Quick Start Guide

Get up and running with your first structural steel takeoff in minutes. Follow these steps to create your first project and start marking up drawings.

Alkali home page with project upload
  1. 1
    Create a Project:Drag and drop your PDF blueprints onto the big + tile to begin. After a few seconds, you can click your loaded project to start annotating.
  2. 2
    Calibrate Your Scale []:Click the ruler icon. Enter the drawing scale or draw a line along a known dimension. Each page will have a separate scale.
  3. 3
    Explore Your Material Catalog []:During processing of the initial upload, Alkali fills your catalog with detected beams. Explore these, add others, check weights and details.
  4. 4
    Start Annotating:In the right beam bar, you can annotate with beams, columns, plates, panels.
  5. 5
    Export Your Takeoff []:Click "Export" to generate an Excel spreadsheet with tonnage calculations.

Try the Demo →

Not ready to upload your own drawings? Click the link above to explore a pre-loaded demo project with sample annotations.

Core Features

General Markup

Point Tool

Click to place precise points on your drawing

Line Tool

Draw straight lines to highlight connections or dimensions

Cloud Tool

Draw cloud shapes to call out areas needing attention

Notes

Add text notes anywhere on the drawing

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""):

  1. Select the Line tool
  2. Draw a line along the known dimension
  3. Click the Ruler button in the right sidebar
  4. 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):

  1. Click the Ruler button without selecting a line
  2. Enter the scale equivalency (inches on paper = feet in real world)
  3. 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.

Material Catalog

The Material Catalog is your project's material library. It defines all the structural members you'll be marking up and their properties for tonnage calculations.

The material catalogue has 1000+ material types with known weights from the AISC Steel Construction Manual.

Core Members

  1. Beams: Horizontal members represented as a line.
  2. Columns: Vertical members represented as a filled circle. (To set the height of individual columns, press the blue in the top bar.)
  3. Plates: Base plates, connection plates, represented as a lego block.
  4. Panels: Metal deck and grating, represented as a rectangle.
Example annotations showing beams, columns, plates, and panels

Adding and Customizing Materials

When a project is loaded, Alkali automatically scans and retrieves beams that are present in the project. If you want to add your own, or customize properties of a material, check the video below.

Measuring Tonnage

Alkali automatically calculates tonnage for all annotations based on your calibrated scale and material catalog.

Beams

Tonnage is calculated based on the length of the line, and the weight per foot from your material catalog.

Columns

Tonnage is calculated based on the height you specify for each column and the weight per foot from your material catalog. To set the height, press the blue in the top bar.

Plates

Each plate has a weight calculated based on the dimensions, material, and number and properties of fasteners.

Panels

Calculated based on the area of the drawn rectangle and the weight per square foot from your material catalog.

Live Tonnage Display

The right sidebar shows real-time tonnage totals as you work. The tonnage updates instantly when you add, modify, or delete annotations. This gives you continuous feedback on your takeoff progress.

Tonnage increasing animation

AI Takeoff

Advanced computer vision algorithms, developed in-house, are available to significantly speed up the takeoff process.

How It Works

  1. Navigate to a page with a framing plan
  2. Open the beam sidebar on the right
  3. Press the Scanner Icon
  4. Alkali AI reads beam callouts to identify types (W16x26, etc.)
  5. Line annotations are automatically created with the correct beam types assigned

What Gets Detected

Horizontal members: W-beams (W16x30), Tube Steel (HSS), C, L

Best Practices

  • One page at a time
  • Review AI annotations
  • Works best on PDFs with metadata

AI Takeoff Limitations

AI 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.

Alkali Assistant

An AI with full visibility to PDF images and metadata.

  • 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 Bill of Materials to Excel."
  • Understand: Multimodal image questions
    • ⤷"What is this dotted line on the tilt-up wall signify?"

How to Use

  1. Open the chat panel from the toolbar
  2. Type a question about the project you're working on
  3. Alkali analyzes the project and provides support

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.

Real-time collaboration sync

Project Sharing

Invite team members, or make a project public.

Share modal interface

Sharing Methods

  1. Email Invites: Invite specific users by email address. The project will automatically appear in their account.
  2. Share Link: Generate a shareable link for quick access. Anyone with the link can view the project.

Excel Export

Export your completed takeoff to Excel for estimating, reporting, or further analysis.

What's Included

Member, Grade, Manufacturer, Coating, Length, Weight, Price. These can be customized for individuals.

Standard export format

Tekla EST Format

Export your takeoff in Tekla EST format for seamless integration with Tekla estimating workflows.

Annotated PDF

Download PDF with all annotations.