Frequently asked questions

Software for measuring quantities off construction drawings: lengths, areas and counts. IntelCost does the takeoff and the estimate in the same project, so the quantities you measure become the lines you price.

No. IntelCost is cloud-based takeoff and estimating. Your projects live in the cloud and you open them from any computer.

Yes. Several people can work the same project and the same sheet at the same time. Changes appear for everyone without a reload.

Yes. The Earthwork tab builds existing and finished grade from the contours on your plans, calculates cut and fill, and sends the volumes to the estimate.

Yes. Start a free trial with no card required. The trial runs with Professional features, so you can take off and price a real job.

Essentials is for annotations and comments: view projects, annotate the drawings, comment and read the estimate. Professional adds takeoff, estimating, Auto Count, earthwork, the Wage Calculator and AI tools.

Yes. IntelCost is cloud software. You sign in from any computer and your projects, sheets and measurements are there. There is nothing to install and no license to move between machines.

PDF drawing sets. Each page becomes a sheet with its own scale. Vector PDFs give you extra help, like snapping to the linework and searching the printed text. Scanned sheets can still be measured once their scale is set.

Yes. Every sheet keeps its own scale, so a 1/8 inch floor plan and a 1 inch = 30 foot site plan in the same set both measure correctly.

Yes. Draw a deduct inside an area and it is cut out of that area's quantity. Deducts move with their area.

Give the slab a thickness and add a sub-item. The Insert menu offers the slab's volume in cubic yards, and you can add waste in the same formula. It updates whenever the slab changes.

Yes, on vector PDFs. Snap PDF pulls your points to corners, line ends and crossings printed on the sheet. Scanned sheets have no linework to snap to.

Yes. Overlay lays one sheet over another. Comparative Overlay shows what was added and what was removed in two colours, aligned with two points you pick.

No. The Estimating tab reads the takeoff live. Every item and sub-item is a line, and a change to a measurement changes its line.

Yes. The bid summary takes sales tax on material first, then overhead, any extra markups such as contingency, profit, and bond (the performance and payment bond premium) on the full price last, ending in the bid total.

Yes. The Quantities only report shows every line without prices, and it exports to Excel like any other report.

Yes. Click the Qty cell of any line to see the formula, its values and the shapes it read on each sheet.

Yes. Add a labor cost component and put a crew on it. The crew uses the rates saved for the project in the Wage Calculator, and you can change any rate.

Yes. Set sales tax, overhead, extra markups, profit and bond as workspace defaults. New projects use them until you give a project its own.

Six estimate reports: full estimate, labor, material, equipment, subcontract and quantities only, each with its total and each exportable to Excel. A Takeoff Progress report across all your projects. And printed sheets with the takeoff drawn on them, to paper or PDF.

Yes. Rotation search looks for copies turned in 90 degree steps, and Include Mirror finds mirrored copies. On scanned sheets, Image mode searches in 45 degree steps.

Yes. Choose All pages, or pick the sheets you want, and Auto Count searches each of them.

Yes, with Image mode, which matches the picture of the symbol instead of its linework. Vector mode is the better choice on CAD-produced PDFs.

Uncheck it. You review every match before anything is created, and you can raise the sensitivity to hide weaker matches.

Yes. Select the count item first and Auto Count offers to add its matches to that item instead of creating a new one.

Yes. Extract Schedule reads the schedule table you box and lists one count item per row. You choose the columns for each item's name and create them in one step.

Professional. Each Professional seat adds monthly AI credits to a pool shared by the workspace, and owners can buy more. Essentials does not include AI.

No. You review what it read and nothing is saved until you create the items or apply the names.

Yes. When a page has no readable text, the title block is read by AI. Results that came from AI are marked so you can check them.

Yes. Box the notes and choose Ask AI, then type your question. You can copy the answer or save it as a note on the sheet.

Link the survey sheet to the grading plan with matching control points. The calculation then reads the existing grade from the survey sheet.

Yes. Join the sheets at their match lines and they work as one site, with one boundary, one calculation and one balance.

As factors. Shrink is how much more cut each compacted yard of fill needs, for example 1.15. Swell is loose over bank, for example 1.25. If your geotechnical report gives shrink as a loss from bank, convert it first: factor = 1 / (1 - loss).

Yes. Draw a Strip Area with its depth and say where the topsoil goes: hauled off, stockpiled on site or reused as fill.

Yes. A Site Feature lowers the finished grade to subgrade by the section depth, with undercut and subgrade prep when you need them.

Yes, when the value is out of line with its neighbours. Each contour is checked against the contours on either side and each spot against the grades around it. A value that does not fit turns blue with the reason, and Calculate lists every warning. If the value is right, right-click it and mark it correct.

Turn on Compare without topsoil strip in the Volumes panel. It shows cut and fill to the unstripped existing grade beside your saved result. The saved result, the soil export or import and the Division 31 lines keep the stripped figures, so topsoil is never counted twice.

That area is left out of cut and fill. The Volumes panel shows how much of the boundary is covered and what is missing, and Shade on sheet marks those pieces on the drawing so you can extend the contours or add spots.

Yes. Choose Prevailing Wage, Federal (Davis-Bacon). Upload the wage determination text file from SAM.gov to fill base and fringe for each craft, or enter them yourself.

Yes. Choose Direct Labor as the pricing basis. Rates show the payable wage, and the labor burden appears as its own line in the bid summary.

No. A project's rates are saved as a snapshot. Nothing recalculates without you confirming it.

Yes. Any craft rate can be replaced with your own for the project, and it is marked as your rate.

