Login

Product updates

What we shipped for estimators, distributors, and manufacturers.

Subscribe via RSS

A take-off you can drive from end to end

TakeoffReviewBuilding

Every sheet now flips into a take-off mode where you place what detection missed, draw conduit, own your legend, and correct a scale that's wrong. Constructability flags where the drawings contradict themselves before it becomes an RFI.

Take-off mode: box one unit heater, and Vawn finds the other six on the sheet.
  • New
    Take-off mode on every sheet Switch a sheet into take-off mode to click items into place, draw conduit and linear runs, and box a schedule. The materials legend is yours too: create your own groups, rename them, and drag materials between them.
  • New
    Correct a drawing scale that's wrong Set or calibrate the scale on any sheet instead of living with what the title block said. Correcting it restates every measured run on that sheet and the priced quantities that came off them.
  • New
    Constructability review A review tab that surfaces contradictions across the drawings and specs, like a schedule that disagrees with the plan or a spec that disagrees with the schedule. Findings arrive as a working inbox, so you catch them during the bid rather than in an RFI. You can also ask the set a question and keep the answer with the finding.
  • New
    Building view and a project-wide schedules page Walk the set floor by floor, and building by building on a multi-building project, with trade layers drawn on the plan and zoom that holds up on dense sheets. Every schedule in the set is collected on one page instead of being hunted sheet by sheet.
  • New
    Pricing the take-off, in early access Quantities carry through to a priced estimate: material with waste and markup, labor at your composite crew rate, job expenses, then overhead, profit and tax, with every rate yours to set. It's open to a small group first while we shape it. Ask if you want in.
  • New
    Upload real plan sets through the API The public API now takes uploads the same way the browser does, so a 200–800 MB set goes through instead of being rejected at the door.
  • Improved
    Grounding treated as its own trade Grounding plans are recognized as a system of their own and drawn floor by floor, instead of being filed under whatever trade numbered the sheet.
  • Improved
    Faster projects, and big sets that finish The first load of a project is substantially quicker, and detection on multi-sheet requests runs several times faster, so large sets that used to time out now come back.
  • Fixed
    Detections land where they belong on the sheet Counts drawn at the wrong spot on a sheet, or dropped for missing coordinates, now sit on the symbol they came from, so what you review matches what's on the page.
Read more

Fire alarm, multifamily, and markup for every trade

Fire AlarmBuildingLighting

Fire alarm devices are now counted straight off the plans as a trade of their own, multifamily sets are read as buildings and repeating units rather than a pile of sheets, and take-off markup covers every trade instead of just lighting.

  • New
    Fire alarm device takeoffs Smoke detectors, heat detectors, smoke/CO detectors, horn/strobes, strobes, speakers, and pull stations are counted off fire alarm plans and broken out by device type on the dashboard, in the BOM, and through the API.
  • New
    Multifamily and multi-building sets read as buildings VAWN works out what kind of building the set describes (apartments, hotel, or a straight commercial floor plan) and finds the unit types that repeat through it. A project that holds four buildings is read as four buildings, each with its own storeys, so you take off a unit type once instead of counting the same apartment forty times.
  • New
    Take off any trade, not just the ones we detect Place and count items on any sheet: fire protection, plumbing, structural and mechanical alongside electrical. Anything you place rolls into the same BOM as the detected counts, so a trade we don't read yet is still a trade you can bid from.
  • New
    Highlight one symbol, find the rest Box a symbol on the sheet and VAWN finds every other instance of it for you to accept or drop. A table selector does the same for a schedule you want pulled off a drawing.
  • Improved
    More accurate fixture counts on lighting plans A retrained detection model and retuned reading of dense sheets means noticeably fewer missed and double-counted fixtures, especially on crowded floor plans.
  • Improved
    Lighting schedules that used to come back empty Schedules that are present on the sheet but were being read as blank, whether from eaten headers, collapsed rows or split fixture codes, are now recovered instead of silently dropping every fixture type.
  • Improved
    Fixture types assigned even when the schedule can't be read When a set has no usable lighting schedule, fixture marks are matched from the drawings themselves, so A1/A2-style types still land on your counts rather than coming through blank.
  • Improved
    Legend sheets identified more reliably Legends titled in unusual ways are recognized from the drawing itself when the title doesn't give them away, so symbol definitions get picked up on more sets.
Read more

The VAWN API, an MCP server, and email-in takeoffs

APISchedulesIntegrations

VAWN now has a public API and an MCP server, so your own systems and AI assistants can run takeoffs and pull results. You can also kick one off just by emailing a PDF, watch it work in real time, and get far better panel schedules off dense sheets.

