QTO — Quantity Takeoff

The QTO module turns drawings into priced BOQ lines, with AI-assisted symbol recognition and auto-scaling. It is built for the estimator and quantity surveyor who today does takeoff in Bluebeam or PlanSwift and wants the result piped into ORKSTRA's BOQ and Cost Estimation.

Overview

Two phases:

• Phase A — manual takeoff with AI assist: upload drawings, set scale, place counts, areas, lengths. Save into a takeoff sheet that maps to BOQ lines.
• Phase B — AI auto-takeoff: symbol libraries plus a Claude-Vision-backed processor identify counts and dimensions on supported drawing types.

Screenshot: QTO drawing canvas with placed counts, area polygons, length lines

Key concepts

Drawing set. A package of drawings for a project — architectural, structural, MEP. Each drawing has a discipline tag.

Sheet. A single drawing within a set.

Scale. Each sheet has a scale (1:50, 1:100). Can be set manually or auto-detected from the title block.

Takeoff sheet. A working document that captures counts (e.g., 142 light fittings), areas (m² of flooring), and lengths (linear meters of ducting), each tagged to a BOQ line.

Symbol library. A reusable catalog of stamped symbols — e.g., a switched-socket symbol. The AI uses the library to count matching symbols on a drawing.

Auto-scale. A computer-vision step that detects the title block and infers scale.

Processing job. Long-running auto-takeoff jobs run async; results appear in the takeoff sheet for QS validation.

Step-by-step: manual takeoff

1. Project → QTO → New takeoff.
2. Upload the drawing PDF or DWG.
3. Pick a sheet and confirm scale (auto-detected or manual two-point reference).
4. Pick a tool: count, area, length.
5. Click on the drawing to drop counts, draw polygons, or trace lines.
6. Each measurement gets tagged to a BOQ line.
7. Save the takeoff sheet — totals push to the BOQ.

Step-by-step: AI auto-takeoff

1. From the takeoff sheet, click AI takeoff.
2. Pick the symbol library and the categories to auto-count.
3. Submit — a processing job runs. Typical job time: 30 seconds to 5 minutes per sheet.
4. When complete, AI-placed counts appear in orange (pending QS validation).
5. The QS reviews — confirm, adjust, or reject each.
6. Confirmed counts flip to green and feed the BOQ.

Step-by-step: build a symbol library

1. QTO → Libraries → New library.
2. Upload reference symbol images (one image per symbol, ideally 200×200 px).
3. Tag each with a name and an associated BOQ category.
4. Save — the library is now available for AI auto-takeoff.

Common tasks

• Reuse a takeoff: clone an existing takeoff sheet to start a new one with the same structure.
• Export to BOQ: the takeoff sheet has a one-click Push to BOQ that creates / updates BOQ lines.
• Compare two revisions of a drawing: Drawing → Revisions → Compare highlights added / removed entities.
• Bulk reassign BOQ tags: edit the takeoff sheet's tag column to bulk-retag.

Troubleshooting

• "AI placed counts on the wrong area." — Symbol confusion. Add more reference images to the library, then re-run.
• "Auto-scale picked the wrong scale." — Title block OCR failed. Set manually with a known dimension reference.
• "Push to BOQ creates duplicates." — Existing BOQ has lines with the same code but different units. Resolve in the BOQ first, then re-push.
• "AI job stuck in pending for an hour." — Check QTO → Jobs for the error. Heavy drawings (>50 MB PDFs) sometimes time out — split the PDF and retry.

Limits

• Max drawing PDF size: 100 MB.
• Max sheets per set: 500.
• AI auto-takeoff: up to 100 sheets per processing job.

Permissions reference

Permission	Who needs it
QTO_VIEW	Estimators, QSes
QTO_EDIT	Estimators, QSes
QTO_AI_RUN	Senior estimators
QTO_PUSH_TO_BOQ	Senior QSes
QTO_LIBRARY_MANAGE	Senior estimators

See also: BOQ, Cost Estimation, DMS.