed budgeting information and ability to export so that the data can be used with other software is what makes PlanSwift so valuable as an estimating tool.

It is difficult to find files when there are a lot in one folder. I haven't been able to figure out how to search or reorganize the import list in a way that keeps me from having to just scroll through the list until I find the file I want to import. The good thing is, the most recently saved file is at the bottom of the list, so if it's a new file, it is easy to find. And those are usually the files I'm looking for.

The other downside for me was that I had to have my computer rebuilt, and the PlanSwift files were stored in a place on my computer that is not routinely copied when an IT tech rebuilds the computer. Sorry I don't remember where the files were stored. HOWEVER, the PlanSwift customer service team was extremely helpful and worked with my IT tech to try to find and restore the files. Although they were not able to restore any of the files, they were able to change the location of storage so that wouldn't happen again. Also, I waited to have my computer rebuilt until I had finished a big project, so I didn't really miss anything that I had lost.

Saves time and therefore money
good program
easy enough to use
pretty accurate, rare to come up with short amounts

Pay for help, or receive none
some aspects can be hard to use
takes time to learn to use properly.

Ease of use for point and click, dimension scaling and calibration, elevation markups, text bubbles and snapshots for RFIs, no annual license fee if you so choose to not receive updates, cheapest entry price of any software

Estimating software leaves a lot to be desired. The inputs and functions you can use don't always cover your entire needs and leaves us using Excel with our house made matrix to estimate. Sometimes plans with large file sizes crash the software, but could be due to our own RAM constraints (8 GB).

Good video tutorials to help you get the most out of the product.
Quick and easy to get a take off done.
Some basic templates can be made to make the most of your time.

Written in Pascal so it is old programming and not real easy to modify
Customer support can get a little lost if you have a real question.

it is simple in a way that you can start fast - but that is already all you can say regarding "pros"

It cannot do a multi takeoff, there are no instructions or help available to create lists, you cannot organize your takeoff by divisions, quantities are not added together using different drawings. The auto-quantity tool does not work always, there is no rectangular snap, you cannot add points to a shape wherever you will (only at the end pint) and for that reason changing a form/ shape is so difficulty that you better start over - which is time consuming. Plan import settings do not work as supposed too and the quality you get is really bac - without any chance of improvement if you convert to tiff.

Takeoff easy to use
great for anyone
integrated wit excel
comes stock with your standard parts or materials that you will use

If you have different heights on walls you have to make a new line item for each wall that has a different height.

Easy to take of square footage, significantly faster than the old way of doing it by hand. It provides a one stop shop where all the drawings are. Customer service/training is available which is nice when you're trying to learn the program.

The only con we've found is that it takes a while to get set up

Ease of use.

Lost projects. No longer selling pluggins.

Able to verify points to get correct lengths, snap point to point, define width of wall.

This software does not work well on the database on Dropbox, lots of errors if 2 people are in it at the same time or if you have multiple instances open at the same time.

It will allow you to take off plans in a fraction of the time compared to doing it with pen and paper. It can export all of your takeoff to Excel and makes sending quotes a breeze.

That i did not find out about this software sooner

I like the accessibility and features. With the right coding to design the tools, this software makes the job a lot easier. The joist/rafter tool is great!

I did not like the time it takes to make the tools. You can buy packages if you want.

Reasonably priced, Basic features fairly easy to learn and use.

Multiple bugs persist through many versions of the software. Company add features to attract new users but does not address bugs in the application that have persisted for years.

Ease of use, fast.

Can't get bridge to work between estimating software.