Every feature, in full

Estimating library

A 5,806-item NRM/SMM catalogue plus unlimited libraries you build yourself.

Built-in NRM/SMM catalogue

• 5,806 ready-to-use items — masonry, concrete, structural, finishes and more, organised into chapters, sections and sub-sections
• 4-level column view — drill through the hierarchy one column at a time without losing your place
• Correct NRM/SMM units attached to every item — m², m³, lin m, nr, item, sum, prov sum, %

Build your own libraries

• Unlimited custom libraries — a library per trade, per client, per regional price book
• Create, rename, delete, duplicate libraries on the fly — built-ins are protected from accidental changes
• Full node editor — add, rename, delete, move items; nest to any depth
• Per-item formatting — set bold, underline, colour and font size once on the library item; it carries over every time you insert it into Excel

Import & export

• XLSX import — multi-sheet workbooks bring in a whole set of libraries at once (one sheet per library)
• Per-sheet strategy — for each sheet you can create a new library, merge into an existing one, replace it, or skip
• Unit validation on import — unknown unit abbreviations are flagged before anything is saved
• Export all libraries to a single XLSX to back up or share across a team

Finding items fast

• Case-insensitive search across the whole active library
• Match counter shows current / total; press Enter to cycle through hits
• Auto-reveal — the tree expands to the match so you can see its context
• Pop-out window — browse the library in a larger floating panel when you need more room
• Right-click menu — Add, Edit, Delete, Move Up/Down, Import, Export without hunting through menus

Inside Excel

BQ Wizard is an Excel add-in — not a separate tool that exports to Excel. Your spreadsheet stays yours.

Getting items into cells

• Double-click to insert — description lands in the active cell, unit in the cell beside it, selection drops down a row ready for the next item
• Drag from library to cell — with a styled preview that shows exactly how it will look
• Formatting preserved — bold, underline, font colour and size follow the library item, not the sheet

Right-click BQ Units menu

• Insert common units directly into any cell with one click — m², m³, lin m, nr, item, sum, prov sum, %
• Works on ranges — select a column and fill every cell with the same unit at once
• Open dim workings from the same right-click menu — no ribbon hunting

Worksheet templates

• Pre-built sheets — Standard, Preliminaries, Dimension Sheet, Summary — with correctly formatted headers
• Section count — generate a template with as many grouped sections as you need
• Preview tiles show what each template looks like before you apply it

Ribbon & task pane

• Home-tab ribbon button toggles the task pane open and closed
• Three mode chips inside the task pane switch between Library, Dim Sheet and PDF Take-off
• Cell-note banner — when you select a cell that already has workings, the task pane shows its description and total; click to edit

Dim sheet & workings

A proper dim sheet — times-in, A × B × C, deductions, centres — without leaving the cell.

The dim editor

• Six columns — Times In (T), Dim A, Dim B, Dim C, Total, Notes — exactly like a paper dim sheet
• Row total = T × A × B × C, calculated live as you type; empty dimensions treated as 1
• Expression parser in every cell — enter 2/5, 3/4, 2/5+4/6, 10-2/3, and combinations with + − × /
• Auto-format — plain numbers round to 2 decimal places on blur; expressions stay as you typed them
• Round-up toggle — applies ceil() to the item total when the contract requires whole numbers

Deductions, centres & selections

• Negative values render in red and are used to track deductions cleanly on the same sheet
• Number at centres calculator — linear and area modes, adjustable end conditions, unit conversion between m and mm
• Column selection — click a header to select the whole column; Shift+click for ranges; Cmd/Ctrl+click to multi-select; Delete clears
• Live selection sum & count — the moment you highlight cells you see what they add up to
• Keyboard flow — Arrows move, Enter adds a row and drops down, Tab advances, Ctrl/Cmd+S saves

Description autocomplete

• Saved descriptions — every description you use is remembered for next time
• Filter as you type — narrow the list to matches instantly
• Library picker (book icon) — browse a longer saved-description list, pick one to fill the field
• Per-item delete and "Clear all" so the list stays tidy

Save workflows

• Save to cell — item total into the selected cell, plus a formatted Excel comment containing every row of the working
• Queue and insert all — stack multiple workings, then bulk-write them down the column in one go
• Target cell shown at all times so you know exactly where the value will land
• Overwrite-safe — re-saving to a cell updates the existing workings, keeping the history attached to that cell
• Expand to dialog — pop the dim editor into a full-screen window when a job needs more room

PDF plan take-off

Measure straight off the drawing. No paper printouts, no scale rules, no separate take-off software.

