PlanSwift User Guide: Key Features and Functionality, Exercises of Engineering

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UPDATED ON 11 / 30 /

Authored by Dave Hansen & Aaron Watts

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PlanSwift Pro

User Guide

Version 10 Edition

Table of Contents

• Overview ....................................................................................................................
• Key Features ...............................................................................................................
  • Managing Jobs.............................................................................................................................
    • Creating a New Job
    • Opening an Existing Job
    • Creating a SwiftJob
  • Page Management
    • Setting the Scale
      • Setting the Scale Automatically
      • Setting the Scale Manually............................................................................................................
    • Renaming Pages
      • Renaming Individual Pages
      • Batch Renaming Multiple Pages
    • Importing Additional Pages................................................................................................................
    • Creating Folders for Pages
    • Adjusting the Page or Folder Order
    • Managing Page Tabs
      • Opening and Closing Tabbed Pages
      • Undocking a Tabbed Page.............................................................................................................
  • Performing Basic Takeoffs
    • Creating New Takeoff Items
      • Area Takeoff
      • Linear Takeoff...............................................................................................................................
      • Segment Takeoff...........................................................................................................................
      • Count Takeoff
    • Creating a New Section of a Takeoff Item
      • Creating a New Section using the New Section button
      • Creating a New Section on a Different Page Using Continue With
      • Subtracting from Sections
        • Subtracting Using Point-to-Point (P2P)
      • Subtracting Using Box
      • Copying and Pasting Takeoff Items
      • Copying and Pasting One or More Takeoff Items.......................................................................
      • Using Linear Copy to Paste Takeoff Items in a Specified Direction
    • Manipulating Points
      • Using Snap, Ortho, Freehand, and Verify Points
        • Using Snap ..............................................................................................................................................
        • Using Ortho ............................................................................................................................................
        • Using Freehand .......................................................................................................................................
        • Using Verify Points .................................................................................................................................
      • Moving Points..........................................................................................................................
      • Moving a Takeoff Item
        • Moving Takeoff Items to a Specified Location.........................................................................................
        • Moving Items with the Mouse ................................................................................................................
        • Moving Items Using the Right-Click Menu’s Move Selection ...................................................................
      • Establishing Points While in Digitizer Record Mode
  • Creating Arcs with Areas, Linears, and Segments.
    • Area Arc
    • Linear and Segment Arcs
    • Creating Closed Circles with Areas and Linears...............................................................................
• Creating Annotations.................................................................................................................
  • Adding and Specifying Dimensions
    • Adding Dimensions
    • Specifying Dimensions
  • Adding Notes
  • Showing a Legend..............................................................................................................................
  • Adding Revision Clouds, Rubber Stamps, Sticky Tabs, Highlights, and Images
    • Adding Revision Clouds
    • Adding Rubber Stamps..................................................................................................................
    • Adding Sticky Tabs
    • Adding Highlights
    • Adding an Image to a Page
• Adding an Overlay of a Page
• Accessing Specialty Takeoff Items - Single-Click Area Takeoff - Single-Click Linear and Count Takeoffs - Roof Area Takeoff - Price Per SQ FT Area Takeoff - Area Cubic Yards Takeoff .................................................................................................................. - Grid Tool Area Takeoff ...................................................................................................................... - Joist Tool Area Takeoff .....................................................................................................................
  • Shortcuts and Hotkeys
    • Shortcuts for Zooming, Panning, and Navigating Pages ......................................................................
      • Zooming ......................................................................................................................................
      • Panning .......................................................................................................................................
      • Navigating Pages.........................................................................................................................
    • Using and Customizing Keyboard Hotkeys .........................................................................................
  • Integration with Excel
    • PlanSwift Ribbon-bar Tab .................................................................................................................
    • Connecting to and Disconnecting PlanSwift from Excel ......................................................................
    • Initiating PlanSwift Takeoffs from Excel ............................................................................................
    • Adding New Sections to Takeoffs ......................................................................................................
    • Navigating from Excel Takeoff Values to PlanSwift Takeoff Values .....................................................
    • Assigning Multiple Properties to a Takeoff Using 'Select Existing Item' ...............................................
    • Right-Click Menu ..............................................................................................................................
    • Unlinking a Job .................................................................................................................................
• Customizing PlanSwift
  • Templates Overview
    • Key Features of the Templates Tab ...................................................................................................
      • Creating and Organizing Templates..............................................................................................
      • Modifying Templates ...................................................................................................................
      • Exporting and Importing ..............................................................................................................
  • Parts Overview
    • How to Copy and Paste Parts ............................................................................................................
    • How to Drag and Drop Parts .............................................................................................................
  • Assemblies Overview...............................................................................................................
    • How to Copy and Paste an Assembly .................................................................................................
  • Estimating Overview................................................................................................................
    • Manipulating an Estimating Layout ...................................................................................................
    • Exporting Estimating Data to Excel ....................................................................................................
  • Reports Overview
    • Basic Report Engine ..........................................................................................................................
    • Report Designer ...............................................................................................................................
  • Plugins Overview
  • Advanced Features Overview
    • Page Tab ..........................................................................................................................................
    • Tools Tab .........................................................................................................................................
    • View Tab ..........................................................................................................................................
    • Lists Tab ...........................................................................................................................................
    • Settings Tab .....................................................................................................................................
      • Customizing the Interface ............................................................................................................
      • Configuring Language and Measurement Type Defaults ...............................................................
      • Managing Data Storage...............................................................................................................
    • Right-Click Menus.............................................................................................................................
  • Developer Overview
• Managing PlanSwift Licenses
  • Activation and How Licenses Work
    • Activating PlanSwift .........................................................................................................................
    • Removing a PlanSwift License ...........................................................................................................
    • Automatically Removing a PlanSwift License .....................................................................................
    • Re-activating, Removing, and Deleting Plugin Licenses ......................................................................
  • My Account
• FAQ