Yes. Choose Prevailing Wage, State/Local. Enter the rates from the state's wage schedule yourself, or, on a paid Professional plan, read them from a PDF.

IntelCost asks which county the project is in and uses that county for the location adjustment.

Switch the workspace to One at a time. While someone works on an item it is view-only for everyone else, and it frees itself seconds after they stop.

Yes. Give them a role that annotates without measuring, or put a review-only team on the Essentials plan, which is for annotations and comments. Reviewers add clouds, callouts, arrows, highlights and notes and can read the estimate, but cannot measure or price.

Members of your workspace, according to their roles, and anyone you send a project's share link to, read-only. Each workspace's projects are kept to that workspace, and only owners and admins can turn a share link on.

No. The project lives in the cloud. Everyone opens the same project, and changes appear for everyone as they happen.

Yes. An owner or admin turns on the project's share link in the Share dialog and copies it. Anyone with the link can open the project read-only without signing up. You can add a password and an expiry date.

Look, not touch. A guest can page through the sheets with the takeoff drawn on them, pan and zoom, and read the takeoff quantities and the estimate lines with their item costs. Guests cannot edit, comment, export, download or print, and they do not see annotations or comments.

Untick Anyone with Link or press Revoke, and the link stops working at once: whoever opens it is told it is no longer available. Regenerate gives you a new link and ends the old one. A link with an expiry date stops working after that day.

You can leave layers out: items on layers you untick are never sent to the guest. Otherwise a share link always opens the whole project, never a single sheet.

Yes, when you choose With formulas. Line costs, totals and sub-item quantities export as formulas, linked to their parent lines and to a Dimensions sheet.

Yes. Choose the Quantities only report before you export.

Yes. Exporting the full estimate adds a Bid Summary sheet with tax, overhead, markups, profit, bond and the bid total.

Yes. Choose Main layers per tab and each main layer exports to its own sheet, or choose All layers in one tab.

Yes. A formula is written into the workbook only when Excel's answer matches IntelCost's; otherwise the value is written instead.

Yes. CSI MasterFormat is built in with divisions, scopes and sub-scopes. UniFormat, NRM 1, NRM 2 and CESMM are available too.

Yes. Add scopes and sub-folders to the tree, or use custom folders instead of a classification.

Yes. Group by subcontractor, or filter to one subcontractor to see their package.

Yes. Pick the classification system for each project: CSI MasterFormat, UniFormat, NRM 1, NRM 2 or CESMM.

Yes. Cut, fill, topsoil and subgrade lines are filed under Division 31, with matching folders in the other systems.

Yes. Save an item as an assembly and use it on any sheet in any project in your workspace.

Yes. Sub-items, formulas and costs are saved with the assembly and come along when you use it.

Yes. Assemblies are saved to the workspace, so everyone in it measures with the same ones.

Yes. Change its classification, manage its sub-items and edit its costs from the Assemblies list.

Yes. Everyone works the same cloud project at the same time, with roles that decide who measures, who prices and who reviews.

Yes. The Wage Calculator handles Davis-Bacon and state prevailing wage, with rates adjusted to the project's county and saved with the project.

Yes. Each project starts with Base Bid, Alternate and Deferred Submittals layers, and the estimate can show one tab per layer.

Yes. Every item is classified by division, scope and sub-scope as it is measured, and the estimate groups the same way.

No. IntelCost is cloud software. Estimators sign in from any computer and open the same projects.

Yes. Send them the project's share link. They see the sheets with your takeoff, the quantities and the estimate lines, read-only, and cannot change, export or print anything. Add a password or an expiry date, and revoke the link when the bid is done.

Yes. Box one symbol and Auto Count finds every match on the page or across the set, including rotated and mirrored copies. You review the matches before the count is created.

Yes. Export the estimate to Excel, or a quantities-only report without your prices.

Yes. Search the set for your keynotes and tags with Find Text, measure only the sheets you need, and file your items under your own scopes.

Yes. The Wage Calculator supports Open Shop, Union (CBA) and federal or state prevailing wage for each project.

Yes. Rotation search finds copies turned in 90 degree steps, and Include Mirror finds mirrored ones. Scanned sheets use Image mode, which searches in 45 degree steps.

Yes. Search all pages or pick the sheets, and Auto Count looks on each one.

Yes. Box the schedule and Extract Schedule lists one count item per row of the schedule, named from the columns you choose.

Yes. Image mode matches the picture of the symbol on scanned sheets. Vector mode is the better choice on CAD-produced PDFs.

Yes. Contours and spot elevations on the PDF become existing and finished grade surfaces, and Calculate works out cut, fill and net inside the work boundary.

Yes. Cut, fill, soil export or import, topsoil stripping, undercut and subgrade prep become estimate lines in Division 31.

Link the two sheets with matching control points. The calculation reads the existing grade from the survey sheet.

Yes. Linear, area and count work on civil sheets like any other, filed under Divisions 31 to 33.

Yes. Changes appear for everyone live, and each person's cursor and in-progress measurement shows on the sheet.

Seats are counted for members whose role can edit takeoff or pricing. A reviewer whose role only views, annotates and comments does not use one.

Yes. Every project has its own files, takeoff and estimate, the dashboard filters projects by client, and each project lists the people assigned to it.

Yes. Click any quantity in the estimate to see its formula, its values and the shapes it read on each sheet.

Yes. Turn on the project's share link and send it. The client sees the sheets with the takeoff, the quantities and the estimate lines read-only, and cannot edit, export or print. Leave out layers they should not see, and revoke the link at any time.

Yes. The Takeoff Progress report lists every project with its sheets, calibrated sheets, items, measured items and last activity, and exports to Excel.