The problem: three coats, three different coverage rates
- Scratch, brown and finish each have their own coverage per bag or per pail, and they all come off the same square footage.
- Accessories are linear and they are everywhere: casing bead at every opening, corner aid at every corner, weep screed along the bottom, control joints on a grid.
- Openings deduct from the field and add casing bead perimeter at the same time.
- EIFS adds a board layer with its own square footage, adhesive, mesh and its own waste.
The field area is one measurement used five or six times with different multipliers. Doing that by hand is fine until the elevation changes and every one of those numbers has to be found again.
How the tool handles it
One traced elevation drives every coat through its own coverage rate, and the openings you deduct drive casing bead in the same operation. Change a coverage rate and every elevation on the job re-prices.
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 Three-coat stucco over lath condition looks like this:
| Part | Unit | Driven by |
|---|---|---|
| Weather-resistive barrier | SF | wall SF × layers + 10% laps — two layers over wood-based sheathing |
| Metal lath | SF | wall SF + 10% |
| Lath fasteners | EA | lath SF × fasteners per SF |
| Tie wire | LB | lath SF × yield |
| Scratch coat | BAG | wall SF ÷ coverage per bag |
| Brown coat | BAG | wall SF ÷ coverage per bag |
| Finish coat | PAIL | wall SF ÷ coverage per pail |
| Casing bead | LF | opening perimeters + field terminations at soffits, abutments and wall tops |
| Corner aid | LF | derived outside corner count × height |
| Cornerite | LF | derived inside corner count × height |
| Weep screed | LF | bottom edge LF over framed walls |
| Control joint | LF | from the joint layout trace |
| Application labor | HR | wall SF ÷ production rate per coat |
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.
Coverage per coat
Scratch, brown and finish each carry their own coverage rate and their own production rate off one traced area.
Accessories from geometry, inside and outside
Casing bead from opening perimeters and from every field termination at soffits, abutments and wall tops. Corner aid at outside corners, cornerite at inside corners — different parts, different prices, both derived from the trace rather than counted by hand.
EIFS as its own layer
Board square footage, adhesive, base coat and mesh are separate parts on the same trace with their own waste percentages.
Every number traces back to a mark
When a coat quantity is disputed, the marked-up elevation shows the field area, the openings deducted, the accessories generated by those openings, and the coverage rate used for that coat.
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
Stucco is one area measurement multiplied six different ways. Getting the area right once and letting the multipliers follow is the whole efficiency.
$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.