Getting Started
To get started, upload your own drawings or try a demo project.
User Interface
- Navigate back to your projects
- Open Automated Takeoff Menu. Detect beams, braces, columns, and base plates
- Open Export Menu. Excel material list and marked up PDF
- JDSMAKUsers viewing project
- Open Chat. Ask questions about your drawings
- Open Markup Tools. Manually annotate beams, columns, plates, and panels
- Open Markup Table. View and edit all annotations
- Open Scale Calibration. Set the drawing scale for accurate measurements. See the tutorial here.
- Select and Pan tools
- 3/12Page navigation
- 25%Rotate and zoom controls
Core Features
Automated Takeoff
Advanced computer vision algorithms, developed in-house, are available to significantly speed up the takeoff process.
Start Takeoff
Scan for:
Scope:
Select what to scan for, choose the scope, and press Continue.
- Beams — Detects W-beams and HSS on framing plans
- Bracing — Identifies diagonal bracing members
- Columns (Pilot) — Finds location, height, and section size (W, HSS, pipe)
- Base Plates (Pilot) — Finds dimensions, material, and fastener details (type, grade, count, diameter)
Follow the automated markup live in the Chat sidebar!
Limitations
Automated Takeoff is a time-saver but not perfect. Always review AI-generated annotations for accuracy. Hand-drawn sketches, poor scan quality, or unusual callout formatting may reduce detection accuracy.
Exports
Export your completed takeoff to Excel, Tekla EST format, or as an annotated PDF.
Export
With Annotations
PDF with all markup visible
Original PDF
Clean PDF without markup
Complete Takeoff
Summary, Beams, Columns, Plates
Tekla EST Format
For Tekla PowerFab import
- Excel — Member, Grade, Manufacturer, Coating, Length, Weight, Price. Customizable per user.
- Tekla EST — Seamless integration with Tekla estimating workflows
- Annotated PDF — Download PDF with all markup included
Chat
An AI with full visibility to PDF images and metadata.
How to Use
- Open the chat panel from the toolbar
- Type a question about the project you're working on
- Alkali analyzes the project and provides support
Note: The Chat sidebar is also where you'll see live progress when running Automated Takeoff scans for beams, columns, and base plates.
Image Understanding
Send image snapshots to Alkali Intelligence to help understand details, clarify callouts, and answer questions about specific regions of the drawing.
Click the icon, and click and drag over the region of interest. It will be automatically added to the chat.
Find and Understand Details
Even in huge bid sets, Alkali Intelligence can help find and understand the relevant details to build out your estimate.
If you ask Alkali to find and crop specific features, it will show them to you. Click the button, and it will highlight the region of interest.
Examples
- Search: Identify key elements in long (100+ page), dense PDFs
- ⤷"Find all structural and miscellaneous steel in this bid proposal."
- Search: Locating framing details across multiple pages
- ⤷"What is the height of the beam supporting the canopy?"
- Extract: Exporting tables
- ⤷"Export the column schedule to Excel."
- Understand: Multimodal image questions
- ⤷"What is this dotted line on the tilt-up wall signify?"
Markup Tools
Markup Tools let you manually annotate your drawings and manage the material catalog for your project.
Material Catalog
The Material Catalog is your project's material library with 1000+ types from the AISC Steel Construction Manual.
- Beams — Horizontal members represented as a line
- Columns — Vertical members represented as a filled circle
- Plates — Base plates, connection plates, represented as a lego block
- Panels — Metal deck and grating, represented as a rectangle
Defaults
- Point Tool — Place precise points on your drawing
- Line Tool — Draw straight lines for connections or dimensions
- Polyline — Measure complex contours and multi-segment shapes
- Cloud Tool — Call out areas needing attention
- Notes — Add text notes anywhere on the drawing
+ Add
Use the + Add button to add custom materials to your project catalog. Search from 1000+ standard shapes or create your own with custom properties like grade and finish.
Markup Table
The Markup Table is the live table view of your project markup. Use it to customize columns, edit multiple rows at once, and move quickly between the PDF and your estimate data.
The Markup Table is shared at the project level, so if multiple people are estimating together, they're all working from the same live table view of the project markup.
Columns & Customization
Each row represents a markup object with its associated data. Click the icon to show, hide, and customize the columns that matter for your estimate. You can also add new columns for project-specific metadata. Some key columns include:
- Mark — Unique identifier for each annotation
- Name — Material type from your catalog
- Page — Which drawing page the annotation is on
- Length — Calculated length in feet and inches
- Weight — Calculated weight in pounds, taking the material weight from the AISC handbook
- Grade, Mfr, Coating, Camber — Additional material properties
- Custom Columns — Add and tailor fields for the way your team estimates
Sorting & Bulk Edit
Sort the table by fields like Mark, Type, Page, Length, or Weight, then update many rows at once with bulk edits for shared values like coating, grade, manufacturer, or other custom columns.