Key Features

PlanSwift Professional is an easy-to-use software platform due to its user-friendly interface and features. The instructions in this section will guide new users through the basics of starting a job, managing pages, performing takeoffs, creating annotations and overlays, using specialty takeoff items, using shortcuts and hotkeys, and integrating with Excel. We highly recommend purchasing a training package for accelerated learning and faster customization.

The PlanSwift Professional UI/UX utilizes the Windows Ribbon framework. Similar in functionality and appearance to the Microsoft Office 2007 Fluent user interface, the Ribbon framework is composed of a ribbon command bar that exposes the major features of PlanSwift Professional through a series of tabs at the top of the application window and a right-click context menu system.

PlanSwift Professional utilizes sidebars on the left and right sides of the main application window. These sidebars can be resized, reordered, collapsed, or undocked to maximize working space within the main application window.

PlanSwift Professional frequently utilizes “split buttons” inside the ribbon command bar: these are a composite control from which the user can select a primary feature from an upper button or select one of multiple secondary features from a drop-down list below.

Managing Jobs

At the very top left corner of the PlanSwift window, you’ll see what is referred to as the PlanSwift Button , which has the PlanSwift logo on it (Fig. 1-A).

1. Clicking on the PlanSwift Button gives you quick access to PlanSwift’s job management tools: Creating a New Job Opening a Job Printing a Job Job Properties Reloading a Job Importing Jobs and Templates Closing a Job Exiting PlanSwift.
2. On the right side, it also provides a list of Recent Documents.

Figure 1-A

The next three dialog boxes and the Browse For Folder window shown in Figure 1-C allow you to select the image files, change any conversion settings, and then create the new job.

8. Click on Browse to open the Browse For Folder window
9. Navigate to and select the folder where your plans are located. Your plan files could be stored either locally or on a network.
10. After clicking on Ok , the pages may be selected by clicking on the checkboxes
11. If you want all of them, click on Check All.
12. Click on Next.

