PDF Area Measurement Tool
for Construction Plans
Trace a room, a slab or a roof on a PDF plan and read its square footage and perimeter, and its volume once you give it a depth. Draw polygons, rectangles, ellipses or freehand shapes, or click inside a room on a vector PDF to fill it.
How to Measure Area on a PDF Plan
Set the Scale
Confirm the scale the sheet states, or set it from a known dimension. Area tools need a scale before they measure.
Choose the Tool
Polygon for any outline, Rectangle for square rooms, Ellipse for round ones, Freehand area for rough shapes, or Dynamic Fill to fill an enclosed space on a vector PDF.
Trace the Space
Click the corners and press Enter to close the shape. Snap catches wall corners and edges on vector PDFs, and Backspace takes back the last corner.
Read the Totals
Each area shows its square footage on the plan and its perimeter when selected, and the group adds them up. Name the area for the room so it reads the same in the export.
Ceiling Areas on the Sample Office Lighting Plan
The general notes on our sample lighting plan say the ceilings are a 2x4 suspended grid unless noted, and the restroom ceilings are gypsum board. So the grid takeoff is every room except the two restrooms. We drew one rectangle per room with snap on, so each corner caught the wall line, and named each area for its room.
Ten rooms came to 2,520.91 square feet, from 68.32 for the storage room to 924.83 for the open office. Each area's label shows its own square footage and room name on the plan, so a missed room is easy to spot before the takeoff goes anywhere.
The ten areas sit in one group, which shows their total and their combined perimeter of 647'-2". The Acoustical Ceiling Grid template on that group turns those two numbers into tiles, tees, wall angle and hanger wire, and the group keeps the ceiling apart from the power takeoff on the next sheet.
Takeoff Tools Built for Every Trade
From flooring to full ground up builds, measure what your trade needs and turn it into the materials you order, with assemblies for each trade.
Area Tools and What They Measure
Five ways to draw an area, and the quantities every area carries once it is drawn.
Polygon for Any Outline
Click each corner of a room, slab or roof plane and press Enter to close it. Press A to make the next edge a true arc for a curved wall, and Backspace to take back the last corner.
Rectangles, Ellipses and Freehand
Rectangle takes two opposite corners, and Shift makes it square. Ellipse takes a center and a size, and Shift makes it a circle, which also shows its diameter, radius and circumference. Freehand area follows your drag and closes when you let go.
Dynamic Fill on Vector PDFs
Click inside a room and the space bounded by the drawing's lines fills in. Openings up to a width you set, such as doorways, are treated as closed and marked with dashed lines, and thin lines like hatching can be ignored. Press Enter to add the fills as areas.
Cutouts and Expansions
Select an area and choose Cutout to draw a hole that is subtracted from it, such as a shaft or a courtyard, or Expand to draw another shape that is added to it. Either way it stays one area with one total.
Perimeter, Depth and Pitch
Every area shows its perimeter. Give it a depth and it shows volume in cubic feet and cubic yards, for a slab or a fill. Give it a pitch, such as 6:12, and the area becomes the sloped surface of a roof.
Snap to the Drawing
On vector PDFs the cursor snaps to corners, endpoints, midpoints and edges, so a corner lands on the wall line rather than near it. Press S to turn snap off and on, and hold Alt (Option on a Mac) to place a corner freely.
Where Area Takeoff Needs Your Judgment
The tools measure what you trace or what the drawing encloses. These are the places where that is not the same as the scope.
Dynamic Fill Needs Vector Lines
Dynamic Fill reads the lines stored in a PDF exported from CAD. On a scanned sheet it says the sheet cannot be filled, and snap has nothing to catch either, so trace those rooms with Polygon or Rectangle at a zoom where you can see the corners.
It Fills What Is Drawn
A fill stops at every line that encloses the space. On our sample lighting plan, door swings cut fills short, and with thin lines ignored the fill ran out through the window glazing. Rectangles were quicker for those square rooms; use the tool that fits the drawing.
Plan Area Is Flat
An area is measured as it appears on the plan. A roof needs its pitch to give the sloped surface, and walls are measured as lines with a wall height rather than as areas.
Scope Comes From the Notes
The tool does not know that restrooms get gypsum board or that a room is outside the contract. Read the notes and finish schedules first, then decide what to trace, as we did with the two restrooms on the sample plan.
PDF Area Measurement Questions
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