3D takeoffs: volumes, walls and site reports

Load the model

From a project, open Studio and switch to the 3D tab. From a share link, open the page and pick the 3D tab next to Map and Photos. The mesh streams in progressively - large models can take 10-30 seconds on first load.

• Left drag orbits, right drag pans, scroll or pinch zooms.
• Double tap or press the home control to re-frame the whole site.

Set your units

Use the unit toggle in the toolbar to switch between feet/inches and meters. Every readout, saved measurement and PDF follows this setting, so pick it before you start.

Working with a contractor in imperial and an engineer in metric? Take off once, then flip units and re-export the PDF - the geometry never changes.

Turn on lot lines if you need them

Lot boundaries are draped onto the mesh surface, so a property line follows the terrain instead of floating. Toggle them from the layers control when you need setbacks or a work limit visible while measuring.

Distance

Pick the Distance tool and click a start point on the mesh. As you move the cursor a live rubber-band line shows the running length, so you can hunt for the exact corner before you commit. Click again to place, double-click to finish a multi-leg path.

Measure something you know - a garage door, a truck bed, a standard sidewalk - as your first shot. If it reads within a couple of percent, the model scale is good.

Area

Click points around the region and double-click to close it. Area is computed on the draped surface, not on a flat plane, so a sloped roof or bank reports its true surface area.

Slope

Two points give you rise, run, percent grade and ratio. Use it to check driveway grade, swale fall, or whether a pad drains away from a foundation.

Trace the footprint

Choose Volume, then click points around the toe of the pile or the limit of work. Press Finish polygon (or double-click) to close it. Keep the trace on real ground - if you ride up onto the pile, you shrink the answer.

Pick the reference surface

This is the base the software measures to:

• Best fit plane - a tilted plane through your boundary points. Right for a pile sitting on a slope.
• Lowest point - a flat plane at the lowest boundary elevation. Conservative, usually over-reports.
• Anchor mode - pin an elevation (say the garage slab) and give it a fall, like 1/8 in per ft away from the building. Right for designed grade.
• Build pad (fill only) - reports material needed to bring the area up to your target surface, never a cut.

If a result says Cut when you expected Fill, the reference surface is above or below where you think it is. Switch to Build pad or Anchor mode and set the target explicitly.

Read the result honestly

You get cut, fill and net volume, peak height, footprint area and a likely range of roughly plus or minus 12 percent. That range is real - it reflects mesh noise and reference-surface choice, and it is what you should quote from.

• A heatmap shades cut vs fill so you can see where the material actually is.
• If the model has holes inside your polygon, a mesh gap warning appears once gaps exceed 2 percent of the area. Re-fly or re-process before quoting.

Add material and compaction

Pick a material (topsoil, road base, aggregate, and so on) to get a tonnage estimate. Compaction changes the volume and yield, not the weight - a ton of gravel is a ton whether it is loose in the truck or rolled in place.

Save it and move on

Name the measurement and hit Save. It joins the saved list with a visibility eye toggle, so you can hide finished piles and keep working. Vertices stay editable - drag one to fix a sloppy corner and the volume recalculates.

Name things the way the report should read: 'Soil 2 - north stockpile' beats 'measurement 4'.

Draw the wall line

Pick the Wall tool and click along where the face of the wall will sit. Double-click to finish. The tool samples the existing surface along the line to find exposed height at every station.

Set the wall type and target grade

Choose a construction type (segmental block, poured concrete, and so on) and set the finished grade behind the wall. Exposed height range, wall face area, backfill volume and a material takeoff update immediately.

Any wall at or above 4 ft exposed height raises an engineering-required callout. That flag stays on the PDF - do not strip it.

Check the assumptions block

Embedment depth, drain rock and base course are assumptions, not measurements. They are listed on the report so whoever prices the job can see exactly what was assumed and swap in their own numbers.

Pin one to four perspectives

Move the camera to an angle that explains the work - an oblique over the pile, a low angle along the wall face - and capture it. Pinned shots are stored with the takeoff, so regenerating the report six months later reproduces the exact same imagery.

• Shots are framed to a fixed 16:9 crop so every page lays out the same.

Export the site takeoff PDF

Export compiles every saved volume and wall into one branded document: summary totals, a page per measurement with its snapshot and numbers, material and tonnage tables, the assumptions block, and the engineering callout where it applies.

Come back later

Takeoffs are saved to the project, so you can close the tab, hand the link to a colleague, and pick up exactly where you left off - polygons, materials, names and pinned shots all intact.