PlanSwift, by ConstructConnect Reviews & Insights

Score9 out of 10

30 Reviews and Ratings

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for PlanSwift, by ConstructConnect are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Convenient Single Click/Hover-over Feature: Several users have found the single click/hover-over functionality in PlanSwift to be extremely convenient for quickly obtaining various attributes of a take-off. According to their feedback, this feature proves particularly helpful when determining the length of slab edge form for multiple types of slabs in different areas.

Highly Praised Browsing Feature: The browsing capability in PlanSwift has received high praise from many users. They appreciate how it simplifies file and image sharing with colleagues by allowing them to easily add any file or image from across their network.

Major Advantage of Integration with MS Excel: Many users consider the seamless integration between PlanSwift and MS Excel as one of its major advantages. It significantly streamlines the process of creating and evaluating reports during or at the end of a project.

Reviews

9 Reviews

PlanSwift - The Best Take-Off Software Around

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

August 7, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

All of our estimators and project managers use it for our project take offs. It provides a central hub for our entire team to work from which is crucial. We also have all of our projects saved through SharePoint, making all of the information accessible anytime, anywhere. The main use is blueprint take offs and all of the information trickles down to all departments.

Pros

Easy to use and intuitive.
Accurate data to use for projects, allowing for a central hub for all teams to work from.
It's a central stop from take off and plan review all the way to plugging numbers into our estimating.
The ability to link through SharePoint, which always access from any user and location.

Cons

It could be more intuitive / easy to use on some of the more in depth areas like saving pricing per item.
I think it would be great to have more 1:1 virtual training, especially with COVID times.
If there was a way to easily track and save some of your frequent costs, as to create a type of estimating database.

Likelihood to Recommend

If you're in any type of construction it is a no brainer. It makes analyzing a job extremely easy from estimating to constant review during all phases. The best part is allowing all of your information and calculations from a blueprint to be in a single, accessible location, allowing for a consistency across all departments. Everyone is working in a single spot which avoids confusion.

Verified User

Partner in Corporate (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

Upload and view your drawings with ease.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

January 24, 2020

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

PlanSwift is the main source of drawings for our company. This replaces the paper copy of drawings saving paper, time, and expense. PlanSwift is available on mobile devices and on desktop computers. This software has made a huge difference in how we do business.

Pros

PlanSwift drawing uploads are fast and easy. It recognizes the pages and titles with very little error.
Drawing can be viewed offline including older versions for comparison. You can select which drawings you want to download to save room on your device.

Cons

Submittals are not user friendly in PlanGrid. In fact, this is the one feature we would like to see improved.
Billing is based on how many users you have. It would be very nice if they would do it based on revenue or other factors such as other programs do.

Likelihood to Recommend

If you need a way to have digital drawings on site, this is the way to go. Also, as a Project Manager, it is amazingly easy to upload drawings. When uploading a large job, it's nice to have very few changes to make to the page number and title.

Verified User

Project Manager in Corporate (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

PlanSwift Review

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

January 18, 2020

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use PlanSwift in our estimation department to build proposals.

Pros

Accuracy
Speed

Cons

If it had more industry specific tools. Such as for drywall, ceilings, etc.

Likelihood to Recommend

Planswift is best suited for a more generic environment where you need flexibility on how you want to use it. Planswift is less appropriate, where you need specific results.

Phillip Li

COO (Chief Operations Officer) in Corporate at Bergolla Inc (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

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PlanSwift -- Necessary, but not the best

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

June 9, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

PlanSwift is used by all of our Project Managers and Estimators. It is our primary quantity take-off software. Every contractor needs some form of quantity take-off software, unless it is performed by hand. PlanSwift does not address any unique problems, it just fills the need for a QTO software.

Pros

PlanSwift can be used in basic functions (LF & SF takeoffs) very easily.
Has a quick interface for browsing and viewing.
Provides easy export to excel functions.