Opening a drawing

• Drag-and-drop any PDF into the picker — load several files at once
• Auto-save back into the source PDF on systems that support it — your measurements travel with the file
• Per-filename cache so re-opening a PDF is instant
• Page thumbnails with hi-res hover preview — pick the sheets you need before committing
• Page subset — work on a selection of pages from a large drawing pack

Built-in PDF optimiser

• Open PDFs that crash Acrobat or Preview — large site drawings, dense vector layers, 200-page sets
• Off-thread rasterisation — converts heavy vector pages into lightweight tiles that render smoothly
• Prompted automatically when a file is detected as large, or runnable on demand

Viewing & navigation

• Zoom & pan — wheel zoom, fit-to-page, hold Space to pan
• Rotate the page in 90° steps (R key), saved per drawing
• Adaptive tile cache sized to your machine's RAM — 120 to 300 tiles — for smooth navigation on big plans
• Low-res first paint, full resolution on idle — no waiting to start measuring
• Page names — rename "Page 1" to "Ground Floor Plan"; auto-rename via OCR of title blocks

Setting the scale

• Two-point calibration — click two points, type the real-world distance, done
• Scale presets — metric (1:20, 1:50, 1:100, 1:200, 1:500) and imperial (1/4"=1', 1/8"=1', 1"=10')
• Different scale per page — each drawing sheet keeps its own calibration
• Scale zones — mark a region on a page with its own scale for detail call-outs; automatic zone detection on your first point
• Unit override per session — jump into mm for a quick detail without touching the project scale

Measurement tools

• Line — two points, real-world length
• Area — closed polygon with area, perimeter and bounding box width × height
• Polyline — open path with cumulative edge lengths
• Count — point markers for items like doors, WCs, fittings
• Offset — generate parallel lines or polygons from a single measurement (footings, cavities, wall skins) — flip side, cut out the original, or convert a line into an area as you offset

Snap & precision

• Snap to vertices (other measurement endpoints) — on by default
• Snap to edges (perpendicular projection onto existing lines)
• Snap radius in screen pixels — behaves the same whether you're zoomed in or out
• Visual snap indicator highlights the point you'll land on
• Toolbar toggle to turn snap off for freehand measurements

Styling each measurement

• Colours, thickness (1–4 px) and opacity per measurement
• Line end markers — none, tick, angled tick, dot, arrow — independent for each end
• Dash styles — solid, dashed, dotted, dash-dot, dash-dot-dot
• Area fill patterns — solid, hatch, crosshatch, horizontal, vertical, dots, brick, blockwork, stone, concrete, timber, insulation, earth, sand, tile
• Count symbols — cross-circle, filled circle, X, plus, diamond, triangle, square, open circle, in small, medium or large

Walls, openings & deductions

• Wall height multiplier — turn a line or polyline into a wall area by entering a height
• Openings — add doors and windows to a wall with position, width, height and sill height; they deduct automatically
• Deductions linked to a parent measurement — net totals calculated; deduction rows highlighted
• Split polyline at a clicked point when you need to break one measurement into two

Measurement list & view sheet

• View sheet — tabular list of every measurement with Type, Label, Length, Wall Ht, Qty, Gross, Unit, Perimeter, Width, Height and Page columns
• Sortable & hideable columns — show only what you care about
• Visibility toggle per row — hide measurements on the canvas while keeping them in the list
• Click-to-edit label, wall height and colour inline
• Gross vs net totals so you can see the effect of deductions at a glance
• Measurement list — a staging area for dim workings that can be exported as one Excel block

Other PDF tools

• Text extraction tool — drag a box over any text on the drawing; PDF text layer first, OCR fallback; the result can be pasted as a table into Excel
• Crosshair overlay at the cursor, colour-configurable
• Per-drawing notes — a scratch pad that lives with the file
• Right-click menu on canvas — Continue group, Add wall height, Add opening, Deduct, Split, Offset, Copy, Paste, Delete, Extract text
• Keyboard shortcuts — L (line), A (area), P (polyline), C (count), R (rotate), Space (pan), Ctrl/Cmd+S (save)

Exporting from a drawing

• Marked-up PDF — vector export with lines, areas (filled and hatched), count symbols, labels and scale indicators
• Compact PDF — measurements only, no page raster, for quick sharing
• Excel export dialog — choose columns, decimal precision, bold totals, red deductions and border totals; drag cards to reorder; toggle groups on and off before export

Custom tool kits

Build the tools you actually use, once, and carry them into every project.