  • New
    Public API with self-serve keys Trigger an extraction, poll its status, and pull results (extractions, drawings, equipment) straight from your own systems. Generate a vawn_live_ API key yourself in your account settings.
  • New
    MCP server for AI assistants Point an AI assistant at VAWN over the Model Context Protocol to list extractions, fetch a result, and query drawings and equipment conversationally, backed by the same API key.
  • New
    Start a takeoff by email Forward a set with a PDF attachment to your VAWN inbound address and it starts an extraction automatically, no login needed. A confirmation email comes back to the sender.
  • New
    Watch a set process in real time A live activity feed narrates the run as it goes, showing which sheets are being read, what was found and what came up short, instead of a progress bar that tells you nothing until it finishes.
  • Improved
    Panel schedules on dense, multi-panel sheets Sheets carrying several panels, and sheets where the panels are packed tight, are read far more completely. Panels sharing a name are kept apart instead of collapsing into one.
  • Improved
    More plan sheets routed to the right takeoff Combined lighting/power sheets and generically titled electrical plans now get counted for both trades, so fewer sheets fall through the cracks.
  • Fixed
    Panel descriptions no longer land in the load column Circuit descriptions on continuation rows stay in the description column instead of being read as a load, so panel schedules come out with the right text against each breaker.
  • Fixed
    Scanned and image-only blueprints no longer fail text extraction Plan sets with sparse or garbled embedded text, typically scanned drawings, fall back to OCR and now process reliably instead of stopping the run.
  • Fixed
    Equipment no longer comes back short after a re-run Re-running a set now waits for the panel schedules before rolling up equipment, so counts and markups match what the run actually found.
Read more

Sharper lighting takeoffs and cleaner drawings

LightingTakeoffBOM

Lighting takeoffs got more accurate end to end, drawings marked up in Bluebeam no longer throw off the count, and a batch of review fixes landed. Preview III went out this month. The walkthrough is below.

Preview III: a walkthrough of the platform as it stood in May.
  • Improved
    More accurate lighting schedule takeoffs Lighting schedules are read more accurately, fixture types (L1–L6) now flow through to the BOM, and plumbing schedules are no longer mistaken for lighting ones.
  • Improved
    Bluebeam markup no longer skews counts Markup added in Bluebeam is stripped before analysis, so clouds and highlights stop hiding fixtures or distorting the count.
  • Improved
    More reliable sheet identification Sheets with missing or messy titles are recognized more reliably, so fewer pages get skipped during a takeoff.
  • Improved
    Project name and address from the cover sheet Project details are pulled from the cover sheet instead of a sub-component, so the right name and address land on your takeoff.
  • Fixed
    Reviewed equipment no longer disappears on reload Equipment you've already reviewed stays put when you refresh the page.
  • Fixed
    Re-typing a piece of equipment no longer errors Changing an item's type now saves cleanly instead of failing.
Read more

BOM exports by trade, and circuits you can trace

BOMPowerTakeoff

Export a bill of materials per discipline, trace a device's full branch circuit on hover, and get more accurate power detection across the board.

  • New
    Bill of materials exports by discipline Download a BOM for lighting, doors, windows, or mechanical equipment, each as a CSV with the columns that trade actually needs.
  • New
    Branch-circuit tracing on hover Hover a lighting or power device to see its whole branch circuit drawn from the panel, through junction boxes, to every device on the circuit.
  • Improved
    More accurate power device detection Receptacles, panels, and gear are detected more accurately, with far fewer false positives to clean up.
  • Improved
    More reliable drawing classification Sheets are sorted into the right discipline more reliably, so the correct pages feed each trade's takeoff.
  • Improved
    Set a light's type to None while reviewing Mark a fixture as untyped when no schedule type applies, instead of being forced to pick one.
  • Fixed
    Power detections render in the single-drawing view Newly added power detection types now show up correctly when you open an individual drawing.
Read more

A project overview, switchgear takeoffs, and one-line gear

TakeoffGearBOM

Every project now opens to an at-a-glance overview, switchgear comes through as a real takeoff, with panels and breakers grouped by amperage and poles and their own CSV, and equipment is pulled straight off your one-line diagrams.

  • New
    A project overview for every job Open a project to an at-a-glance summary: counts by discipline, the project name and address read off the cover sheet, and drive time from your nearest office to the site.
  • New
    Switchgear takeoff with a dedicated export Panels and breakers are counted and grouped by amperage and poles, with a switchgear CSV you can hand straight to a supplier alongside the full bill of materials.
  • New
    Equipment read off your one-line diagrams Transformers, distribution panels, and grounding busbars are now extracted from single-line drawings and flow into the takeoff, not just floor-plan symbol counts.
  • New
    Real breaker part numbers in the BOM Breakers map to ABB ordering codes by amperage, poles, and panel voltage, so the bill of materials carries catalog part numbers a distributor can quote against.
  • Improved
    Clearer, more accurate panel schedules Each circuit now carries its phase (A/B/C), the poles column is labeled plainly, and mirrored dual-column panel schedules are read correctly instead of swapping trip and breaker values.
  • Improved
    Fewer missed circuits and misread panel names Panel schedules on AutoCAD and vector PDFs are recovered more reliably, with fewer dropped circuits and panel names that match the drawing.
  • Improved
    More reliable lighting and equipment schedules Image-rendered and merged-cell schedules that used to slip through are now caught, and fixture types are matched to their schedule more consistently.
  • Improved
    Ask VAWN now reads every drawing Chat answers draw from schedules, one-lines, details and general notes, not just plan pages, so questions about gear and specs land on the right sheet.
Read more

