Tutorial: price a house's electrical from a floor plan
A whole house, from an empty floor plan to a priced takeoff that says how many devices and how many feet of cable the job needs.
Chapters
What you'll learn
- Start a project and let the AI find the plan's scale
- Mark rooms, then count receptacles, GFCIs, switches and lights
- Run cable from the panel, with a drop at every device
- Read the priced takeoff: devices by the count, cable in feet
Each step below has a ▶ time: it plays the video from that step.
The steps
- New project on the Projects page: name the job, pick the customer and site, and drop in the floor plan. See Start a takeoff from plans.
- A plan with no scale written on it comes in as counts only. On the board press K, then Detect from the drawing: the AI reads the room sizes on the plan, you check the text and the line it used, then Apply scale. See Set a drawing's scale.
- Mark the rooms: press N, click each room's corners, and name it. See Rooms and heights.
- Add the items: press C (Count) and the Add items panel opens on the right. On the Catalogue tab, search or open a group, tick the receptacles, GFCIs, switches, recessed lights and panel from your Simpro catalogue, then Add N items. The first one is ready to place. Add the cable the same way from the Length tool (L). See Items.
- Click each device on the plan. Press C again and pick the next item under In this takeoff in the panel (or press its pinned key, 1–9), and press Enter when you're done. See Counting.
- Pick the cable and click along its route from the panel. Then choose the Drop tool (D), set the drop, turn on Every point and click the run: there's a drop down the wall at every device, and the length includes them. See Lengths and drops.
- 2 Review and price is the quote: every device by the count, the cable in feet with its drops and your company's wastage, and labour from each item's install time. See Review and price. When it's right, 3 Create quote sends it to Simpro: see Send to Simpro.
More to watch
Every tradeEstimators and service teamsDesktop, tablet and phone
Takeoffs in three minutes
A takeoff from plans to a Simpro quote, then a site asset map on a phone. Start here if you're new.
SecurityEstimatorsDesktop
A commercial security install
Cameras, intrusion detection, access control and the panels in an office, with all the low-voltage cabling in its own cost centre.
Fire and safetySurveyors and service techsTablet or phone, on site
A fire and safety survey
A surveyor's first visit to a site: walk the building once, mark each fire asset on the floor plan as you reach it, then create them all in Simpro in one go.
Every tradeEstimatorsDesktop
A revised drawing arrives
Rev B of the lighting plan lands after you've priced Rev A. Swap it in under your takeoff, see exactly what changed, and fix only that.
ElectricalEstimatorsDesktop
Count a fit-out by symbol
Box one downlight and one power point and every match on the plan is counted for you to check, then place banks of switches with one click each.
Fire and safetyEstimatorsDesktop
Price a fire alarm installation
A two-storey unit's fire alarm, counted zone by zone from the designer's layout, with the cable loop and its drops, then handed out as a marked-up PDF with a legend.
ElectricalEstimators and pricing editorsDesktop
Review and price a takeoff
A small lighting and power job priced step by step: labour, a fit time, your company's cable rules, markup, discount, fee and a Simpro price tier.
Every tradeEstimatorsDesktop
Plans from the quote's attachments
The builder's drawings are already attached to the quote in Simpro. Take them straight from there, choose the pages, and add more pages later from the plan library.
Interiors and liningsEstimatorsDesktop
Wall linings under different ceilings
Plasterboard and paint by wall area in a fit-out with three ceilings: a 2.7 m office, a double-height foyer and a raked meeting room, with the doors and windows taken out.
Fire and safetyProject managers and service teamsDesktop
As-Built and assets on a job
The install is done: record what went in on an As-Built, then tie every detector, extinguisher and exit sign to an asset on the customer's site in Simpro.