PlanSwift Construction Estimating & Takeoff Software

Pros

Easy to use. I can quickly find values such as square footages, linear footages and counts.

Cons

File storage could be better. When competing with software such as Microsoft word a certain level of user experience is expected. It's hard to move lots of files. But you just have to plan ahead.

The software boast a lot of function that sound good at the time of purchase. Several of them make similar promises but when it comes to using the product to the fullest it seems to fall flat of the promise. Once you get past doing a take off I don't see how anything can complete the estimation process without a lot of extra steps so I would recommend this and any other products for their ability to do the take off but it stops there.

Pros

Good video tutorials to help you get the most out of the product.
Quick and easy to get a take off done.
Some basic templates can be made to make the most of your time.

Cons

Written in Pascal so it is old programming and not real easy to modify
Customer support can get a little lost if you have a real question.

Pros

This product is pretty versatile regarding what it can do for estimating. You can use it for very basic quantity take-off or you can build formulas to figure out multiple materials for complete materials lists for a build with a single click of a button.

Cons

It does take some time upfront to build your formulas, but it is well worth it in the long run and will save you time and money on figuring out your material lists.

Pros

Zoom in and zoom out options for drawings are amazing. Looks better than other softwares because it gives cut off quantity

Cons

For buying plugins and estimation the every item individually is some what negative. Software should immersed with these plugins to easy access

Great product for its price.

Pros

This product helped me finish plan takeoffs quicker than our previous methods. Being able to calculate all quantities on a page by page basis was very useful.

Cons

It took a little time to learn the different functions of the program. There could be a better tour or assistance program in place.

I highly recommend this program

Pros

I like how easy it is to take a photo or a drawing and make it into an estimate. I run a exterior company specializing in the exterior of buildings with 50+ employees. This leaves me little time for estimating but with this program estimating is quick and easy. I would recommend this program all day long.

Cons

I really had to think hard about this and I can't think of anything that doesn't work for me --------------

Pros

Works really well once wall types are setup properly
We've designed it export nicely into our excel estimate sheet

Cons

Took about 100 hrs to setup the wall types to our liking.
Bigger projects sometimes have trouble exporting to excel from estimating

I really like this product and will continue to use it as long as I remain the construction industry

Pros

Planswift is very user friendly it only took me 2 weeks get up and running, the customer / technical support is very good and they really go above and beyond to solve any issues.

Cons

I would like to see a separate labor input to make it easier to set up individual crew rates such as Foremen, Lead Tech 1, Tech 2, Tech 3

Pros

It saves us a lot of time and money regarding having accurate measurements. Without this software every estimate would much more time

Cons

It offers way too much for what we need it. Therefore, we would use a cheaper version, if they would offer it.

Pros

Fast and accurate generating from drawings. Like the overlay feature and has build in estimating support.

Cons

The custom markup and note functions are very basic, can use some improvement. The other marking shapes are also not quite customizable too.

I would highly recommend it as a tool to save costs on plan for things like budgets or for companies making their first leap into on-screen takeoffs rather than old school plans and scaling/highlighting.

Pros

Ease of use for point and click, dimension scaling and calibration, elevation markups, text bubbles and snapshots for RFIs, no annual license fee if you so choose to not receive updates, cheapest entry price of any software

Cons

Estimating software leaves a lot to be desired. The inputs and functions you can use don't always cover your entire needs and leaves us using Excel with our house made matrix to estimate. Sometimes plans with large file sizes crash the software, but could be due to our own RAM constraints (8 GB).