Linked to the PDF
- Click a row — Highlights the annotation on the PDF and scrolls it into view
- Click an object on the PDF — Jumps to the linked row in the Markup Table
Pop Out & Side-by-Side Review
Pop the Markup Table out into its own window when you want to review the PDF and table side by side. This makes it easier to audit takeoff data, compare rows against the drawing, and work through larger estimate reviews.
Live Estimate Data
The table updates as your markup changes, so quantities, weights, and metadata stay in sync while you work.
Scale Calibration
The length scale for each page needs to be calibrated for accurate measurements. Each page stores one scale that applies to all measurements on that page. Alkali offers two calibration methods to fit different drawing scenarios.
Method 1: Line-Based Calibration
Use this method when you have a dimension marked on the drawing (e.g., a wall labeled "30'-0""):
- Select the Line tool
- Draw a line along the known dimension
- Click the Ruler button in the right sidebar
- Enter the actual length in feet and inches
The system calculates the pixel-to-foot ratio and applies it to all measurements on that page.
Method 2: Scale-Based Calibration
Use this method when you have the drawing scale notation (e.g., "1/4" = 1'-0"" in the title block):
- Click the Ruler button without selecting a line
- Enter the scale equivalency (inches on paper = feet in real world)
- Or use quick presets for common scales (1/8", 1/4", 1/2", etc.)
The pop-up shows your current calibration and the page's PDF dimensions to help verify the scale.
Tip
Calibration is stored per page. If your drawing set has multiple scales, calibrate each page individually. The ruler icon changes color to indicate calibration status: orange means not calibrated, green means calibrated.
Nesting
Optimize how cut lengths are nested onto stock bars to minimize waste. Upload or pull cuts directly from your takeoff, compare scenarios with different stock and pricing, and export cut lists to PDF.
Getting Cuts Into the Optimizer
There are two ways to load cuts:
- From a project — Navigate to Export then Nesting Plan. Cut lengths are pulled automatically from your takeoff annotations, grouped by beam type and material.
- Upload a file — Navigate to www.alkali.engineering/nesting and drag-and-drop a CSV or Excel file with columns for Beam Type, Cut Length, Quantity, and optionally Material.
Nesting Interface
Once cuts are loaded, each beam type appears as a collapsible row. The header shows the beam type name, the number of unique cuts, and the total piece count. Click a row to expand it and see:
- Kerf & Trim — The current kerf width and end-trim for this beam type.
- Stock — Click to expand a table of available stock lengths with their limit and $/ft. These values come from the stock config (see below).
- Cut table — Every cut length and its quantity.
- Errors / Warnings — Per-beam alerts (e.g. cuts exceeding max stock, zero kerf, near-duplicate lengths). These also appear as small badges on the collapsed header.
The toolbar at the top provides:
- Run Alkali Nesting — Runs the optimization and generates a PDF cutting plan with color-coded bar diagrams.
- + Scenario — Clone the current scenario. Each tab has independent stock and pricing. Double-click a tab to rename it.
- Clear All — Resets all scenarios and data.
Nesting Output
The optimizer produces:
- PDF cutting plan — Color-coded bar diagrams showing each cut, kerf marker, end trim, and drop-off waste on every stock bar, plus a summary table.
Stock Config
A stock config tells the optimizer what bar lengths are available, what they cost, and any per-beam kerf or trim overrides. Each scenario has its own stock config, so you can compare different suppliers or inventories.
The stock config bar appears above the beam rows with two buttons:
- Download Template — Get a pre-filled CSV with one row per beam type. Columns: Beam Type, Stock Length, $/ft, $/stick, Kerf, End Trim, Limit.
- Upload Stock Config — Drag and drop or browse to upload the completed CSV or Excel file. The config replaces default stock lengths, pricing, kerf, and trim for that scenario.
Scenario Comparison
Compare different stock selections or pricing side-by-side:
- + Scenario — Clone the active scenario. Upload a different stock config to each one.
- Compare — Automatically runs nesting on every scenario, then ranks them by cost (cheapest first) with waste percentage, bar counts by length, and a detailed cost breakdown table.
- What-if testing — Answer questions like "What if I only have 40 ft bars?" or "Is it cheaper to buy 20 ft or 24 ft stock?" by running each scenario independently.
Real-time Collaboration
Work together seamlessly with your team. Alkali synchronizes changes instantly so everyone sees them.
Live Cursors
See where your teammates are working in real-time. Each collaborator has a unique color, and their name appears next to their cursor as they navigate the drawing.
Instant Sync
All annotations, measurements, and notes sync instantly across all connected users. When a teammate adds or modifies an annotation, you'll see it appear immediately without refreshing. Material catalog and tonnage calculations also sync in real-time.
Project Sharing
Invite team members, or make a project public.
Sharing Methods
- Email Invites: Invite specific users by email address. The project will automatically appear in their account.
- Share Link: Generate a shareable link for quick access. Anyone with the link can view the project.