Panel circuits, feeder runs, and a rebuilt review workspace

TakeoffSchedulesPower

Panel schedules, feeder schedules, and equipment schedules now read into browsable tabs, receptacles and power devices land in the takeoff, and the whole blueprint review workspace was rebuilt to be faster to work in.

  • New
    Panel circuits you can browse, schedule by schedule Panel schedules are read into a dedicated tab where you can step through each panel and see its circuits with breaker size, poles, and wire size pulled off the drawing.
  • New
    Feeder schedules off the one-line Single-line feeder schedules are now extracted and listed, with the conduit-and-conductor callout split into separate conduit and conductor columns so feeder runs are ready to price.
  • New
    Equipment schedules for connected gear Electrical equipment schedules (FCUs, AHUs, pumps, and the like) are read into the electrical takeoff with voltage, source panel, OCP, and conduit, so connected loads aren't missed.
  • New
    Receptacles and junction boxes in the takeoff Power devices are typed as receptacles or junction boxes instead of a generic label and show up in their own tab, each with a locator to jump to it on the drawing.
  • New
    Ask questions about an extraction Open a finished extraction and ask plain-language questions about its specs and equipment, like a panel's rating, instead of hunting through the drawings.
  • Improved
    A rebuilt blueprint review workspace The review workspace was redesigned around a faster viewer with cleaner data tables, on-drawing markup and ruler tools, and a project grid that's quicker to scan.
  • Improved
    More thin-line light fixtures caught Faint, thin-line fixture symbols that used to slip past detection are now picked up, so lighting counts come back more complete.
  • Fixed
    No more duplicated doors and windows in the table Door and window tables no longer list each item twice, so the counts you read are the real ones.
Read more

Doors, windows, rooms, and a takeoff grid you can export

TakeoffBOMReview

Door and window schedules now read into your takeoff alongside lighting and panels, doors and windows are detected on the plans, rooms come back with names and numbers, and the whole takeoff lives in a sortable grid you can export to CSV by category.

  • New
    Door and window schedules read into your takeoff Door and window schedule tables are pulled off the sheet with mark, size, frame, hardware, fire rating and glazing, then tied to the openings on the plans, so architectural schedules land next to lighting and panels.
  • New
    Doors and windows detected on the plans Doors and windows are counted on architectural sheets and shown as their own layers in the viewer, with each opening matched to its schedule mark.
  • New
    Your takeoff in a sortable grid, exportable to CSV Open a spreadsheet panel over the drawing with a tab per category: full BOM, lights, panels, HVAC, rooms, doors and windows. Sort and filter the columns, edit a cell, and export any tab to CSV.
  • New
    Rooms come back with names and numbers Detected rooms are matched to their room name and number from the plan, shown in a Rooms tab and on the drawing, so equipment counts can be read room by room.
  • New
    Panels tied to their room, plus a receptacles layer Panels with a location callout are matched to the room they sit in and flagged when verified, and receptacles get their own toggleable layer on the drawing.
  • New
    Share a takeoff with your team Share a completed extraction with a teammate for full edit access or view-only, so a second estimator can check the counts without re-running anything.
  • New
    Whole-floor composite view Drawing sections that make up a single floor are aligned into one composite view, with per-discipline layer toggles, so a plan split across match-lines reads as one sheet.
  • Improved
    Fixture specs and power source on a device Click a fixture to see its manufacturer, model, watts, volts, and mounting, and trace the run back to its feeding panel with the distance called out in feet.

Sheet names read from the title block, and broader spec coverage

TakeoffSpecsReview

When a plan set has only generic page numbers, VAWN now reads the real sheet name straight from the title block, plus wider specification coverage and a more dependable upload and review flow.

