Measure a floor or a property

Measure keeps a drawing of the job with the customer: rooms, a driveway, a deck, a fence line, a flight of stairs. Recoatly adds up the area, the lengths around and the counts as you draw, and an estimate can be priced straight from them.

Start a measurement

1. Go to Measure and click New measurement, or on a customer's page click Measure property under their address.
2. Under Property, search for the customer if it isn't filled in. A measurement without a customer is kept too, and you can link it later.
3. Click the name at the top to rename it, for example Main floor.

There is no save button: each change is saved a moment after you make it. The line under the name says Saved, or that it is trying again when your signal drops.

Draw what you measured

• By its size. Under On this plan, click Area by size (Room by size for floor and cleaning companies), type the name, the length and the width, and click Add. Type lengths as 14' 6", 14 6 or 14.5, or in metres if your company measures in metres.
• Corner by corner. Choose Area (or Room) in the toolbar and click or tap each corner. Click the first corner again, press Enter or click Close shape to finish. Corners snap to the grid, to other corners and into line with the corner before; hold Alt to place one freely.
• Wall by wall. With Area chosen, type the length of a wall under the drawing and press an arrow key, or tap one of the arrows, to draw it in that direction. Keep going round the room; Close shape draws the last wall for you.
• Rectangles. Choose Rectangle and drag across the drawing.
• Lines. Choose Line for a fence, a run of gutter or trim. Click Finish line or press Enter when it's done.
• Counts. Click Count for things priced one by one, such as stair steps, windows or doors.

Something to leave out, such as a kitchen island or a hearth? Select it and set Counts as to Cut-out, or tick Leave it out of the total when you add it by its size. Its area comes off the total.

Change what you drew

• Click a shape, or its name in the list, to select it. Drag a corner to move it, drag the dot in the middle of a side to add a corner, and double-click a corner to remove it.
• Drag a selected shape to move it. A corner that comes close to another shape's corner lands on it, so rooms meet exactly.
• For a rectangle, type a new Length or Width in its panel. The panel also has Rotate, Duplicate and Delete.
• Undo and redo are in the toolbar, or press Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Shift+Z (⌘ on a Mac).
• Drag the drawing to move around, and scroll, pinch or use the zoom buttons to zoom. Show everything fits the whole drawing on screen.

Trace over a picture

Under Trace over a picture, click Plan or photo to lay a floor plan, a sketch or a photo under the drawing. Then set its scale: draw a line along something whose length you know, such as a wall on the plan, type its real length and click Set the scale. What you trace on it then measures true. PDF plans need to be saved as a picture first, for example as a screenshot.

Where aerial photos are available, for addresses in the United States, Aerial photo lays a photo of the property about 600 feet across under the drawing, already to scale, for tracing a roof, a driveway or a lawn. The photos come from the USDA's National Agriculture Imagery Program and can be a few years old.

Price an estimate from it

1. Click Build an estimate. A new estimate opens for the customer and shows what was measured.
2. Under each measure — the area, the length around the areas, each line and each count — tick the services from your price book to price by it. Each line shows the quantity and the amount.
3. Click the button at the bottom right. It says how many lines it adds or updates.

On an estimate you're already writing, open the Measurements panel and click Use. Lines already on the estimate in the same unit are offered too, and take the measured amount. To price some rooms one way and others another, untick the ones you don't want under Rooms to price (Areas to price for outdoor work) and use the measurement again for the rest.

Good to know

• Measurements show on the customer's page, and an estimate priced from one lists it under Measurements used.
• Lengths and areas follow Measurement under Settings → Regional: feet and inches, or metres.
• On a phone, drag with one finger to move around and pinch to zoom. The arrows under the drawing let you draw walls without a keyboard.
• For a quick total without saving a drawing, the estimate's Room sizes panel adds up lengths times widths.