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Plan estimates, building packages and DXF reading

Price a client's house or building plan in minutes. Use your building package rate per m² or sq ft, or quantities worked out with your own norms and rates. DXF drawings are measured as they are added, and AI can read PDF and picture plans if you switch it on.

PLANSFrom Growth

Compare plans How it works

The problem it solves

A client brings a plan on WhatsApp and wants a figure today, and the estimator needs two days with a scale and a spreadsheet.
Each salesperson quotes the package rate differently, and nobody checks your own cost behind it.
The specification promised with the package lives in a brochure, not on the estimate.
When the client says yes, the quantities are typed again into the BOQ.

How it works

Set up once: your building packages and your plan norms. A package has its rate per m² or sq ft, its specification with allowances and what is not included.
Open Construction Sales > Plan Estimates > New. Fill in the client, the building type, structure, finish level, units and site.
Add the plan files on the Plans tab. A DXF drawing is measured at once: size, the largest closed outline, wall lines, door and window symbols and its units.
Fill the Floors tab (area, height, wall lengths, doors, windows, bathrooms and kitchens), or press Read with AI to have the plans read for you.
Press Work Out Quantities. Figures you left empty are taken from the area and listed as assumed. The Estimate box shows the package price, extras, your cost from the norms and the margin, or the total with a likely range.
Press Send. The Rough Estimate PDF goes to the client by email and prints, with the package specification or the quantities by group.
Mark it Won or Lost. Make BOQ turns a priced estimate into the project's draft BOQ.

Everything it does

The estimate

Numbered PE/2026/0001 and on; states Draft, Priced, Sent, Won, Lost
Client, or the name, email and phone of someone not yet a contact; No AI on Their Plans
Building types: House / Villa, Apartment Building, Office / Shops, Warehouse / Shed, Other
Structure: RCC Frame, Load-Bearing Walls, Steel Frame; finish level Basic, Standard or Premium
Units: Metric (m², m) or Imperial (sq ft, ft); floor height 3 m or 10 ft to start with
Floors: level, area, height, outer and inner wall length, doors, windows, bathrooms and kitchens, Open (Not Built Up)
Rooms (optional): floor, kind (bedroom, living, kitchen, bathroom, utility, stairs, balcony, parking, other), length and width
Notes for the client and internal notes; the estimator

Two ways to price

Package (Rate per Area): built-up area x the package rate. Open areas count at the package's share (50 % to start with), plus extras you type on the Quantities tab
With a package, the norm quantities give Our Cost (Norms) and the Margin on the Package; neither is printed for the client
Quantities and Rates: each norm x its basis x its rate, and the finish factor on finish items. It gives a likely low and high (20 % to start with)
Cost per m² or sq ft built-up on both
Lines Without a Rate counted and listed, so nothing is priced at zero by mistake

Norms and working out

29 starting norms, with no rates: you type yours, or point a norm to a rate analysis of your cost library (Growth)
Each norm has a basis: m² built-up, ground floor, roof, outer or inner walls, or wall faces inside. Or each door, window, bathroom or kitchen, or once per building
Norms per structure, or for every structure; Finish Item follows the Basic (0.8) and Premium (1.5) factors
Empty figures are assumed from the floor area. Outer walls are about 4.4 x the square root of the area. There is a door per 15 m², a window per 12 m², a bathroom or kitchen per 40 m²
Work Out Again rebuilds the norm lines and keeps the lines you typed

DXF reading

Drawing size, the largest closed outline (usually the footprint) and the count of closed outlines
Wall lines on layers named like WALL (also MUR, WAND, MURO and others); all lines when there is no such layer, with a note
Door and window symbols counted by block name
Units from the file, or guessed from the size when the file has none
Files up to 30 MB; DWG is not read: save it as DXF or PDF

Read with AI

Off until you switch on Read Plans with AI for the entity; the user also needs AI switched on by an administrator
Never used for an estimate with No AI on Their Plans
On a draft or priced estimate with plan files; one request to the SmartMy AI service per press
Sends up to 6 PDF or picture plans of 10 MB each; larger ones are left out. Also sent: the DXF figures as text, the building type, structure, finish, site and currency
Saved at once, without a review step: floors and rooms marked By AI (earlier AI ones replaced, typed ones kept). Also what it read, its assumptions and confidence
Then the quantities are worked out, and lines with no rate get a market rate marked Rate Guessed
Nothing goes to the client until you press Send
Each reading uses AI credits from your plan's monthly allowance

