When you need a number from your plans, ask Exa for it in the chat. "Calculate the weight of the steel structure", "how much paint for the walls", "the floor area on each level", "materials for the masonry": every one of these goes the same way. Exa measures the plans with an AI takeoff, then works the figure out from the measurements. You do not draw the areas yourself or key in formulas first.

Upload the plans to a project. PDFs and images both work; see Uploading files. Then ask Exa in your own words, in any language, and say which sheets or floors you mean if it matters.

Exa replies with a takeoff proposal: a card that lists what it will measure and on which sheets. Check the list and click Approve. The takeoff reads every approved sheet and places the measurements on the canvas, on their own layer, exactly as described in AI takeoffs.

When the run ends, the takeoff card in the chat says what was measured. The takeoff list beside an open sheet shows each element with its count, length or area, sheet by sheet. Each measurement can be selected, moved or deleted like one you drew by hand.

Now ask for the breakdown. "List the floor area on each level and the total." "What is the weight of all the steel?" "How much mortar and sand for that wall area?" Exa reads the measurements from the takeoff and answers with the calculation, so you can check every step. Ask again to change an assumption, and it recalculates.

Run the takeoff on every floor plan: choose Select pages... or Auto in the page selector so the run covers them all. The takeoff keeps each sheet's measurements apart, so a per-floor question is answered straight from the result. Ask Exa for the quantity on each level, and it lists the levels one by one with the total under them.

A weight comes from a measured length or area and a unit weight. For a steel structure, the takeoff measures the run of each member type on the structural plans. Exa multiplies each length by the weight per metre of its section, using the sizes printed on the sheets or the ones you give it, and adds them up.

Materials that follow from a measurement work the same way. From a measured wall area, Exa works out the blocks, mortar, sand and cement from the coverage rates you use. Waste, rebar from the bar schedule, paint for a given number of coats: all of these are calculated from the measured quantities. Nothing has to be found on the drawing a second time.

To keep these quantities in your estimate, put them on line items with a formula, for example [NetAreaSqFt] * 1.1 for a 10% waste allowance. Custom formulas explains the variables each measurement type provides.

If a sheet has no scale that Exa trusts, lengths and areas on it wait until you set one. Scale calibration shows how.

For a drawing too faint or rough for the AI to read, draw the measurement yourself with the area, linear or count tools, then ask Exa the same question. It reads hand-drawn measurements exactly as it reads its own.