2026, June 19th – From Plans to Project: AI Takeoffs to Estimates

June 19th, 2026

Hosted by: Taha, Trainer at Contractor Foreman

Topic: The Takeoff Tool — From Drawings to Estimate, Scope of Work, and Project Schedule

Webinar Description

In this advanced training session, Taha walks through the Takeoff Tool in Contractor Foreman — currently available in preview — from start to finish. Unlike a surface-level feature overview, this session follows a complete workflow: uploading a set of construction drawings, managing and verifying the AI’s initial takeoff, using the AI chat to extract specific quantities and generate supporting documents, exporting data into the estimate, and ultimately using that same information to produce a scope of work and a project schedule.

Taha opens with a framing that sets the tone for the entire session: the Takeoff Tool is not something you hand the wheel to and walk away from. He uses the analogy of a car with an auto-parking feature — the technology does most of the work, but your hands are still on the wheel, your eyes are still on the mirrors, and you are still responsible for the outcome. That mindset — trust the tool, verify everything — runs through every step of the demonstration.

The session begins with two foundational points before touching the software. First, drawing quality matters: the AI can only work with what it can read, and poor quality drawings, hand-drawn markups, or incomplete plans will produce assumptions you may not even be aware of. Second, setting the scale correctly before measuring anything is non-negotiable — Taha pauses the demonstration to ask attendees what the first step of any takeoff is, and the chat confirms it unanimously: set the scale.

From there, Taha walks through the full interface — how uploaded drawings are automatically categorized by discipline (architectural plans, elevations, structural, and others), how the AI generates an initial takeoff across all sheets immediately upon upload, and how the Legends tab functions as the brain of the system. He explains that the Legends tab is where the AI stores everything it has identified: spaces, rooms, objects, walls. When you ask the AI chat a question later — “give me the square footage of the bedrooms” or “how much paint does the great room require?” — it draws from that database. If the database is wrong or incomplete, the answers will be too. Taha demonstrates this live by finding rooms labeled as “unknown” and correcting them, showing how that accuracy flows directly into downstream outputs.

The second half of the session covers what makes this walkthrough distinct from previous Takeoff sessions: the full export-to-estimate workflow, and what comes after. Taha shows how to export takeoff quantities as a Contractor Foreman–formatted CSV, import them directly into an estimate, and then use the AI chat to generate a complete scope of work — including the assumptions the tool made — that can be copied directly into the estimate’s scope section without manual writing. He then demonstrates how the same AI chat can produce a Gantt chart activity list with estimated durations based on crew size, industry installation rates, and the square footage figures pulled from the drawings — giving project managers a starting point for their project schedule that is grounded in the actual measurements of the job.

César Macedo supported the session through the chat and Q&A, fielding attendee questions throughout the presentation.

Attendees were offered a complimentary one-on-one training session to go deeper on the Takeoff Tool or any part of the workflow covered in the session.

This session is ideal for:

• Estimators and project managers who have seen the Takeoff Tool but haven’t yet used it for a full project workflow from drawings to estimate
• Teams who want to understand how the AI chat feature works and how to get reliable, accurate answers out of it
• Anyone who attended the April 10th or May 15th Takeoff sessions and wants to see the complete workflow extended through scope of work generation and schedule building
• Contractors looking to reduce the time between receiving drawings and having a complete estimate, scope, and preliminary schedule ready to review