The problem: the plan view is smaller than the roof
- A roof plan is the footprint seen from straight above. The roof is tilted, so its real surface is always larger. An 8/12 plane carries 20.2 percent more area than its plan view — 200 square feet short on every 1,000.
- Hips and valleys are not a slope-factor problem. A hip runs diagonally in plan and climbs at the same time, so its true length comes from the hip and valley factor, not the slope factor. Using the slope factor overstates a hip by about 5 percent at 6/12 and 15 percent at 12/12, and that lands straight on your ridge cap order.
- One house rarely has one pitch. A 6/12 body with a 4/12 porch and a 10/12 front gable needs three multipliers on three areas. Average them and everything downstream is wrong.
- Overhangs are on the roof plan, not the floor plan. Miss a two-foot overhang on a 40 by 30 house and you have dropped roughly 300 square feet of shingles and 16 feet of edge metal — the overhang grows the perimeter from 140 feet to 156.
None of this is hard arithmetic. It is arithmetic done many times, per plane, with two different multipliers that look interchangeable and are not — which is exactly the shape of problem that gets averaged away on a tailgate.
How the tool handles it
Every traced plane carries its own pitch and gets its own slope factor before anything is summed. Lines are typed as they are drawn — eave, rake, ridge, hip or valley — because each buys a different product, and hips and valleys are measured with the hip and valley factor while ridges stay flat. At 6/12 the slope factor is 1.1180 and the hip and valley factor is 1.5000; they are different numbers for different jobs and the tool never confuses them. Measure a hip in plan and apply the slope factor instead and you are about 5 percent long at 6/12 and 15 percent long at 12/12.
One trace, the whole material list
A condition is a named, colored layer you trace on the drawing. An assembly turns that one condition into every part it drives, each with its own formula, coverage rate, waste percentage and rounding rule. A Architectural laminate over synthetic condition looks like this:
| Part | Unit | Driven by |
|---|---|---|
| Field shingles | BUNDLE | plan SF × slope factor ÷ 100 × waste, × bundles per square |
| Synthetic underlayment | ROLL | plan SF × slope factor × 1.10 lap ÷ 1000 SF per roll |
| Ice and water barrier | ROLL | eave LF × courses, where depth = (24in + overhang) × slope factor |
| Starter strip | BUNDLE | (eave LF + true rake LF) ÷ the product’s published LF per bundle |
| Hip and ridge cap | BUNDLE | (ridge LF + true hip LF) ÷ the product’s published LF per bundle, commonly 20–31 |
| Drip edge | STICK | (eave LF + true rake LF) ÷ 9.83ft effective, 2in lap |
| Valley metal | STICK | true valley LF ÷ 9.0ft effective (10ft stick, 12in sealed lap), min 24in wide |
| Coil roofing nails | CARTON | squares × pieces per square × nails each ÷ 7200 |
| Pipe boots and flashings | EA | counted by size |
| Tear-off and haul | SQ | existing squares by layer count |
| Ridge and off-ridge ventilation | LF / EA | ridge LF less cap, or unit count |
| Cap nails for underlayment | BOX | underlayment SF × fasteners per SF |
| Step and counterflashing | LF | wall-to-roof intersection LF |
| Gutter apron | LF | eave LF |
Change a coverage rate, a waste percentage or a unit cost and every job using that assembly re-prices. You are not editing numbers in twelve places.
Pitch per plane, never a roof average
Each traced plane carries its own pitch. A 6/12 body, a 4/12 porch and a 10/12 gable convert separately and roll into one order, and any plane left at the default gets flagged rather than quietly computed at the main body's pitch.
Two multipliers, used correctly
The slope factor converts plan area to roof area. The hip and valley factor multiplies the common rafter run to give a true hip or valley length. Use the wrong one and your cap and valley metal is about 15 percent out at 12/12.
Waste proposed from what you traced
The tool counts the valleys, hips and penetrations already on the drawing and proposes a waste percentage from that count rather than applying one company number to a simple gable and a nine-valley cut-up alike.
Every number traces back to a mark
When a supplier questions the bundle count, you open the marked-up plan and show each plane traced with its pitch and slope factor labeled, and the hips measured with the hip and valley factor rather than the slope factor.
Every number on the report links back to a specific mark, on a specific sheet, at a specific place on the page. The marked-up PDF export draws every mark in its condition color with the quantity labeled — that is the file you attach to the bid.
Accuracy is held to a stated tolerance: linear measurements within 0.10% of true, straight-sided areas within 0.25%, and calibration repeatable within 0.20% across five separate calibrations of the same page. Geometry is stored in PDF units, never screen pixels, and rounding happens exactly once — at report time.
What it costs
One short shingle order that stops a crew on a tear-off, or one roof figured at an averaged pitch, costs more than this tool does.
$2,500, paid once. Nothing in year two. Nothing in year three. No per-seat bill and no renewal date.
| Estimators using it | A per-seat subscription, five years | Ours, one-time licence |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $8,745 – $10,000 | $2,500 |
| 2 | $17,490 – $20,000 | $2,500 |
| 3 | $26,235 – $30,000 | $2,500 |
| 5 | $43,725 – $50,000 | $2,500 |
Their column multiplies by headcount and then repeats every year. Ours does neither. Put a fourth estimator on it and the number is still $2,500, because you are not licensing seats — you are buying the software.
And it does not repeat
| Whole company | Per-seat subscription, billed that year | Ours, billed that year |
|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $1,749 – $2,000 × seats | $2,500 |
| Year 2 | $1,749 – $2,000 × seats | $0 |
| Year 3 | $1,749 – $2,000 × seats | $0 |
| Year 4 | $1,749 – $2,000 × seats | $0 |
| Year 5 | $1,749 – $2,000 × seats | $0 |
What you actually receive
- The source code. Not access to it — a copy of it, running on your infrastructure.
- A one-time perpetual licence. It does not expire, it cannot be revoked, and there is no renewal date in your calendar.
- No seat count. Put every estimator in the company on it. There is no user tier to outgrow and nothing that counts logins.
- No dependence on us. Sixty days of support are included. After that you can hire any developer to change it, because you have the code. Most vendors cannot make that offer, because with them you are renting.
Subscription figures are publicly reported PlanSwift prices from software review sites, shown as a representative example of per-seat takeoff pricing. Check any vendor's current pricing directly before you compare. See the full PlanSwift comparison.
What is being built next
- DXF and DWG import is in active development. Today the tool reads PDF. If your drawings arrive as CAD files, ask on the call and we will give you honest timing rather than a guess on a web page.
- Auto-count symbol recognition — box a symbol once and find every match on the sheet — is a later release.
- Multi-estimator assignment, so a supervisor can hand work to specific people, is still being built out.