Good Value, a couple of wish list items for improvement

AT is a quick and efficient way to take info out of plans and other images, and best of all to document the source of the take off information. The PDF reports created by AT make it easy to document and share the take off process with others. Really cool program.

Pros

Easy to learn, and does A LOT for the cost and time it takes to start using

Cons

I really want an Excel output report in simple spreadsheet format. Example of what I want:

Plan Sheet Color Data 1 Sf Volume
Floorplan Red Building Material One 100 600
Floorplan Blue Building Material One 200 800
Elevations Yellow Building Material One 250 900
Elevations Blue Building Material One 50 180

Shown below is the way Active T reports look now. I have to manually create new columns in Excel to show Color and Plan Sheet info IN EACH ROW. So I can sort my report by the heading of ANY COLUMN at will.

FLOORPLAN
Color Red
Building Material One 100 600
Color Blue
Building Material One 200 800

ELEVATIONS
Color Yellow
Building Material One 250 900
Color Blue
Building Material One 50 180

This is just one example of the current reports using extraneous rows to deliver information. Please give me one reporting option that has NO rows containing anything that is not pure data, with the sole exception of the headings to each column, which should be located in the first row. Things that are now titles to separate sections in the report should be converted to a column, and the title should be reported on each row. Like the Plan Sheet and Color info is showing in my example report. Please and Thank You!

Great software for the little guys

Good experience so far. I did have to call once to learn a bit more about some updated features. I was pleased to find that help was readily available and they where willing to train me on some new items over the phone. However, it is a Canadian based company and the lovely man that was assisting me (I believe one of the founders actually) is French Canadian and it was terribly hard to understand him over the phone. he was so nice and willing to help teach me how to use the product correctly. Even with him taking control of the computer to show how to do everything though, the language barrier made retaining the info difficult. Other than that, I love the product despite needing to grow a bit. Even though I do not use all of its features, its lower price and time saving's make it worth it for me.

Pros

Very affordable compared to similar software. I love that is allows me to color code plans. As a GC, the subcontractors love it when I have a color coded plan for them. This program eliminates my frantic searching for take-off calculation pages and makes it easier to pick up where I left off when changes are made. No more adding strings upon strings of dimensions! Plans allways say "Do not scale" when given to us to Bid, not sure how they expect us to price accurately when that is the case, but the scale configuration is perfect when you are not given an actual scale and still just need to get the job done.

Cons

As a software, It is getting there. there are still some kinks, and usability is not the greatest. It is not a software for someone who is computer illiterate. The estimating and take-offs in particular could use some tweaking. I never use it to generate full estimates because it is missing a lot of what would be needed for a G.C. (Perhaps for an individual trade would be more beneficial). What my money goes into it for is the quantity take-offs. the setting materials is a bit cumbersome and confusing but you can make it work, albeit sometimes incorrectly. But hey, there are many ways to skin a cat!

Active Takeoff Review

I've been using the software for about four years now, and it has been very easy to work with and simple to train others with as well. I think there could be a few items added to help highlight automatically without going through everything myself, but overall, the software was exactly what I was looking for at the time of purchase.

Pros

I love how easy to operate the software is. I tried many programs before this one, but this one had the best bang for your buck, easiest to learn and most transparent to translate to the client.

Cons

The real only issue I have with the software is the routing the paths of the files. I've had to switch computers a few times, and the licensing can be a bit difficult to get transferred to a new computer, as is the transferring of the files. If I did not have technical support from my company, I wouldn't know how to do it myself.

In my opinion the best takeoff software on the market

Prior to using this software I was scaling and taking measures by hand which was extremely time consuming for me and difficult to get perfectly accurate. I tried other similar products but found them no good and so complicated it was not worth bothering. I then trialed this software and was amazed at how easy it was to use. Drawings that would have taken 2 to 3 days to measure by hand can now be measured quickly in minutes or hours which means I can provide quotations to clients much faster and more accurately. After the trial period came to an end purchasing the product was a no brainer. It has paid for itself after just one week of use.

Pros

Its quite intuitive making it easy to use from the get go but also has a level of depth to it once you become more established.

Its very good value for money when compared to other products on the market that are both harder to use and more expensive.

Cons

It would be nice to be able to change the currency used for estimations. This may be an option I have not learned yet.

time-saving and very efficient

easy of estimating on time and efficiently

Pros

by using active take-off myself and my team have saved a large amount of time in doing take offs for small to large projects which means we are able to send out for quoting at a faster rate than usual.

by using active take-off it takes away from miscounting any items on the plans and produces a table of quantities on the top of your plans, so when you're ready you can send it straight away to the client or wholesalers.

Cons

I cannot fault any feature on this programme.

it a great simple & easy programme to use and you can make it suit your needs.

Active Takeoff is Great Software!!

Active takeoff has helped me find mistakes in my sq ft takeoffs before I send out a bid. This has saved the company thousands of dollars.

Pros

This software works great for checking my sq ft takeoffs. If I get a different amount of sq ft with this software than my takeoff, then I know I have made a mistake on my takeoff. In the long run it could save thousands of dollars by giving an accurate sq ft of product.

Cons

I have liked everything about it. There is not a single item with this software that I like the least.

Simple to master

We needed one program to for some staff member to only do simple tasks, while allowing others to get into more complex tasks. Active Takeoff allowed us to all work on the same platform. It was also important to us to have a program that was not cloud based, which we found several compdoeditors are. Very pleased with the product, and the investment paid off within our first month with an enormous time savings.

Pros

Very please with Active takeoff's ease of usability. No CAD background required to get very comfortable on the platform and make the takeoff process far more enjoyable.

Cons

User interface seems a bit dated, but does not affect performance. Also, it would be nice to email reports directly from the software to collegues.

Easiest to learn.

Excellent customer service. Best of any company I've ever dealt with, software or hamburgers, this company responds quickly and fixes issues.

Pros

It was the only one I could jump right in and start estimating.

Cons

The lack of framing extensions. Have to count joists off program. Just limited framing which is what I needed.

Exterior companies Review

Faster quote turn around times, allow me to get more projects and have more profitable quotes since I'm not spending so much time that I don't mind charging more.

Pros

The ease of use, the more complicated uses that I don't need are easy to turn off to simplify everything.

Cons

The only issue I have is that it seems to hide my saved projects every time I update the software but that's probably easy to fix if I put my mind to it.

Great product, great service

Not many companies offer the level of service that these guys do. Active takeoff is easy to use, easy to setup and makes tracking estimates effortless. I have used just about every piece of takeoff software out there and this program is by far the best.

Pros

Super easy to setup, tracks all of my takeoff and sort info exactly how I need it in reports.

Cons

Sharing takeoff files from one machine to the next isn't available yet, but I hear that's in the next update. Other than this...The software is flawless.