One sample, every drawing
Services are drawn the same way across a set. If cold water is a green dashed line on the ground floor plan, it is a green dashed line on the first floor plan too. Once you have taken it off on one sheet, ZeroCount can look for it on the rest of the category for you.
This happens on its own after a takeoff sample, in the background, while you carry on working. You do not start it and there is nothing to wait for.
Turning it on and off
The behaviour is controlled by one preference, on by default.
- 1
Open the user menu at the bottom of the sidebar and choose User Preferences.
- 2
Select the Detection tab.
- 3
In the Symbol Detection panel, switch Search all files in category on or off.
The setting reads: "When you detect a new symbol on a vector drawing, or capture a linear takeoff sample, also search every other file in the same category in the background and add the matching groups to them. Files marked Completed are skipped, as are drawings that can't be searched this way (raster-only, or with no scale set)."
The same switch also governs the symbol search described in Search all drawings in category. There is no separate control for the takeoff half.
What you see
When a search starts, a message appears reading Taking off service files — "Looking for the same service on 4 other files…". The count is the number of drawings that will be tried.
The search waits until you stop panning and zooming before it does its heavy work, so the drawing you are looking at stays responsive. Each drawing is searched in turn.
When it finishes, a summary message lists what happened on each drawing:
| Message | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Service takeoff complete — 84 markers added | The total number of runs added across all drawings. |
| Service takeoff complete — nothing added | The search ran but matched nothing anywhere. |
| Service takeoff stopped | The job was cancelled — you took another sample, changed project, or signed out. |
Under the heading is one line per drawing:
Level 01.pdf: 22 runs, 31 fittings— runs and fittings added to that drawing.Level 02.pdf: nothing found— the drawing was searched and the service was not on it.Roof.pdf: skipped (no scale set on this drawing)— the drawing was not searched, with the reason.
Only the first six drawings are listed; the rest are summarised as "…and 3 more".
Which drawings are skipped, and why
| Reason shown | What it means |
|---|---|
a takeoff in this colour already exists here | The drawing already has a linear group in that colour, so the service has been taken off there. This is what stops a repeat sample doubling up. |
this service isn't on that drawing | The line style was not found anywhere on the sheet. |
no scale set on this drawing | Measuring it would produce lengths that look right and price wrong. |
raster-only drawing | The drawing cannot be searched this way. |
no paper-size info | The drawing was uploaded before paper sizes were recorded. |
drawing data not loaded | The sheet's data was not available at that moment. Try again after opening it once. |
couldn't read drawing / couldn't load drawing size | The sheet could not be analysed. |
drawing too complex | The sheet holds more linework than the background search will process. |
file was opened during the takeoff | You opened that drawing while the search was running, so it was left alone rather than written to underneath you. |
Two more facts are added at the end of the list when they apply:
- Completed drawings are never written to. A line such as "2 completed files skipped" tells you how many were left alone. See Drawing status.
- Duct samples are not searched, reported as "1 duct sample not searched".
Which scale is used
Each drawing is measured at its own saved scale when it has one. A 1:50 detail sheet sitting beside a 1:100 plan is measured at 1:50, so its lengths are right.
A drawing that has never been worked on has no saved scale of its own. Rather than skip it, ZeroCount measures it at the scale of the drawing you sampled from — which is also the scale that drawing will open at, so the two agree.
If one sheet in a category is drawn at a different scale from the rest, open it once and set its scale before taking samples elsewhere. Otherwise its runs are measured at the wrong ratio, and the result looks entirely plausible. See Setting the scale.
What lands on the other drawings
Each searched drawing gets the same kind of result a sample would produce there: one Linear group per pipe size found on that sheet, plus its own Bends and T-Junctions groups. Sizes are read from that sheet's own callouts, so a run labelled Ø28mm on the first floor is filed as Ø28mm there even if your sample sheet had none.
The groups take the colour of the service, so they match the drawing and each other.
Groups added this way are not assigned to a Service. Open the drawing and assign them from each group's menu when you are ready to organise it. See Marker Services.
Common issues
Nothing happened after my sample
Check that Search all files in category is on, and that the category holds more than one drawing. The search only covers drawings in the same category as the one you are working on. See Organising with categories.
Every drawing was skipped as "already detected"
The check is by colour. If two different services on the same sheet are drawn in the same colour, taking off the second one is skipped because a group in that colour already exists there. Take those off by hand on each drawing.
A drawing got the wrong lengths
It was measured at the sample drawing's scale because it had none of its own. Open it, set its scale, delete the groups the background search added, and sample again.
Next steps
- Auto Takeoff from one sample — the sample that starts the search.
- Auto Detect Linear — take off several services at once before the search runs.
- Drawing status — mark a drawing Completed so background searches leave it alone.
- The cross-drawing summary — check what landed on every drawing in one place.