Help & Guides

Cable Takeoff turns a floor-plan PDF into a cable takeoff and bill of materials. Load your plan, set the scale, drop your outlets, and it measures every run back to the rack and totals your footage and materials — no counting symbols by hand.

Quick start

1. Create a project and upload your plan. From the dashboard, click + New Project, name it, and upload your floor-plan PDF. Multi-page PDFs are supported — each page is handled separately.
2. Set the scale. Pick a scale preset, or click 📐 Manual and click two points on a known dimension (a door, a dimension line, a grid bay), then enter the real length. Quantities depend on this, so set it on every page. Tip: use the longest known dimension you can for the most accurate scale.
3. Place your IDF. Click + Add IDF and drop your telecom-room / rack location. This is the anchor every cable measures back to — place it before you start clicking drops.
4. Click your drops. Click each outlet location. Each click measures the run from that point back to the active IDF and adds it to the table. Set the drop type, cable type, and count as you go, plus a slack allowance for service loops and terminations.
5. Export. When you're done, 📄 Export to Excel for your BOM, or to PNG/PDF for a marked-up plan. Projects auto-save to your account and reopen from the dashboard.

Scale calibration (per page)

Scale is stored per page — a 24×36 sheet and an enlarged detail on the next page each need their own calibration. Re-calibrate any time by re-running the Scale tool, and use the ⎘ All button to copy one page's scale to every page. If measurements look off, this is the first thing to check.

IDFs

An IDF is your rack / telecom room — the point cable runs return to. Place it before dropping outlets so runs calculate. On multi-closet jobs, place one per IDF; labels are unique across the whole project (IDF-3 on page 2 is distinct from IDF-3 on page 1). Each drop is tied to whichever IDF is active when you place it. Drag an IDF to move it and every attached run re-measures.

Drops & drop types

A drop is one outlet location. The drop type sets its symbol and how many cables it represents (a 2-drop location counts as two cables from that point). Built-in types cover common 1–10 cable configurations; you can define your own with custom symbols, cable makeup, and your own part numbers. Zero-cable "pull-only" types are supported for other trades that supply their own cable.

Cable type, count & slack

Set the cable type (Cat6, Cat6A) so the BOM categorizes runs correctly — and, with pathway sizing on, so J-hook fill is calculated by cable diameter. Slack is the extra cable added to every run (service loops + terminations at both ends); set it once and it applies to all drops.

How length is measured

Each run is measured from the drop back to its IDF. By default that's an L-shaped path (horizontal + vertical). When you use corridor routing, runs follow the actual corridor path length instead. Your slack allowance is added on top.

Corridor routing PRO

Trace your cable pathways once (like drawing the tray / J-hook runs), and every drop auto-routes along the nearest corridor, measuring the real path instead of a straight L-shape. Waypoints are editable and draggable, and you can insert mid-span points by right-clicking the band. This is how you get realistic footage on jobs where cable follows hallways, not diagonals.

IDF build-out BOM PRO

Add the rack and cable-management materials for each IDF (racks, ladder rack, patch panels, etc.) from a reusable equipment list you maintain with your own part numbers, via the 🛠 Build-out button. These land in the Materials tab of the Excel export, per IDF and consolidated.

J-hook / pathway sizing PRO

Automatically sizes J-hook support along your corridors and tapers the hook size down as cables peel off toward dead-ends. In 🔧 Pathway, configure a tier ladder (small / medium / large — name, part number, capacity) and your cable outside-diameters; sizing is OD-aware, so a Cat6A bundle fills a hook faster than Cat6. Output appears as pathway materials in the Excel export.

Multi-page plans

Each page is independent — its own scale and its own drops / IDFs. Use the ◀ / ▶ page controls to move between sheets. The sidebar table shows drops across all pages (with a "Pg" column); other-page rows are dimmed, and clicking one jumps you to that page.

Exporting

PNG / PDF — marked-up plan images for submittals or records.
Excel — the full takeoff: a combined sheet, a tab per cable type, a quantity Summary, and a Materials tab (cable-assembly BOM, IDF build-out, and pathway materials). Part numbers in the BOM are the ones you enter on your drop types, equipment, and pathway tiers.

Saving & projects

Projects auto-save to your account about every two minutes; you can also save manually with 💾 Save. Reopen, rename, or delete projects from the dashboard.

Frequently asked questions