  • New
    Sheet names pulled from the title block When a PDF only carries generic page labels (1, 2, 3…), VAWN reads the actual sheet name from the title block so each sheet is identified and the right pages feed your takeoff.
  • Improved
    More specification sections detected Additional Division 22 and 23 sections (plumbing, duct, and HVAC piping insulation) are now recognized, and specs that previously came back empty are read correctly.
  • Improved
    Review every detected spec section, even empty ones Specification sections that were found but had no automatic results now show up in review, so you can check them and add specs by hand instead of having them silently skipped.
  • Improved
    Drag and drop your plan set to upload Drop a PDF straight onto the upload step instead of clicking through a file picker, with the Select Files button still there if you prefer it.
  • Fixed
    Cleaner spec table reads Tables pulled from specification PDFs land on the right rows with words kept intact, so entries like 'Domestic Cold Water' are captured instead of being missed or run together.
  • Fixed
    Steadier progress bar while processing The progress bar fills smoothly to done instead of bouncing back and forth before your results open.

Specs, scale-accurate measurements, and a guided review

SpecsTakeoffReview

VAWN now reads your Division 26 spec book for insulation schedules, measures conduit and ductwork against each drawing's scale, and walks every takeoff through a step-by-step review.

  • New
    Reads insulation schedules from the spec book Upload the project specifications and VAWN splits them by section, pulls insulation schedules, and exports them to CSV with the rest of your takeoff.
  • New
    Scale-accurate measurements Each drawing's scale is read off the sheet, so conduit and ductwork lengths come back in real feet instead of pixels.
  • New
    Step-by-step review workflow A guided flow takes a job from upload through processing to review and accept, replacing the old modal so you always know where a takeoff stands.
  • New
    Circuit paths on the drawing Toggle a layer that draws the optimized run between devices on the same circuit, with each connection numbered in order.
  • New
    Edit and delete detections Correct or remove a detection right on the drawing, and your edits stick across refreshes instead of reverting.
  • Improved
    More accurate panel counts Panels are inferred from circuit prefixes when none are detected and equipment is tied to its circuit, so panel quantities line up with the schedule.
  • Improved
    Better schedule reading on messy tables An OCR fallback recovers schedule tables that resisted text extraction, and over-aggressive header filtering no longer drops real rows.
  • Fixed
    Duplicate detections eliminated A bug that multiplied equipment into hundreds of phantom copies is fixed, so counts reflect what's actually on the plan.

Bill-of-materials takeoffs and HVAC ductwork

BOMTakeoffHVAC

Your takeoff now comes back as a bill of materials you can export to CSV, HVAC ductwork is counted and totaled by size, and the results page got a faster, cleaner overhaul.

  • New
    Bill of materials with CSV export Counts roll up into a bill of materials grouped by spec, and you can download the whole takeoff as a CSV to drop into your estimate.
  • New
    HVAC ductwork takeoff Ductwork is grouped by size with segment counts and total linear feet, drillable to each run and exportable alongside the rest of the BOM.
  • Improved
    Redesigned results page Catalog-style views for fixtures and panels, live status badges, and a running timer make it easier to scan a job while it processes.
  • Improved
    Cleaner blueprint viewer The on-drawing viewer was rebuilt on a single geometry model, so detections, ductwork, and overlays line up more reliably with the plan.
  • Improved
    Faster start on uploads Processing kicks off the moment you upload instead of waiting for the next polling cycle, shaving the lag before a takeoff begins.
  • Fixed
    Tooltips show the real component type Hovering a detection now names the actual equipment type instead of showing 'unknown'.
  • Fixed
    Uploads no longer interrupted mid-flight Auto-refresh on the jobs list stopped cancelling an upload that was still in progress.

See your plan set marked up, with lighting and panel schedules read for you

TakeoffLightingReview

Upload a full plan set, see detected electrical equipment marked up right on the drawings, and get lighting and panel schedules pulled into structured takeoff tabs.

  • New
    Interactive drawing viewer with marked-up equipment Open a completed extraction and see detected electrical equipment annotated right on the drawing, color-coded by type, with a legend of counts and pan, zoom, and sheet-to-sheet navigation.
  • New
    Upload a full plan set in one go Drag and drop up to ten PDFs into a single run with per-file progress, instead of feeding the pipeline one sheet at a time.
  • New
    Lighting schedule read into a takeoff tab Lighting schedules are pulled off the sheet and laid out as fixture types you can review, so the schedule lines up with what's counted on the plans.
  • New
    Panel schedule read into a takeoff tab Panel schedules are extracted into a Panels tab with name, type, voltage, and main breaker size, so panel details land alongside the rest of the takeoff.
  • Improved
    Smoother review experience Clearer empty states, Font Awesome zoom controls, cleaner equipment tooltips and hover states, breadcrumb navigation with a back button, and bottom-right toast notifications.
  • Improved
    Live progress while an extraction runs Watch each step of the takeoff update in real time instead of waiting with no feedback on where the run stands.
  • Fixed
    Detection boxes land on the actual equipment Equipment boxes that were shifted toward the top-left of a drawing now sit squarely over the symbols they mark, so what you see matches what was counted.