Nanodoc · Partners
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A lot of Nanodoc users are in construction — estimators, contractors, and project managers who live inside PDF plan sets. If that's you, the tools below pick up where Nanodoc stops. If it's not you, you can safely skip the rest of this page.
A quick primer
What is construction takeoff and estimating?
Before any building gets built, someone has to figure out how much of everything it'll need — concrete, pipe, asphalt, labor hours, equipment time. That whole process happens on PDFs of architectural and civil drawings. Here's the rough flow, and where each tool below fits in.
1. Takeoff
Measuring quantities directly off the drawings — lengths of pipe, square footage of paving, volume of dirt to move.
2. Estimating
Turning those quantities into a price. Material costs, labor rates, equipment, overhead, and margin all roll into a bid.
3. Bid management
Tracking the dozens of bids in flight, the emails, the subcontractor quotes, and the deadlines so nothing slips.
Cloud takeoff + bid management
CivilTakeoff.ai
A modern, browser-based replacement for the desktop takeoff tools estimators have used for decades. Open a PDF plan set, measure quantities with your team in real time, and skip the licensing dance — anyone with a login can work from any computer. The included Project War Room then keeps every email, RFQ, and bid in one place so the next person who joins the team inherits real institutional knowledge instead of a blank inbox.
- Upload a PDF plan set and start measuring in minutes
- Works in any browser — no installs, no license-key transfers
- Real-time collaboration so a team can split a big takeoff
- AI assists with auto-trace, auto-scale, and class suggestions
- Project War Room tracks bids, emails, RFQs, and deadlines
- Free to start — no credit card required
Desktop takeoff + Excel estimating
Vertigraph
Vertigraph builds desktop tools for estimators who already do their best work inside Microsoft Excel. If your team's pricing logic, formulas, and templates already live in spreadsheets, these tools meet you there — measure on the drawing, drop the quantities straight into Excel, and let your existing workbook do the math. SiteWorx/OS extends that same idea to earthwork, where the answer isn't a length or area but a volume of dirt.
Takeoff that lives inside Excel itself. Measure from PDFs, DWGs, DXFs, and TIFs and let your spreadsheet formulas drive the price.
Earthwork specialist. Builds 3D models of existing and proposed ground, calculates cut and fill volumes, and exports machine-control files for excavator GPS systems.
What earns a spot here
We use it ourselves, or we don't list it.
Real overlap
Tools our users actually pair with Nanodoc — not random affiliate deals.
Construction-first
Built for estimators, takeoff, and the workflows around bid documents.
Useful on bid week
Software that holds up under real deadlines — not roadmap-deck vaporware.