Makes Reading Plans Easy

Pros

My assistant uses this software to take measurements off of blueprints. She loves this software before it she use to take hours getting measurements off of blueprints. Now she can get it done in half of that time and the numbers are more accurate.

Cons

I can't find a problem today this software has saved us alot of time when reading plans. I wished we found this years ago glad to have it today.

Great floorplan markup and estimating tool

The customer service team was really helpful when we were trialling out the software and helped us adapt it to our specific needs. No more paper plans! And if a floor plan changes, it is easy to add or subtract items.

Pros

We used to mark up paper floor plans with pencils and highlighters. We were looking for a way to go digital in this area. We looked at a couple different software options, and Planswift was the winner. We find the UI to be very intuitive. While we mainly just use the software to mark up items on floorplan, there are lots of other features, such as calculating areas and volumes and creating detailed estimates. There are a number of industry-specific plugins available to help you estimate (Siding, Concrete, Framing and Drywall, etc.) You can import any floor plan, even something sketched on a piece of paper! We generally import pdfs, but I believe you can import CAD files or jpgs as well.

Cons

There is a bit of a learning curve to learn the software and get set up. However, once you have it tuned for your business, it easily saves hours of time every week.

Disappointing over the long run

Pros

I found it easy to learn and it became the go-to program for viewing, measuring, and recording any info relating to architectural drawings. On many occasions, if I thought of some action I would like to see the program perform, a little research revealed that it was already built into the program. I have been surprised many times by the wealth of things this program can do.

Cons

One thing the program doesn't do well anymore is load drawings. When I first purchased about two years ago, the drawings loaded very well, and viewed as clearly as the source pdf file. But after a month or so, and a couple of hundred drawings later, the program began to have trouble loading drawings. Sometimes the program would just stall during upload, or if it did upload, a lot of lines would be missing from the drawing. It was possible to still do take-offs, but I would often have to keep the source pdf drawing open on another monitor. The latest batch of drawings I loaded were a real mess. Internet forums discuss this problem, but last time I looked no one had a solution. I contacted the company when this problem first appeared, but they were no help. I now regard a take-off program as indispensable, so I'm now shopping around for something to replace the Planswift program.

Estimating using PlanSwift

Pros

There were a few things that I enjoyed about this software, the ease of finding all of the tools you need to do a take off was very convenient. Also being able to do a take off then drop in the material you are needing and having the software do an estimate for you is also very convenient.

Cons

A con would be that sometimes when you upload a set of drawings they come in messed up, they will be upside down or aligned wrong. The drawings also tend to be uploaded without their sheet names.

Always a Favorite

Pros

Planswift makes quantity take off much easier and more effective. The ability to create files and folders helps to keep your information sorted and organized.

Cons

I feel that their are many features offered in this program that I am most likely not utilizing. While I realize that there are most likely many tutorial options, it would be nice to have a way to see quickly the types of features available.