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We have been busy over the summer. This release takes Assemble Pro from a takeoff tool that measures your plans to a system that prices the whole job, from the moment you upload a drawing right through to the estimate you send the client.

There is a lot in it, so we have put the two AI features first because they change something you do on every single job, before you draw a single measurement.

If you would rather keep using the takeoff tool exactly as you have been, you can. Nothing has been taken away. Everything below is there when you want to go deeper.

AI page scale detection

Assemble Pro now reads your drawings and sets the page scale for you.

This is the quiet one that saves the most pain. A drawing set rarely runs on one scale. The floor plans are at 1:50, the site plan is at 1:200, a detail sheet is at 1:20, and the scale is printed in small text in the corner of each sheet. Miss it and you measure a 1:50 page at 1:100. Every length on that page comes out at half what it should be, and you do not find out until the quantities look wrong or, worse, until you are on site.

Assemble Pro now reads the page, detects the scale and applies it, so you start from the right number instead of setting it by hand on every sheet.

One thing worth saying plainly: check it. The detection is there to save you time and catch the mistakes that come from rushing, not to replace your eye on the drawing. Glance at the scale it has set before you measure, exactly as you would check a scale bar.

AI page naming

Assemble Pro now names your pages for you as well.

Upload a forty page drawing set and you normally get forty thumbnails called something like A-101 through A-140, or worse, nothing useful at all. Finding the second floor framing plan means clicking through the lot.

Now the pages come in named for what is actually on them, so you can scan the thumbnails and go straight to the sheet you want.

On a big set this is the difference between a few seconds and a few minutes, several times a day.

Library: your cost centre

Library is where your pricing lives.

Upload everything you buy from your suppliers: plasterboard, concrete, timber, fixings, right down to nails if you want that level of detail. Each item carries its unit and its unit cost.

Set it up once and it becomes the single place you update when a supplier changes a price. Every assembly, template and estimate that uses that item picks up the new rate.

Assemblies: one measurement, all your materials

An assembly is a recipe.

Take a door. On its own it is one number on a plan. In Assemble Pro, a door assembly knows what a door actually costs you to hang: the linear metres of architrave, the fixings, the labour, all of it built from Library items.

That means one takeoff measurement tells you exactly how much material you need to order. You are not doing the arithmetic on the side of the page any more, and you are not doing it again the next time a similar job comes in.

Assemblies then feed into your template line items, which is where the real time saving shows up.

Templates: build them around the jobs you actually do

Most contractors do two or three types of job. A renovation, an extension, a fit out. The pricing pattern is close to identical every time.

Templates let you build each of those out once, from preliminaries right through to handoff.

Quantities in a template can come from three places:

• From takeoff: the quantity is measured on the canvas.

• Manual: you type the quantity in.

• Lump sum: a fixed figure, no measurement required.

That mix matters, because a real job is not all measured. A site manager for 12 weeks is not something you draw on a plan, but it still needs to be in the estimate. Put it in the template as a manual or lump sum line and it carries through every time.

Starting a project with a template applied

When you create a new project you choose whether to start with a takeoff or go straight to an estimate, then select the template you want to apply.

Every takeoff template item is then waiting for you in the measuring toolbar. You are not hunting for the right item before you start measuring, and if you need something new you can still create it there and then.

Four new cards on your project overview

Your project overview now has four cards:

• Takeoffs: your measurements.

• Estimates: your priced work.

• Plans and Markups: your drawings and anything you have marked on them.

• Order List: what you need to buy.

Finish a takeoff and you land on a review page. From there you can go straight to the order list, or create and edit an estimate.

The estimate: everything pulls through

This is the part that changes how a job gets priced.

Open the estimate and everything from your template is already in it. That includes items you never measured on the canvas, so the site manager line is sitting there alongside the measured quantities.

Your rates, your wastage, your markups and your margins all pull through as well, provided you have set them.

Then you finish the job properly:

• Write a cover letter.

• Set your terms and conditions.

• Attach your marked up PDFs so the client can see exactly what you have priced.

Send that to a general contractor or a homeowner and it lands as a professional piece of work, with everything on the job accounted for.

What to do first

Page scale detection and page naming need nothing from you. Upload your next drawing set and they are already working.

For the rest, work in this order:

1. Build your Library. Start with the twenty or thirty items you buy on nearly every job. You do not need to load your entire supplier catalogue on day one.

2. Build a handful of Assemblies. Pick the repeat items you always have to calculate by hand.

3. Build one Template for your most common job type, from preliminaries to handoff.

4. Run your next job through it and adjust the template as you go.

Most of the value shows up on the second job, because the second job is the one you do not have to price from scratch.

Frequently asked questions

Does Assemble Pro set the page scale automatically?

Yes. Assemble Pro reads your uploaded drawings with AI and sets the page scale for you, including sets where different sheets use different scales. You should still verify the scale it has detected before you measure.

What happens if the drawing is measured at the wrong scale?

Every measurement on that page comes out proportionally wrong. A 1:50 page measured at 1:100 returns half the true length. Automatic scale detection is designed to catch exactly this, which is one of the most common and most expensive takeoff errors.

Does Assemble Pro name drawing pages automatically?

Yes. Uploaded pages are named by AI based on what is on the sheet, so you can scan the thumbnails and find the page you need instead of clicking through a numbered set.

What is the difference between the Library and Assemblies?

The Library holds individual items and their unit costs, like a sheet of plasterboard or a metre of timber. An assembly is a recipe made from Library items, like a door with its architrave, fixings and labour. The Library is the ingredients, assemblies are the dishes.

Do I have to use templates to use Assemble Pro?

No. You can keep using the takeoff tool exactly as you have been. Templates are there for when you want your measurements to feed a full estimate automatically.

Can I include costs that are not measured on a plan?

Yes. Template quantities can be set as manual entries or lump sums, so items like site management, welfare or plant hire pull through to the estimate without being measured on the canvas.

Do my rates, wastage and margins carry into the estimate?

Yes. If you have set rates, wastage, markups and margins in your Library, assemblies or template, they all pull through to the estimate automatically.

Can I send the estimate to a client from Assemble Pro?

Yes. You can add a cover letter, set your terms and conditions, attach your marked up PDFs, and send the estimate to a general contractor or homeowner as a single professional package.

How do I get help setting this up?

The Assemble team will run a full demo with you and walk through the new releases on your own jobs. Get in touch from inside the app or from the website.