Cons

If you go beyond the basic functions (linear foot & square foot takeoffs) it becomes very antiquated and not user-friendly. It's not intuitive whatsoever for users lacking backing computer knowledge.
The technical support is lacking in my opinion. The software feels dead, and the support team is hard to schedule. Also, if you do not pay for support per hour, it is impossible to get help.
Their training videos are limited and hard to follow. This software is unnecessarily hard to be proficient at. There should be more simplistic ways to utilize this software.

Likelihood to Recommend

PlanSwift does basic quantity take-offs very well. If you take it to the next level, the software becomes very bulky and unintuitive to use. We have used On-screen-takeoff in the past, which does everything PlanSwift does, but better. However, it is much more expensive.
We use PlanSwift on a daily basis and have done so for more than 10 years. It can be better, but it is a good solution for take-off software. Other cloud-based software is slow to view pages, and not as fast as PlanSwift.

Spencer Jabbia

Project Manager in Professional Services at N&T Construction Co. Inc. (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

PlanSwift Review

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

October 25, 2017

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Planswift is being used by the Project Development department, mostly by the Estimators to determine product quantities required by Territory Managers on site, across the country.

Pros

Maintains the files internally allowing us to work on projects anywhere.
With a great UX, it is easy to use. Easy to train on and learn.
Professional product output is appreciated by customers.

Cons

Issues with transferring files between computers, would be ideal if files were also backed on a network file.
Files can take a long time to upload, sometimes overnight if the files are big enough.
Program often hangs and needs restarting.

Likelihood to Recommend

It is well suited for quantity take offs, better recommended for larger jobs; if needing a lot of smaller take-offs, it can be cumbersome and take a lot of time uploading and setting up.

Verified User

Employee in Sales (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

PlanSwiftly To Accurate Take Offs

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

October 23, 2017

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

It is only used by the estimating department. Some former members of estimating that currently work on project sites occasionally still use it. but most now use Bluebeam for the quantity takeoffs they need.

Pros

We use PlanSwift for quantity takeoffs. We are a general contractor.
We use some of the plug-ins including the Earthwork module.

Cons

I occasionally have to load drawings at a very low DPI or I get error messages. The resulting poor resolution makes the drawing difficult to read.

Likelihood to Recommend

Compared to its competitors planswift is by far the best quality and most adaptable digital takeoff tool out there. Its Earthwork module while good enough for my purpose as a general contractor is not good enough for excavators or other civil contractors.

Blaine Kalk

Senior Estimator at CANA Construction Ltd. (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

6 years of experience

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PlanSwift - Leading the industry of Digital Quantity Takeoff

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

August 29, 2017

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Benchmark Construction uses PlanSwift as our primary take off software. Every estimator here uses the program to do quantity take-off of drawings provided by industry professionals. Mainly only the Estimating team uses this program. Estimators provide their takeoff to Project managers for work that is self preformed. The program allows us to check the quantities that are shared with us by our trade partners.

Pros

Auto Scaling
Ability to scale drawings that have no scale
Freedom to customize

Cons

More Plumbing, HVAC and Electrical friendly
Ductwork take off tool
Rise and fall ability for piping and ductwork

Likelihood to Recommend

Planswift is great for all building trades. Less suited for MEP trades.

Verified User

Professional in Sales (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

Quantifying made super easy!

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

December 16, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The pre-construction department of our organization is the primary user of PlanSwift. However, from time to time, the Project Management team finds itself browsing through this software for confirming take-off items. It makes the take-off and pricing for intricate plans easier, quicker, and clearer for all team members to understand the work.

Pros

It has this really convenient single click/hover-over feature where it tells various attributes of a take-off. For example, if an area has multiple types of slabs, and we need to find the length of slab edge form for all of those, we just need to hover over each area and it gives us the quantities.
It has a great browsing feature - you can add any file/image from across your network thus making it easier to share with colleagues.
It integrates directly with MS Excel thus making it easier to create and evaluate reports during or at the end of a project.
It has good tools for editing as well - for instance you take off a slab on grade as floating but later find out that it sits on top of the foundation walls - you don't need to redo the take off, you can merely double-click, add extra points and move them around to modify your work.