Pros

Wonderful product would be useful, tools was easy to use, was able to use the program to write proposals

Cons

Expensive hard for a new business to afford if they are starting out was hoping a longer trial or payment plan

We are a large GC and self-perform much of our own work (concrete, framing, roofing, drywall, siding, etc.) and even do takeoffs on the work we are subbing out to keep our subs in check. We feel the sample parts & assemblies that come with the software as well as the plugins PlanSwift offers are useless. We found a company (www.precisiontakeoffs.com) that makes what PlanSwift refers to as "Third Party" plugins and they have been amazing. We have purchased 6 plugins from this company and they are very easy to use, very detailed, and very versatile. These plugins weren't cheap but are worth the investment. We would still recommend PlanSwift without these plugins as it is very easy to use and extremely accurate. I don't understand all the negative comments I see about PlanSwift. You don't need to be a computer programmer to use PlanSwift. It doesn't crash all the time. We rarely have any issues with it and when we do it almost always is a user issue, not a PlanSwift issue.

Pros

We love the fact that you can do everything (takeoff, pricing, overhead, profit, & bid proposal) within PlanSwift!

Cons

It does have a bit of lag on bigger takeoffs as it is only a 32 bit system. Customer service is terrible!

So I call customer service and know and behold I didn't buy into a maintenance package so it's going to cost more now to have a tech assist. ?

Pros

It's Great for takeoffs, easy to work with, and has many options that lets you customize your own style.

Cons

1 year and 1month into the program and I get a message that there's an Access violation at an address in the module.

Pros

It is easy to use and intuitive software. There are nice and helpful YouTube videos to help you learn more things about the software if needed.

Cons

Customer service was not very helpful for me. There was an update that crashed my computer. When I finally reached someone, after 30 minutes on hold, they basically told me that I was SOL.

Used this software for two years for roofing Takeoff. It is quick and easy to perform counts and linear/area takeoffs.

Pros

easy to use, great program for take off in shingle roof and flat roof,I'm using form more than 3 years and always is easy to deal with, friendly interface.

Cons

Big files take sometimes several minutes to upload, but with patient still working good, and you need a fast computer.

Pros

The ease of use making it easy to train someone how to use the program. Accurate and simple to get the info you need in order to bid a job.

Cons

cant print, always got to use the " print current view" in pdf format. When you are bidding a job that has plenty of sheets, it takes a lot of time doing this to each and every single page.

I used this program for the entire duration of the trial I was permitted to use it for. While in use this program was highly efficient in is duty to serve as an upgrade to our current takeoff software. (See pros/cons)

Pros

- Can get square footage for concrete of massive plans in 20 - 7 minutes, as opposed to using something like Vu360, and (constantly crashing) taking multiple days to do a single takeoff for one PDF plan.

- This program is organized, It comes with an integrated item list that (after you put your prices in for materials) can give you the equivalent of an excel estimate, as you finish the takeoff, and while you are in the middle of doing it.

- There is a fill tool for getting square footage or selecting lines for linear feet, you can do supermassive takeoffs for concrete (as long as there isn't a cancerous amount of pointing lines dashing the entire plan) in seconds...

- They just broke free from the shackles of oracle so now they have a bunch of awesome plugins back, Plugins such as 'convert takeoff into Quickbooks'...

- The program was very quick, no memory leaks here, no lag.

- Can be converted into excel

Cons

- High cost, this program is about $ or more PER install (gets cheaper the more you get possibly on a per-software basis), after all of your salesman deals and whatnot, (without any fancy online training)

- Complicated at first, Don't try to show the program off to anyone unless you have spent a good 3 - 4 days experimenting with all of the tools, and asking your salesman for a live demonstration. It can be frustrating to know the tool you've been wondering where it is, is under your nose.

- The program can only do auto ("one click area") (for getting square/lineal footage) selection for so much space, so on big PDF plans, you will have to use the cut tool to dice the plans into a moderately sized grid, of which it will then handle like a champ.

When ever there is a problem, from a Virus to a question
Great Response from Plan swift

Pros

Easy Use and Fast for taking off and save $ on Printing

Cons

The Estimate Break out Can be Confusing and hard to set up the way you would like it.

Planswift is a good product. the only thing lacking is if you were not the person initially trained for the program and cannot figure out a function, they will not teach you. They want you to go to Utah for their class at 1495 a pop. Too far and Too much as I am in Florida.

Pros

Very accurate

Cons

no customer Teaching support