SJQS includes a complete set of measurement tools for PDF takeoff — length, area, volume, count, arc, weight conversion, and a plan revision workflow. Built by a practicing quantity surveyor around the job as it actually runs.
Every tool produces a labelled, named annotation on the drawing — organised by trade, summed automatically, and ready to export. Most tools can also be converted to a related type after the fact via right-click, without redrawing.
Click two points to measure a straight-line distance. The fundamental takeoff tool — used for walls, beams, ducts, pipes, and any linear element with a clear start and end.
Click along a continuous path across multiple points. The total length of all connected segments is accumulated into a single measurement item — suited to perimeters, continuous runs, and any element that changes direction.
Define a closed boundary by clicking around a region. SJQS calculates the area of the enclosed polygon. Supports deductions within the boundary and per-annotation unit assignment. Suitable for floors, ceilings, wall faces, roofs, and any planar surface.
Draw the footprint of an element as a closed polygon, then enter the depth or height. SJQS outputs the volume directly. Used for concrete pours, earthworks, fill material, and any element where a cubic quantity is needed.
Click each instance of an element to place a labelled marker. Items are tallied automatically. Used for doors, windows, fixings, columns, fittings, and anything priced or ordered by unit quantity rather than by measurement.
Draw the extents of a repeating element — studs, joists, rafters, battens — then enter the centre-to-centre spacing and orientation. SJQS calculates the total number and length of members from the boundary shape. Eliminates manual counting when spacing is uniform.
Measure a length on the plan and enter the corresponding height or width. SJQS outputs the resulting area — useful for wall finishes, cladding runs, fencing, and elements where the plan shows one dimension but the area is what's needed for the BQ.
Measure a length on plan and enter the cross-sectional dimensions. SJQS outputs the volume — used for beams, columns, kerbs, channels, and any linear element with a constant cross-section where a cubic metre quantity is the deliverable.
Arc support is not a separate mode — it is built into every measurement tool. Right-click after placing a point to convert the segment between the last two clicks into an arc. A bulge handle appears on the drawing, which can be dragged to match the curve geometry precisely. Curved walls, rounded corners, and circular elements are measured without workarounds.
Right-click conversion between types. Once a measurement has been placed, many types can be converted to a related type without redrawing. A length can be right-clicked and changed to area by length or length by volume. This means a measurement placed early in the takeoff can be updated as the scope becomes clearer — without losing the annotation or starting over.
For structural steel, reinforcement, and any element where a weight quantity is the practical output rather than a linear or area measure.
SJQS includes a Convert to Weight tool with a dedicated interface. Select a measurement and open the conversion panel — enter the material density or select from saved conversions, choose kg or tonnes as the output unit, and SJQS applies the conversion to produce a weight quantity from the measured dimension.
Conversions can be named and saved for reuse across projects. If you work regularly with specific steel sections, reinforcement bar sizes, or proprietary materials with known densities, those conversions persist in the interface and can be applied in a single step on future jobs. This removes the need to maintain a separate lookup or recalculate manually each time.
Weight conversion is particularly useful where the structural drawings show member lengths or quantities but the procurement schedule needs kilograms or tonnes — converting directly within SJQS avoids a separate spreadsheet step.
Revised drawings are a fact of life on most projects. SJQS handles them without requiring a takeoff to be discarded and started again.
When a revised plan sheet arrives mid-takeoff, the standard workflow elsewhere is to either start that sheet again or manually check every annotation against the new drawing. Neither is efficient. SJQS has a built-in page replacement and overlay system that handles this directly.
The overlay is a visual diff between drawing revisions — the original sheet rendered in a customisable translucent colour, directly beneath the current plan. Changes in geometry, element positions, and scope additions or omissions are visible immediately without a separate comparison process.
Export a quantity schedule, marked-up drawing sheets, or both — filtered by trade, with waste factors applied where needed.
The schedule and plans outputs can be produced independently or combined. A combined export — quantity schedule followed by the relevant marked-up drawing sheets — is a complete, self-contained handover document ready for issue to a subcontractor or client without further formatting in Word or Excel.
Waste percentages are entered per item or applied across a trade in a single step. The export shows net quantity, the waste percentage applied, and the resulting order quantity as separate columns — giving the recipient full transparency on how the quantities were derived.
SJQS is a Windows desktop application — no browser, no internet connection required, no account to manage. Open a PDF, calibrate the scale directly from the plan, and begin measuring. Drawings never leave the machine.
The scale calibration works per page and across mixed-scale drawing sets. A project with architectural drawings at 1:100 and structural details at 1:20 can be measured in the same file without manual adjustment between sheets.
The continue measuring feature allows any existing measurement item to be picked up across pages with a single click. Labels and trade assignments persist — if a wall type runs across three drawing sheets, it is one item in the schedule regardless of how many pages contribute to it.
Measurement tools support deductions within the boundary — an area annotation can have openings, penetrations, or exclusions subtracted from the gross measurement without separate items. The net quantity is calculated automatically.
The pitch factor is available on area measurements for sloped surfaces — roofs, ramps, battered embankments — where the plan area differs from the actual surface area that needs to be measured.
Everything produced in a session can be exported immediately — no upload, no processing delay, no cloud rendering queue. The export is available as soon as the measurements are complete.
The 14-day trial gives full access to every tool described on this page. No credit card required, no account needed to start.
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