Figure 1-C

13. The Convert Settings dialog window allows for the selection of conversion settings (Fig. 1-D).
14. Select any settings you want and click on Next.
15. Click on Finish in the Ready to Create Job dialog window to create the job. This will load the job’s pages that you selected earlier.

Figure 1-D

16. Figure 1-E shows the name of the job at the top of the Main menu ribbon-bar.

Figure 1-E

Creating a SwiftJob

Jobs in PlanSwift can be saved and compressed by “zipping” them into a single file. ZIP is an archive file format that supports lossless data compression. PlanSwift replaces the typical .zip extension with a .SwiftJob extension for easy identification and portability or for backup. The data that is saved includes all plan pages, takeoff data, notes, bookmarks, attachments, and other data critical to the job. Zipping a SwiftJob is equivalent to a “ Save As ” function: zipping a job does not remove (or delete) the job from PlanSwift. To create a SwiftJob:

1. Click on Zip SwiftJob (Fig. 1-G).
2. Navigate to the location where the file is to be saved.
3. Give the zipped file a File Name.
4. Click on Save to zip the job.

Figure 1-G

The Unzip SwiftJob button allows the zipped files to be unzipped into PlanSwift. To unzip a SwiftJob:

1. Click on Unzip SwiftJob (Fig. 1-H).
2. Navigate to the location where the zipped file is located.
3. After clicking on the file to be restored, its name will appear here.
4. Click on Open , and the file will be unzipped. A status bar will show the progress.

Figure 1-H

Page Management

PlanSwift can import several types of image files, including PDF, TIFF, CAD, etc. Once imported into PlanSwift, we refer to these image files as pages.

Setting the Scale

Accurate takeoffs require each page’s scale to be set correctly. PlanSwift provides options for you to set the scale automatically or manually. When it is set automatically or manually, your scale will only be as accurate as the image file you imported.

PlanSwift will not be held responsible for any loss associated with improperly scaled pages.

Setting the Scale Automatically

To set the scale automatically:

1. Click on the drop-down half of the Scale button (see Figure 2-A) to open a drop- down menu that allows for setting the scaling automatically.
2. If your page has a scale value or you already know the value, select that value from the drop-down menu. This will scale your page for both the X- and Y-axes.
3. Note that the Standard selection at the top of the drop-down menu is an alternate way of opening the manual method of scaling.
4. These markers indicate whether the scaling has been added to the page and the direction that it has been performed in (horizontally, vertically, or both).

Figure 2-A

Setting the Scale Manually

To set the scale manually:

1. Click on the top half of the Scale button (Figure 3-A).
2. This opens the Scale window.
3. The Standard tab allows you to enter a known dimension (feet, inches, and fractions of an inch.
4. Click the Apply Scale to all pages checkbox if you want the scale to be applied to all pages.
5. Click the Automatically create dimension line checkbox if you want a dimension line created.
6. Click on OK to move to the next step.
7. If you clicked on the Apply Scale to all pages checkbox, then a Warning box appears to warn that applying this scale to all pages may cause errors in measurements and calculations if all pages are not truly at the same scale. Pages must support DPI, or they cannot be auto-scaled. Acknowledge the warning by clicking OK.

Figure 3-A

8. Click the first Point on the plan for the selected dimension. It may be helpful to press the M hotkey to magnify the image to place the Point more accurately (Fig. 3-B).
9. Click the second Point at the other end of the dimension.
10. After both Points are selected, and if you selected the Automatically create dimension line checkbox, then a green dimension line and the dimension measurement (in red) will appear. If you didn’t check the Automatically create dimension line checkbox, then neither the dimension line nor the measurement is displayed.

Figure 3-B

Note: it is recommended that you scale your page in both the X-axis and the Y- axis. The procedure is the same for the Y-axis as the X-axis, except that you will choose a dimension in the Y-axis to scale.