Takeoff is an important part of QuoteSoft Rep, where you can view the plan file of a zone and place items directly to correspond with that plan file. It is these items that you place that QuoteSoft Rep will use in calculating reports and estimations.
To access Takeoff, click the 
button on the Main Menu or go to the Customer File and double-click on a zone in the Zone List palette.
When an item is selected, either from Catalog Items, Bookmarks, or Catalog Kits, you can use the 10-Key Palette to determine how many of that item you would like to place. Once you have entered in how many of the item you would like to place, you may place the item on the plan file and it will be placed with that quantity.
You can also use the 10-Key Palette to modify the quantity or multiples of an item that has already been placed on the plan file. Once you have that item selected, go to the 10-Key Palette and click the 
button. Then, you can press the buttons to modify the quantity and multiples. When you are done, click the 
button to save your changes, or simply select something else if you do not want to save your changes.
The colors section of the Annotation Properties palette will allow you to modify the colours of any annotations—lines, shapes, or text—that you have placed on the plan file. You can modify the border color, fill color, font color, and text background color, based on which apply for the item you have selected.
In addition, you can modify the border thickness of the selected item.
The text section of the Annotation Properties palette will allow you to modify the font of the text in the selected item on the plan file, as well as to modify the font’s size and style (bold, italic, etc.) Note that not all items will have text for you to modify; on the contrary, most items such as lines, polygons, and curves will not.
The Audit Trail palette will show a list of all of the items that have been placed onto the plan file in Takeoff, in the order in which they were placed. To view an item, select it on the Audit Trail palette and you will be zoomed to that item. You can also perform a variety of functions on the items in the Audit Trail, by right-clicking the item you would like to make changes to.
when you are finished.
The Bookmarks palette allows you to create and use bookmarks to items, which are basically shortcuts you can create so you don’t have to look for an item each time in the Catalog Items palette. This can save a lot of time, especially if it’s an item that you use frequently.
To add a new bookmark, right-click the Bookmarks palette and select New Bookmark. You will be shown the New Bookmark screen, which bears resemblance to the Catalog Items palette.
From there, you can select a catalog, category, group, and then item within the group to add as the new bookmark. Additionally, you may give the bookmark a caption with the Use Caption field and text box below, as well as assign it hover text. When you are done, click Save Changes to save your changes and create the bookmark, or Cancel if you do not want to create the bookmark.
To edit a bookmark, right-click that bookmark on the Bookmarks palette and click Edit Bookmark. You will be presented with the Edit Bookmark screen.
From there, you may modify any of the bookmark’s attributes, even down to which item the bookmark is for. When you are done, click Save Changes to save your changes, or Cancel if you do not want to save your changes to the bookmark.
To duplicate a bookmark, right-click that bookmark on the Bookmarks palette and click Duplicate Bookmark. You will be presented with the New Bookmark screen, except the fields will already be filled out to the same as the bookmark you are modifying.
From there, you may modify any of the new bookmark’s attributes, even down to which item the bookmark is for. When you are done, click Save Changes to create the new bookmark, or Cancel if you do not want to create the new bookmark.
To delete a bookmark, right-click that bookmark on the Bookmarks palette and click Delete Bookmark. You will be presented with a prompt asking you if you would like to delete the bookmark.
If you are sure you would like to delete the bookmark, click Yes. If you do not want to click the bookmark, click No.
Bookmark groups allow you to organize bookmarks so that bookmarks you use together often can be viewed at the same time, while other bookmarks you use at different times are hidden. These different groups can be accessed with the drop-down at the top of the Bookmarks palette.
To perform actions on the bookmark groups, click the small gear icon next to the name of the Bookmarks palette.
To create a new bookmark group, click New Group… and enter a name for the bookmark group and then press OK.
To edit a bookmark group, navigate to that bookmark group on the drop-down and then click Edit Group…, which will bring up a screen where you can change the name of the bookmark group. To save the new name, press OK.
To delete a bookmark group, navigate to that bookmark group on the drop-down and then click Delete Group. You will be prompted on whether you would like to delete that bookmark group. If you are sure, click Yes; otherwise, click No.
The Catalog Items palette allows you to navigate the Catalog in Takeoff, to find and select items to place which you have not bookmarked. The drop-down menu in the upper left allows you to switch catalogs; from there, once one is selected, you may successively select a category, group, and then item.
In addition, you can create a new bookmark by right-clicking any item and clicking the 
button. This will bring up the New Bookmark screen with the fields filled out to the item you have selected, similar to the Duplicate Bookmark function.
The Catalog Kits palette allows you to view any catalog kits you have created. Catalog Kits are basically [groups of catalog items that you can create to easily place a large grouping of items, like [example] all at once.]
To create a catalog kit, click the 
button above the catalog kit list. You will be presented with the Catalog Kit screen.
From here, you can fill out the name and code as well as set the images to be used on Takeoff. However, you cannot add items; instead, you must navigate to that item on Takeoff, right-click, and select Add To Kit…
When you are done, click Save Changes to create the new catalog kit, or Cancel if you do not want to create the new catalog kit.
To edit a kit, select the kit you would like to edit in the catalog kit list and then click the 
button.