Sending and after

Send emails the Rough Estimate PDF; the client's contact is made from the email when there is none; without an email it is only printed
The PDF: building, floors and areas. Then the package price with its specification and exclusions, or the quantities by group with the cost per area and likely range
Back to Draft before changing a sent estimate
Make BOQ (managers): the project, made from the estimate if it has none, gets a draft BOQ with a section per group
From an enquiry: Plan Estimate copies the client, site, building type, units and floors; Sent marks the enquiry Estimate Sent, Won sets its expected value

Who uses it

Construction SalesMakes, prices, reads with AI and sends plan estimates on the web or in the app; reads packages and norms.

Construction ManagerSets up packages, norms and the estimate settings, switches AI reading on, and makes the BOQ from a won estimate.

ClientGets the Rough Estimate PDF by email, with the package specification.

Where you use it

Web: Construction Sales > Plan Estimates and Building Packages; Construction Sales > Configuration > Plan Norms and Plan Estimate Settings
The SmartMy Construction app: Sales > Plan Estimates for managers and sales staff. New estimate, photos of the plan, Read with AI, floors, package, Work Out, Send. Built and in testing, not in the app stores yet
Email: the Rough Estimate PDF to the client
Not a drawing tool: it reads and prices plans; it does not draw them

What you control

Settings

Plan Estimate Units: Metric to start with
Plan Estimate Range: 20 %
Basic and Premium finish factors: 0.8 and 1.5 (Standard is 1)
Read Plans with AI: off to start with
Per package: rate, per m² or sq ft, Open Areas Charged (50 %), specification, not included
Per norm: basis, quantity, unit, rate or rate analysis, structure, Finish Item

Notifications

Rough Estimate Sent: to the client, by email with the PDF, at once

Questions

Does the AI change anything without us checking?

It saves the floors and rooms it read, works out the quantities and fills guessed rates at once, each marked By AI or Rate Guessed. Nothing reaches the client until you press Send, so check the floors and guessed rates first.

Can a client ask us not to use AI on their plans?

Yes. Tick No AI on Their Plans on the estimate, or the client ticks it on the request page. Read with AI is then hidden and refused for that estimate.

We sell by package rate. Do we still see our cost?

Yes. The package gives the client's price; the norm quantities at your rates give Our Cost (Norms) and the margin. The client's PDF shows only the package price, extras and specification.

Can it read DWG files?

No. Save the drawing as DXF or PDF. DXF is measured as it is added; PDF and pictures are read by AI if you switch it on.

What if we choose the package pricing but no package?

Work Out Quantities asks for the package first. Choose it before Read with AI too, so the reading can finish with the quantities.

Related features

ESTIMATINGEstimate request pageA public page, Estimate My Building, where people planning a building send their plans and a few facts. Each request becomes a plan estimate with its floors and an enquiry, and your Construction managers are told by email.ESTIMATINGSpecifications on homes for saleWrite each building package's specification once: cement, steel, flooring, doors, kitchen, bathrooms, electrical, paint, each with its allowance, and what is not included. It prints with every estimate, and with unit sales it goes on each home, its sale, the buyer's PDF and the buyer's portal.ESTIMATINGRate analysis and the cost libraryBuild each BOQ rate from its material, labour, plant and subcontract cost, plus overhead and profit, using basic rates kept in one cost library. When cement or labour rates change, update the analyses and take the new rates into a draft BOQ.ESTIMATINGBOQ with versionsKeep each project's bill of quantities in the system, item by item, priced and tied to places and cost codes. Import it from the client's Excel, make it final, and when the scope changes start a new version: the old one is kept as Replaced. Site progress, the budget, work orders and client bills all work from the same items.DESIGN STUDIO2D drawings to 3D with AIUpload a floor plan or elevation as a picture, a PDF page or a DXF. The plan is read into walls, doors, windows, rooms and the roof; you check what was found and the scale, then press Build in 3D. The building opens in the designer, ready for its BOQ. A picture or PDF takes about 50 AI credits a drawing; a DXF is read without them.PORTAL AND APPThe SmartMy Construction app, also offlineOne app for Android and iPhone for the people on site. It has today's site report with photos, the muster roll and check-in, snags and inspections. It also has material requests and issues, measurements, plant log sheets and safety. What is entered without signal is kept on the phone and sent when the signal is back. Clients, subcontractors and buyers use the same app for their own pages.

See your next site report on it.

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