What’s new in Countfire? A powerful suite of exciting drawing features in Takeoff

We’ve really been focusing on drawings this quarter, and there have been some exciting feature releases in Countfire including the ability to compare drawings using overlays. This was one of the most requested features from our customers, so we’re thrilled to announce that it’s now live. 

In addition, the Countfire team has been hard at work to create some other helpful improvements when working with drawings. Let’s take a closer look at this set of powerful new Takeoff features: 

Compare drawings

The drawing comparison feature enables you to load a drawing in-app, bring in a second drawing as an overlay, and with fine control, line it up so you can visually see any changes. 

The original drawing is shown in red, and blue shows your revised drawing, while similarities are shown in black in order to make differences stand out. 

Overlay drawings from different disciplines

In addition to the drawing comparison feature, you can also now temporarily overlay drawings.

Overlays allow you to see different drawings on top of each other, which is helpful when you need to see how different services / disciplines interact. For example, you could overlay a containment drawing on top of a lighting drawing and see the containment routes so you can easily measure lighting cables.

Stitch multiple drawings together

It's also now possible to stitch multiple drawings together to make a floor plan. This will be particularly helpful when you have drawings that are adjacent to each other and need to draw zones to exclude any overlapping floor plans.

Because floor plans are designed to model a building in the real world, you can only add drawings from the same discipline.

Lock zoom levels

It’s now possible to lock your current zoom level so it's consistent when flicking between drawings. This is particularly helpful when focusing on specific areas (EG: title blocks) and quickly checking those areas between multiple drawings. 

For example, say you have a set of drawings and you want to check that the scale shown is the same for all drawings. View locking allows you to zoom into the title block, lock the view, and then quickly flick down the list of drawings to check.

Or maybe there’s a unique light fitting on level 1 and you want to check whether that light fitting is shown on all floors—zoom in, lock view and use the arrow keys to flick down the list and check.

We think these features will really transform the way estimators complete their takeoffs and our customers are already seeing the benefits. 

Keep a look out next quarter for our latest round-up of new releases and improvements for 2022. Until then, try out Countfire free for 14 days with access to all the app’s features. 

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