In short:
- Bid season is no time to learn a new tool. On-Screen Takeoff® keeps getting better: more than 10 releases in five months, and the same workflow you know.
- New AI tools are everywhere. Speed is easy to demo. Trust takes years of knowing how estimators work, and On Center has 38 years in construction technology.
- We build fast, and we build right. AI gives you a first pass. You make the call.
- Update to the latest version and all of this is yours, including Takeoff BOOST™, Find Text, and CloudSync.
It’s the busiest stretch of the year. Bids for next year are due. The pipeline has to fill. You’re trying to take on more work without adding hours.
And every week, someone sends you a link to a new AI takeoff tool that promises to do it all faster. Some cost less. Some of the demos look great. So you wonder: is now the time to switch?
It’s a fair question. Here’s an honest answer.
What switching really costs in bid season
A lower price tag only counts the day you sign up. It doesn’t count the weeks after.
You’d rebuild the conditions, templates, and master data your team spent years getting right. You’d retrain every estimator while bids are still due. You’d run two tools through the jobs already in progress. If your takeoff feeds Quick Bid® or Digital Production Control, you’d rebuild that handoff too. And at the end of it, you’d find out whether the new tool is any good.
That’s a big bet in the busiest stretch of your year. If you want to compare real numbers for your team, your Customer Success Manager can walk through them with you.
The other option is simpler. Keep the tool your team already moves fast in, the one that handles real projects, revisions, and multiple trades, and watch it get better.
Anyone can build AI. Trust takes longer.
AI takeoff is having a moment, and it’s easy to see why. A fast first pass makes a great demo.
But a demo isn’t a bid. Gaurav Singal, our Chief Technology Officer, has thought hard about what AI still gets wrong about preconstruction. One point stands out:
“Documents tell you what’s on the plan,” Singal says. “They don’t tell you what’s not there.”
The missing scope. The gap between trades. The detail nobody drew. That’s where estimators earn their money, and it comes from years of jobs, not from one document.
Much of what’s sold as construction AI is, in Singal’s words, “a general-purpose language model with construction documents dropped on top.” The outputs “look plausible until they don’t.” And when they don’t, you’re the one holding the number. “The smart ones know the accountability doesn’t transfer when the software is wrong.”
That’s why experience matters. On Center has been building for estimators for more than three decades. That’s 38 years of learning how estimators actually work: revisions, alternates, change orders, and the scope that’s missing from the drawings. A new tool can ship a feature in a week, but it can’t ship three decades of knowing how estimators work. On a bid, that’s the difference between a number you trust and one you don’t.
We build fast. We built right.
On-Screen Takeoff continues to get better. More than 10 releases in five months, plus the fixes and performance updates in between. Every new tool in On-Screen Takeoff follows the same idea: it does the repeating, and you make the call.
Here’s what that means for a busy team.
- More bids out the door. Auto Takeoff gives you a first pass on every page in a plan set, and it reads more of your plans each month: concrete footings and slabs, paint types, finish schedules, wall types. Auto Count finds repeated items across up to 20 pages.
- Less setup between plans and takeoff. Auto Name, Auto Scale, and Auto Link do the page-by-page work that used to take hours.
- Less hunting. Find Text searches your whole plan set and shows every page where your text appears, with a count for each.
- One version of the truth. Project CloudSync and Master CloudSync keep your team on the same projects, and on the same conditions, templates, and style sets.
- A connected workflow. On-Screen Takeoff, Quick Bid, and Digital Production Control work together, and new exports send your bid package and change data straight to Digital Production Control.
You still review scope, quantities, and conditions. For the full tour of every tool, read our release notes.
Improvements rooted in customer feedback
When estimators told us what a paint takeoff needs, the team took it to heart. Jim Staggs, Director of Estimating at Turman Commercial Painter, put it this way:
"What I need is not what a steel guy needs, or a fire systems guy, or a flooring guy. The Takeoff BOOST development team took all of that information, took it to heart, and did a phenomenal job creating a tool for paint projects."
A typical takeoff dropped from 5 to 8 hours to 30 to 60 minutes. Monthly bids went from 45 to 60 up to 56 to 71. That’s 21% more bids. On a 45,000 to 50,000 square foot tenant improvement in Redmond, Washington, Jim said: “I came in at nearly 100% accuracy with minimal adjustments.” The plan still gets an estimator’s review, as it should.
Sheri Winslow, Lead Estimator at AKS Interior Systems in Ontario, puts the math this way:
"If you can turn days of work into 30 minutes, that alone pays for itself."
That’s the loop. You tell us what you need, we build it, and the tool you already know gets better.
You're not on your own
With a current plan, you keep access to technical support, training videos, live webinars, and product resources. Staying current also means no big catch-up jump later. We’re also the top choice for Customer Support, with 96% of customers rating us above the competition.
Is On-Screen Takeoff being discontinued?
On-Screen Takeoff isn’t going anywhere, and neither is the way you work in it. It’s only getting better with more features releasing to help you do your work faster. Read our release notes to see the most recent tools launched.
So, why 2027?
Most teams want 2027 to be a growth year: more bids out, more wins, and no extra hours. That takes a tool that keeps up, and a tool you can trust when the number matters.
68% of surveyed Takeoff BOOST™ users said they’d be disappointed without it. More than 100,000 commercial construction professionals trust ConstructConnect®. And On Center has 38 years in construction technology.
That’s why 2027 is a great year to be an On-Screen Takeoff customer. The tool you know, getting better every release, built by people who know how you work.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is On-Screen Takeoff still being developed?
Yes. On-Screen Takeoff isn’t going anywhere. We keep building it: more than 10 releases in five months. ConstructConnect Takeoff is our web-based option when you want to work in a browser.
Do I still review the results?
Yes. Takeoff BOOST™ gives you a first pass. You review scope, quantities, and project conditions, and you make the call.
How do I get Find Text and CloudSync?
Update to the latest version of On-Screen Takeoff. Project CloudSync, Master CloudSync, and Find Text run on the new email-and-password sign-in. Updating is included with a current maintenance or subscription plan, and it takes as little as five minutes once your admin has invited you. Your Customer Success Manager can confirm where your team stands.
