DesignFlow Build
Mechanical & HVAC Takeoff Software
Mechanical takeoff software counts and measures the HVAC scope from your plans — duct runs and fittings, piping, insulation, and the equipment on your schedules — so you can price the job. DesignFlow Build does it with AI as part of the broader AI Blueprint Takeoff engine: upload the PDF plan set, and the mechanical sheets are read, counted, and returned as a bill of quantities that feeds the estimate directly.
What it picks up on your M-sheets
- Ductwork: supply, return, and exhaust runs with fittings, detected as connected systems rather than isolated symbols.
- Piping: hydronic and refrigerant runs traced across sheets.
- Scheduled equipment: RTUs, AHUs, VAV boxes, fans, and pumps read from the equipment schedules and reconciled against plan symbols.
- Legend-driven symbols: the AI reads your M0.0 legend and general notes first, so detections use your project's own symbol names alongside a 200+ term MEP vocabulary with CSI codes.
From plans to a priced estimate — one system
The output is a bill of quantities plus a 3D spatial reconstruction of the detected systems. Because takeoff, estimating, scheduling, and accounting live in one platform, the quantities flow into estimating without a CSV export, and the priced estimate carries through to job costing when you win the work. A structured estimate template shows where each takeoff quantity lands.
Where the AI still needs your estimator
AI takeoff replaces counting, not judgment. Non-standard symbols, poor scan quality, and design-intent ambiguity (a duct that disappears behind a shaft, a schedule that contradicts the plan) still need a human read. DesignFlow Build flags low-confidence detections with validation warnings so your estimator reviews and corrects before anything is priced — the goal is hours of counting eliminated, with review built in rather than blind trust.
Frequently asked questions
It counts and measures the mechanical scope from your plan set — ductwork runs and fittings, piping, equipment from the schedules (RTUs, AHUs, VAVs, fans), insulation — and turns them into a bill of quantities you can price. DesignFlow Build does this with AI: upload the PDF plan set and the M-sheets are read automatically.
Before analysis it reads your general-notes and legend pages (e.g. M0.0) and extracts the project's own symbol-to-name mappings, then combines them with a 200+ term MEP vocabulary with CSI codes. Detections use your project's terminology, not a generic guess.
Yes. Equipment schedules on the mechanical sheets are detected and extracted along with symbols and duct/pipe runs, so scheduled equipment is reconciled against what appears on the plans.
No — it replaces the counting, not the judgment. Low-confidence detections are flagged for review, and your estimator verifies and corrects before quantities flow into the estimate. The hours saved are the manual symbol-counting hours.
They land in a bill of quantities that feeds DesignFlow Build's estimating module directly — no CSV export and re-keying. Priced work then carries through to scheduling, job costing, and accounting in the same system.