The problem: the trim is where the money goes
- Siding square footage is the easy part. Corner posts, J-channel around every opening, starter strip along every bottom edge and drip cap over every window are linear, numerous, and easy to under-count.
- Whether an opening is deducted at all depends on the product. The vinyl convention leaves ordinary windows and doors in, because the un-deducted area is the waste allowance, and deducts only 75 percent of openings over 50 square feet. Fiber cement and wood are normally deducted in full. Either way the same opening still drives its own J-channel.
- Gables are triangles, and they are the part people eyeball.
- Coverage per box or per square is a real number, and it does not divide evenly into an elevation.
Under-count the trim and the job eats the difference in second trips to the supply house. The field square footage is rarely what goes wrong.
How the tool handles it
One opening deducts from the wall it sits in and drives its own perimeter of J-channel at the same time. Corner counts come from the traced geometry rather than being tallied by hand. Gables are traced as the shapes they actually are instead of estimated as half a rectangle.
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 Lap siding on an elevation condition looks like this:
| Part | Unit | Driven by |
|---|---|---|
| Siding | SQ | wall SF less deducted openings, + 10% waste ÷ 100 |
| House wrap | SF | wall SF + 10% for laps |
| Outside corner post | EA | derived outside corner count |
| Inside corner post | EA | derived inside corner count |
| J-channel | LF | opening perimeters + edges |
| Undersill / utility trim | LF | sill LF + top course LF |
| F-channel | LF | soffit run LF |
| Starter strip | LF | bottom edge LF |
| Drip cap | LF | head LF at each opening |
| Fasteners | BOX | wall SF × fasteners per SF ÷ fasteners per box, rounded up |
| Hang labor | HR | wall SF ÷ production rate |
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.
Deduction is a setting, not a rule
Follow the vinyl convention and leave ordinary openings in so they carry the waste, deducting only 75 percent of anything over 50 square feet — or deduct every opening for fiber cement and wood. The opening drives its J-channel either way.
Gables traced as triangles
Trace the real shape and the shoelace calculation handles it. No half-of-base-times-height arithmetic in the margin of the plan.
Corner posts are derived
Inside and outside corners come from the angle at each vertex of the elevation trace, which is what sets the post count.
Every number traces back to a mark
When the trim order comes up short, you can see every opening that was deducted and every foot of channel it generated. The field square footage is rarely the problem — the trim is, and now it is documented.
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
Two trips back for J-channel and a corner post erase the margin on a small elevation. That is what this is for.
$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.