Manual Tools
Area Tool
Click to place vertices that define the boundary of the area you want to measure. For a rectangle, choose New Takeoff > New Area > Rectangle and drag a box instead. Pressing A reuses the shape you picked last.
Shortcut A
Steps
- Press A, or choose New Takeoff > New Area > Polygon on the toolbar. Measuring starts immediately under an auto-generated name (e.g. "Area 1").
- Click on the drawing to place the first vertex of your polygon.
- Continue clicking to add vertices that trace the boundary of the area.
- Double-click or press Enter to close the polygon and finalize the area measurement.
- The square footage shows inside the shape while you draw, and the total appears in the takeoff list. To show SF labels on finished shapes, turn on the Labels button at the top right of the drawing.
Notes
- •You need at least 3 points to create a valid area.
- •After finalizing, your next click starts a new polygon within the same takeoff. This lets you measure multiple rooms under one label.
- •Press Escape to cancel the current polygon before finalizing. With nothing in progress, Escape (or the Finish Measuring button) stops measuring.
- •Rename the takeoff any time in the Name field of the Measure panel, or with Rename in the Takeoffs list.