Saved measurement tools

• One preset captures everything — type, colour, thickness, opacity, end markers, dash style, fill pattern, count symbol and size
• Click a tool in the sidebar and the next measurement uses its exact style
• Unlimited tools — organise them however you work: by trade, by drawing type, by project

Folders & organisation

• Nested folders — e.g. Elevation Tools → Wall Types → External
• Drag & drop to reorder tools, reorder folders, or move tools between folders
• Safe folder delete — removing a folder orphans its children to the root, never loses them
• New-tool badge on freshly imported tools until you've had a chance to use them

Auto tool renamer (OCR)

• Click any label on the PDF — drag a rectangle over "EXTERNAL WALL — 215mm SOLID BRICK", and a tool is created with that name in seconds
• Confidence indicator — shows whether the OCR is a safe match
• Append or replace an existing tool name — your call per scan

Share a kit

• Export all tools (with folder structure) as a single JSON file
• Import on another machine or share with the team — the folder tree is rebuilt exactly as you left it
• Pre-made kits — bring in ready-to-go sets for groundworks, masonry, elevations or wall types

Live 3D view

Your 2D take-off, rendered in 3D as you measure.

• Every wall and opening in real time — the 3D scene updates the moment you add or edit a measurement
• Walkable model — orbit, pan and zoom around your building with a simple grid floor and axis labels
• Deductions rendered as cutouts — doors and windows are punched through the 3D walls, not just numbers in a column
• Catch missed measurements visually — a gap in the 3D view is a gap in your dim sheet
• No CAD experience required — if you can measure, you can see it in 3D

From take-off straight into the dim sheet

Measurements aren't just totals — they flow into your dim workings with the shape preserved.

Fill modes

Click a measurement (or the Dim button next to it) and the dim editor pre-fills in the layout that suits the item:

• Single total — drop the area or length into Dim A
• Per-segment rows — one row per edge, with deductions pre-marked using a −1 Times In
• Width × Height — width in Dim A, height in Dim B per segment
• Length × Wall Height — length in Dim A, wall height in Dim B — ideal for wall areas
• Notes auto-populated with segment names or "Ded." for deductions

Source tracking

• Every dim row remembers its origin — drawing, measurement, label, original value
• Clickable source dot — click in the view sheet to highlight that measurement on the drawing
• Write-back — edit the wall height in a dim row and the source measurement updates too

Extras

Bluebeam import

• Bluebeam Studio Reports CSV — drop the file in, preview the grid, insert into Excel as a formatted table

Text-to-Excel

• Paste or drag text (from a PDF or clipboard); the panel auto-detects tabs, commas or spaces
• Preview the parsed table before inserting, so nothing lands in Excel unchecked

Quality-of-life

• Sync status indicator in the task pane header (idle, syncing, synced, failed)
• Transient status bar for quick confirmations ("Inserted 5 items", "Imported 312 nodes")
• Account menu showing the signed-in email, with one-click sign-out

Units

29 units built in, and as many custom units as you want to add.

Built in

• Measurement — m², m³, lin m, mm, m, km
• Quantity — nr, pr, set, lot
• Commercial — item, sum, prov sum, PC sum, %, prelim
• Time — hrs, days, weeks, months, hr, day, wk, mth, yr
• Weight — kg, tonne, t
• Area & Volume — m², m³, ha

Custom

• Add your own units with abbreviation, description, category and sort order
• Favourite the ones you use most — they rise to the top of every picker
• Quick Unit popup — search, filter by category, favourite, add and delete from one screen
• Built-ins protected from accidental deletion

Licensing & cloud sync

Licensing

• 30-day free trial — full app, no credit card
• Monthly £9.99 or annual £109.89 — cancel any time
• One licence covers two devices — activate on desktop and laptop with the same key
• Email + key activation — device-bound so the 2-device limit is enforced fairly
• Clear status — days-left counter and expiry date always visible

Cloud sync

• What syncs — libraries, nodes, dim workings, PDF take-off measurements, tools and folders
• Offline-first — all writes land locally immediately; the cloud is updated in the background
• Automatic — a 5-second debounce batches your edits so the cloud isn't hammered on every keystroke
• Multi-device — open the add-in on your other machine and everything is already there
• Export your data any time — XLSX for libraries, take-off export to a worksheet, JSON for tool kits. No lock-in.

Platforms

• Excel on Windows & Mac — the main supported platforms
• Excel Online & iPad — Office Add-in architecture means the same file opens everywhere Office runs
• Your workbook stays yours — BQ Wizard runs inside the Excel task pane; saved files are standard .xlsx