Be a Takeoff Triple Threat: 3 Togal.AI Features to Empower Estimators
Togal
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If you've ever clicked the same symbol a thousand times on a drawing set—hunting window tags, counting fixtures, playing a real-life game of Where's Waldo across 40 sheets—you already know the real cost of construction takeoff software that hasn't caught up to the modern era.
That was the starting point for this month's Togal20 webinar.
Host Kelsey Formost (Head of Marketing) sat down with Johnny Maghzal (Head of Growth and former estimator) to walk through three powerful takeoff features most estimators don't know exist. Why? Because most on-premise takeoff software was never built to include them!
Here at Togal.AI, we have a different mindset. We are a construction software company first, and a tech company second. This means that we deeply understand the challenges facing estimators, and work tirelessly to build solutions that empower estimators to do their best work.
What are the best construction takeoff software features for estimators? Based on what actually saves estimating teams time, the three biggest wins are:
- Searchable text-based counting
- A 3D view of your 2D takeoff
- And real-time multi-user collaboration with permission control
Each of these Togal.AI features delivers value for estimators looking to revolutionize their workflow for the better!
AI Text Search for Takeoff
On legacy on-premise tools, counting a repeated tag like "W4.1" means manually clicking every instance across every sheet—sometimes over a thousand clicks for one tag on one job. Miss one, and your quantity is wrong.
Togal.AI's text search works the way Ctrl+F works in a Word doc, but for takeoff. Type the tag, search the whole drawing set, and Togal.AI surfaces every match for you to confirm sheet by sheet.
What used to take over a thousand clicks becomes a handful of confirmations — with the estimator still in full control of every match before it converts to a quantity.
Get a 3D View of Your Construction Takeoff
When Togal.AI asked its user base why estimators miss quantities, the answer that came back most often wasn't a lack of skill—it was a lack of visibility. Common examples include an incorrect wall height, painting the wrong wall portion, or 2D floor plans that fail reality.
Togal's 3D viewer takes any 2D takeoff and renders it in three dimensions, so a mistyped height or mismatched surface becomes visually obvious before it becomes a budget problem.
Some Togal.AI users have taken this further than it was designed for—stacking takeoffs from every floor into a single multi-story 3D model they can walk clients through, floor by floor, trade by trade.
Togal's product team is now building dedicated support for that exact workflow, straight from customer use. Which is a testament to how we listen to our users to understand what they want and need from our AI-assisted construction takeoff software.
Collaboration: Real-Time Takeoff Without the File Chaos
The third feature solves a problem every estimating team has lived through: Someone finishes a takeoff, saves it to the wrong drive, and now nobody can find it. Or worse, two or more estimators accidentally overwrite each other's work.
Togal's collaboration features let a project owner invite teammates with manager, editor, or viewer-level permissions. Each person works in their own view — drywall, flooring, tile — without cluttering anyone else's takeoff, while a combined view gives the chief estimator real-time visibility across the whole set. Superintendents and foremen can get view-only access in the field, seeing changes the moment they happen instead of waiting on an email with an attached spreadsheet.
This is the same workflow shift Coastal Construction's Miami office saw firsthand: Before adopting Togal.AI, the team's eight estimators spent roughly half their time manually tracing and clicking through plans, and automated takeoff, naming, sharing, and collaboration features brought that down to about 10% of their time — saving an estimated 14.5 hours per plan set.
Togal.AI Is Built for Estimators, Backed by Security
None of this works if an estimator loses control of their own numbers — which is why every tool above keeps a human confirming the final call. And for teams weighing enterprise security requirements alongside speed, Togal.AI is SOC 2 Type II compliant, meaning the company's systems and processes around data security, availability, and handling have been independently audited over time.
Are You a Takeoff Triple Threat?
All in all, each of these features is purpose-built to help estimators become the best they can be.
Because all that experience and training is extremely valuable in preconstruction. So, why spend so much of your time clicking, tracing, coloring, and labeling when you could be building better bids and winning more bids?
By combining AI text search, 3D views, and permission-based collaboration, your estimating team can supercharge their workflow!
Want to see these three tools on your own drawings?
Book a custom demo with Togal.AI to see what we can do for your estimating workflow.