What a Linear marker is
A Linear marker is a polyline that traces a path on the drawing. Its value is the length of the path, multiplied by the drawing's scale, so what comes out the other side is a real-world distance in metres.
Use Linear markers for:
- Cable runs, conduit routes, trunking, pipe runs.
- Skirting, dado, beading — anything you'd measure in metres or yards.
- Perimeter measurements (though Area markers also give perimeter — see Area markers).
They live in the Linear Measurement section of the sidebar.
Scale matters here
Unlike Detection or Unit markers, Linear markers carry a scale at the group level. This is what turns a pixel-length into a metres-length. Before you draw a Linear marker on a drawing, set the scale — either with a preset or by calibrating against a known dimension.
See Calibrating a drawing and Scale presets.
Each Linear group can also have its own scale — useful when one trade's drawings are at 1:50 and another at 1:100 in the same project. The per-group scale shows in the sidebar next to the group label.
Drawing a Linear marker
- 1
Click Linear Measurement in the toolbar's Takeoff dropdown.
- 2
A new Linear group appears in the sidebar. The cursor enters polyline mode.
- 3
Click on the drawing at the start of the path.
- 4
Hold CTRL and click to add each subsequent corner of the path (use CMD on macOS).
- 5
Right-click to finalise the polyline.
- 6
The marker's length appears in the sidebar. Click somewhere blank or press ESC to leave the tool.
You don't need to follow every nuance of the path — short straight runs and a corner are usually accurate enough. Over-detailing wastes time and rarely changes the total length meaningfully.
Editing after placement
Once placed, a Linear marker shows its corners as handles. You can:
- Drag a corner to move that point.
- Drag the middle of an edge to insert a new corner there.
- Drag the whole polyline by clicking on a segment (not a corner).
- Delete a corner via the right-click context menu.
- Delete the whole marker with DEL.
The length updates live as you edit — no need to press anything to recompute.
In the Excel export
Linear groups appear in the Type = Linear rows. Each group's row shows:
- The Scale column populated with the group's scale (e.g.
1:50). - The group's label as the Takeoff Description.
- The linked product Code and Description (if linked).
- A summed length per zone, in metres, already multiplied by the calibration factor.
- An Uncategorized column for any length not falling inside a zone.
- A Total Quant in metres for the group as a whole.
Each individual Linear marker also gets a child row labelled Linear 1, Linear 2, etc. The clever bit: if a Linear marker crosses a zone boundary, the portion inside each zone is clipped and counted in that zone's column.
See Exporting to Excel for the full export structure.