From here, you can edit the name and code as well as set the images to be used on Takeoff. However, you cannot add items; instead, you must navigate to that item on Takeoff, right-click, and select Add To Kit…
When you are done, click Save Changes to save the changes to the catalog kit, or Cancel if you do not want to save your changes.
To copy a kit, select the kit you would like to copy in the catalog kit list and click the 
button.
From here, you can edit the name and code as well as set the images to be used on Takeoff. However, you cannot add items; instead, you must navigate to that item on Takeoff, right-click, and select Add To Kit…
When you are done, click Save Changes to save the changes to the copied catalog kit, or Cancel if you do not want to save your changes.
To delete a kit, select the kit(s) in the catalog kit list and click the 
button. You will be prompted on whether you would like to delete the kit.
If you are sure you would like to delete the kit, click Yes. If you do not want to delete the kit, click No.
The Colors palette allows you to quickly and easily set the color of drawn items without having to use the Annotation Properties palette. The ten colors at the top are the default colors, though these can be changed by right-clicking them and editing them using the screen that pops up.
Beneath the default color palette, there is a display for the Active Color, coupled with a slider to change the transparency of the color.
To edit a color, either right-click one of the default colors at the top or click on the drop-down on the side of the Active Color display.
The color editing drop-down will show a few rows of default colors that you can choose from, as well as a row at the bottom that contains your most recently used colors, with the most recent on the left. However, if these color choices are still not sufficient, you can click the 
button to more precisely select a color.
There are four different ways you can select colors on the Advanced Color screen. The first and easiest is with the graphical color selector at the top; simply drag the bar on the right up or down until you find the range you would like the color to be in, and then drag around the small circle until you have found the exact hue or shade you want. The two boxes below the gradient part of the color selector display the Active Color on the left and the new selected color on the right.
The other three methods are RGB, HSL, and CMYK. The first, RGB, allows you to precisely set the Red, Green, and Blue values with the associated sliders or, if you so wish, enter in a number value to the right between 0 and 255. The second, HSL, is similar except the values you can modify are Hue (0-360), Saturation (0-100), and Lightness (0-100). The third and final, CMYK, also has sliders and number inputs, each of which range from 0 to 100, and the values you can modify are Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black—just like in print.
In addition, all four methods share the slider at the bottom, the alpha slider. “Alpha” is another word for “opaqueness,” and the less a color’s alpha value, the more transparent it will appear (signified by how much the grey-and-white squares are visible in the color preview above). This slider ranges from 0 to 255.
When you are done editing the color, click OK to save the color for use or click Cancel if you do not want to save the color.
The Image palette displays the image, if set, for the currently selected item, whether it be on the plan file, on the Audit Trail, in the Catalog Items palette, or somewhere else. It can also show images for selected kits.
[Text box? Gear menu?]
The Item Info palette displays information about the item that is currently selected, so that you can quickly see this information without having to pull up the Catalog. When a catalog kit is selected, this palette will become the Kit Info palette.
The Kit Info palette allows you to easily view the items that compose the selected catalog kit without having to edit it using the Catalog Kit palette.
The Item Totals palette will show you a preview of the cost of any item selected, calculating the labor and material cost you have inputted as well as factoring in the quantity inputted.
The Notifications palette displays notifications about the technical workings of the program. These are generally for providing information to QuoteSoft support representatives in the case of an issue.
The gear menu to the left of the palette title allows you to clear the displayed notifications, open the current log file in a text editor, or show the current log file in Windows Explorer. In addition, you can modify the program options of which notifications are displayed.
On this screen, you can choose which notifications you want to receive and in which ways. For example, if you do not want to see information about events and instead would rather only see errors and warnings in the Notifications palette, uncheck the associated boxes. You can also set the Notifications palette to only display a certain number of notifications. The settings will save automatically when you close the Notification Options screen.
The Plan File palette is the center of Takeoff, where you can view the plan file assigned to the current Zone, as well as view and place items to be enumerated on the Audit Trail. The Plan File palette is also where you can use the tools from the Toolbar palette. Its name is determined by the currently active plan file.
To change the scale of the plan file, click on the 
button beside the scale (or, Set Scale if you have not yet set the scale). Use the mouse pointer on the plan file to select a starting point and then select an ending point. You will be then asked to input the length of the distance you selected, with the choice of either standard or metric units.
The bottom of the Plan File has a few different functions related to zooming.
The first two buttons are Fit to Window, which zooms out the plan file until its entirety can be seen in the palette, and Fit 1:1, which zooms the plan file in to its original size.
In the middle, you can see how many [annotations you have selected.]
On the right, there is the Canvas Zoom Control slider which lets you quickly and easily alter the amount the plan file is zoomed by.
[plan file right click functions]
The Plan File Properties palette allows you to view information about the current plan file easily from Takeoff. It includes properties about the image, as well as a link to its location on your computer and two arrow buttons that allow you to rotate the plan file image. Any changes to the plan file’s orientation will be saved automatically, and the positions of the items relative to the plan file will be preserved after rotation.
The Zone List palette allows you to view all of the zones that exist for the job that is being edited in Takeoff, and it allows you to switch between them easily. You can also see which one is currently being displayed. To switch zones, simply click the check box next to the zone you would like to switch to.