An electrical takeoff is the process of reading a set of electrical drawings and producing a complete list of every material item needed to build it: every breaker, every panel, every transformer, every disconnect, along with quantities and specifications. It is one of the most time-consuming tasks in electrical contracting and manufacturing, and one of the most error-prone when done manually under bid deadline pressure.
What OpenDrawing Automates
OpenDrawing reads your electrical drawings - single-line diagrams, schematic drawings, riser diagrams - and extracts every component automatically using computer vision trained on electrical symbols. The platform identifies component type, reads the annotations beside each symbol (voltage rating, current rating, phase count, manufacturer reference), counts quantities across the full drawing set, and produces a structured bill of materials ready for export.
For conduit and wire quantities, OpenDrawing extracts from conduit schedules and wire schedules when those documents are included in the drawing package. Component counts come from the schematic and single-line drawings; conduit runs and wire lengths come from the schedules. Together, the output covers the full material list a contractor or manufacturer needs to price a job.
How Takeoff Speed Changes the Business
A manual electrical takeoff on a medium-complexity commercial project takes an experienced estimator 6–10 hours per drawing set. A contractor running 150 bids per year spends 900–1,500 hours per year on takeoff alone - the equivalent of one full-time estimator doing nothing but counting symbols and filling in spreadsheets.
When that step takes 5 minutes instead of 8 hours, the math changes entirely. The same estimator can review 25–30 bids per month instead of 5–8. The team pursues more work without adding headcount. Margins improve because estimators spend their time on pricing strategy and risk assessment rather than data entry. And bid response time drops from days to same day, which wins jobs on its own.
What the Output Looks Like
The takeoff output is a structured component list: item description, specification attributes, quantity, drawing reference (which sheet the item appears on), and - when your parts catalog is uploaded - matched SKU with confidence score. Export formats include Excel, CSV, and direct import templates for common estimating platforms.
Items that the system flags as low-confidence appear in a review queue rather than the main BOM, so a quick human check catches edge cases before the estimate is finalized. The review step typically takes under 5 minutes for a complete commercial drawing set.
Who Uses This
Electrical contractors use automated takeoff to bid more work per estimator and respond to opportunities same-day. Electrical manufacturers use it to extract BOMs from customer-supplied drawings that arrive with RFQs. EPC contractors use it to process design packages and procurement drawings during the construction phase.
See the full details for your specific context: Electrical Contractors or Electrical Manufacturers.