On-Screen Takeoffvs
PlanSwift
PlanSwift: If you want a takeoff tool with a similar desktop model and a more direct path to Excel-based estimating
On-Screen Takeoff
Digital quantity takeoff from drawings, now subscription only and bundled rather than sold alone
As of 1 September 2026, On-Screen Takeoff's pricing is not published; the vendor quotes on request. ConstructConnect's long-established takeoff tool for measuring quantities off PDF and vector drawings. Softwr lists it under Construction. On-Screen Takeoff is made by ConstructConnect, available on Windows.
Overview
What On-Screen Takeoff does
On-Screen Takeoff, originally from On Center Software, measures areas, lengths and counts directly off construction drawings and produces quantities that feed an estimate. It handles overlay comparison between drawing revisions, so an estimator can see what changed between an issue-for-tender set and an addendum without manually re-measuring. Quantities push into Quick Bid, ConstructConnect's companion estimating product, or export to Excel and third party estimating systems. The fact that matters most to an existing user is licensing. On Center sold On-Screen Takeoff on perpetual licences for many years, and a large installed base still runs old versions on that basis. Current releases are annual subscription only, and ConstructConnect increasingly positions the product inside packages with its takeoff, estimating and project lead data rather than as a standalone purchase. If you are budgeting a replacement for a paid-once seat that has been running since 2015, you are budgeting a recurring cost that did not previously exist, and the vendor does not publish a rate card, so the number arrives only after a sales conversation. Buyers are specialty trade contractors, particularly drywall, flooring, painting and concrete, where takeoff is the dominant estimating labour and area measurement drives everything. The trade-off is that this is a mature Windows desktop product with a dated interface, competing against cloud takeoff tools that publish their prices.
What people use it for
- A drywall contractor measuring wall area and openings across a 300 sheet set where manual takeoff would take a week
- An estimator who receives a late addendum and needs to know which rooms changed rather than re-measuring the whole floor
- A flooring subcontractor maintaining reusable conditions with waste factors so quantities and material orders stay consistent between estimators
- A trade contractor that wants takeoff quantities split by phase so progress billing matches the way work is actually released
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about On-Screen Takeoff.
- Perpetual licensing is no longer offered on current releases, so long-standing users who paid once now face a recurring annual cost they never budgeted, and staying on an old version means no support for newer PDF formats
- ConstructConnect does not publish a price, and the product is increasingly sold inside a bundle with lead data and estimating, so buyers who want takeoff alone often find the quote priced around a package they do not need
- It is Windows desktop only, with no macOS version and no meaningful browser or tablet workflow, which rules it out for firms standardised on Apple hardware
- The interface has changed little in years and estimators coming from browser-based tools find the condition setup and layer management slow to learn, so onboarding a new estimator takes longer than the software cost would suggest
- ConstructConnect sells lead data, takeoff and estimating as a portfolio and has consolidated several acquired products, so a buyer committing to On-Screen Takeoff should ask directly where it sits against the newer cloud takeoff products in the same portfolio
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of On-Screen Takeoff
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- On-Screen TakeoffvsBluebeam Revu
Bluebeam Revu: If your team already marks up and reviews drawings in Revu and the measurement tools there cover your quantities
- On-Screen TakeoffvsSage Estimating
Sage Estimating: If the estimating database matters more to you than the measurement interface
Pricing
What On-Screen Takeoff costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
On-Screen Takeoff
On request
- Annual subscription per seat on version 4 and later
- Sold increasingly as part of a ConstructConnect takeoff and estimating bundle
- Perpetual licensing not offered on current releases
- Price given on request only
Capabilities
Features
Drawing takeoff
Area, linear and count measurement off PDF, TIFF and vector drawing files
Revision overlay
Two drawing versions superimposed with differences highlighted so only changed scope is re-measured
Condition libraries
Reusable measurement conditions with material and labour factors carried between jobs
Automatic scaling
Scale set from a known dimension and applied across the sheet set
Bid zones and phases
Quantities split by area, floor or phase for phased billing and crew planning
Quick Bid handoff
Quantities pushed into ConstructConnect estimating without re-entry
Excel export
Structured quantity export for contractors keeping their pricing in spreadsheets
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Can I still buy a perpetual licence?
No. Current releases are annual subscription. Older perpetual licences continue to run but do not receive updates.
Is it sold separately from Quick Bid?
It can be, but ConstructConnect increasingly quotes it as part of a takeoff and estimating package. Ask explicitly for standalone pricing if that is what you want.
Does it run on a Mac?
Not natively. It is a Windows application and Mac users run it under virtualisation, which is unsupported in practice for large drawing sets.
Will it read a scanned drawing?
Yes, but measurement accuracy on a scanned raster set depends entirely on the scan quality and on setting scale from a verified dimension.
Keep looking
Where to go from On-Screen Takeoff
- On-Screen Takeoff alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- On-Screen Takeoff pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- On-Screen Takeoff badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Construction softwareThe full category
- Best Construction softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Construction software for
Compare On-Screen Takeoff with
- Bluebeam Revu
- Sage Estimating
- RIB CostX
- Cubit Estimating
- Togal.AI
- B2W Estimate
- STACK Construction Technologies
- Handoff
- HCSS
- HCSS HeavyBid
- Oracle Primavera Unifier
- Siteline
- Revit
- Smartsheet
- Vectorworks Architect
- Viewpoint Vista
- BricsCAD BIM
- Briq
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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for On-Screen Takeoff, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on On-Screen Takeoff
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On-Screen Takeoff badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
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