Cons

If there was a way to break a take-off line, that would be very helpful. At times I find myself taking the curbs off for the site work, and when I need to separate the straight curbs with the integrated curbs with sidewalks, I need to just redo the work. It would have been good if PlanSwift gave an option of breaking down lines the way it does for deducting parts from an area.

Likelihood to Recommend

I use PlanSwift for all my projects - it has just cut my time by a major percentage when it comes to quantifying a blueprint. At times there are funky areas, which are just hard to calculate on paper. It also has a great tool for scaling according to the dimensions, so if a drawing is missing a scale, you can always allot a scale by giving directions and then marking the points. I use this tool to check the scale as well - sometimes the drawings say something but the scale if off and you are left with an incorrect take-off. The dimension tool is a good way to check that.

We don't use it much for pricing purposes though, we have found other software which are more robust when it comes to estimation, but we can see using PlanSwift for pricing sometime in the future.

Ketaki Shiralkar

Estimator/ Assistant Project Engineer in Engineering at Midwest Constructors, LLC (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

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Plan. Swift. Takeoff - does what it says on the tin

Rating: 10 out of 10

March 18, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I've looked at quite a few takeoff packages, but settled on PlanSwift for a) value for money, b) compatibility with Excel. I provide takeoffs for contractors across many trades, and for main contractors, and all have been impressed with he accuracy and the marked up drawings showing what's been measured enables them to easily identify variations. As I have many clients operating with different internal management software the fact that PlanSwift is so compatible with Excel means I can provide schedules in whatever format works best for them. From my own perspective, I can measure jobs in a few hours that would have taken me 2-3 days using the old school scale rule and takeoff sheets. Productivity has increased dramatically, I have virtually zero paperwork cluttering my desk where in past I would have stacks of drawings and specs. I have had a few problems in my time using it, but the customer service department has been brilliant. Being in very different timezone has it's drawbacks, but if I email them my issue at the end of the day I will have a reply in my inbox the next morning.

Pros

Great interface with other software. Excel reports make it a breeze for my clients to interface with their own management software.
Easy to set up different components and pricing structures. Time spent setting these up properly will save hundreds of hours down the line.
Very simple to learn, with videos to walk you through each task.

Cons

There are some great plug-ins, but you only get them for free if you pay the annual "maintenance" fee of $200.
All of the preset items are in imperial measurements, Hey America - the rest of the world is metric. please come join us in this century!
Licence is only good for 1 machine at a time (unless you purchase multiples). It's a bit annoying having remove it from my desktop when I want to take my tablet to visit a client. A licence that's good for 1x desktop and 1x tablet/portable would be great.

Likelihood to Recommend

Great for takeoffs and pricing. Also appears to have compatibility with MS Project which a client of mine is starting to ask about, so I'm interested to see how that works for us. I would recommend PlanSwift for any quantity surveyor.

Andy Neilson

Quantity Surveyor at NZQS Ltd (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

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Quantifying made super easy!

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

December 16, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

It has this really convenient single click/hover-over feature where it tells various attributes of a take-off. For example, if an area has multiple types of slabs, and we need to find the length of slab edge form for all of those, we just need to hover over each area and it gives us the quantities.
It has a great browsing feature - you can add any file/image from across your network thus making it easier to share with colleagues.
It integrates directly with MS Excel thus making it easier to create and evaluate reports during or at the end of a project.
It has good tools for editing as well - for instance you take off a slab on grade as floating but later find out that it sits on top of the foundation walls - you don't need to redo the take off, you can merely double-click, add extra points and move them around to modify your work.

Cons

If there was a way to break a take-off line, that would be very helpful. At times I find myself taking the curbs off for the site work, and when I need to separate the straight curbs with the integrated curbs with sidewalks, I need to just redo the work. It would have been good if PlanSwift gave an option of breaking down lines the way it does for deducting parts from an area.

Likelihood to Recommend

Ketaki Shiralkar

Estimator/ Assistant Project Engineer in Engineering at Midwest Constructors, LLC (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

View profile