Last reviewed . Every claim about either product links to that vendor’s own pages, read on that date. Software changes without telling us. If something here no longer matches your screen, tell us and we will fix it.
The short version
On-Screen Takeoff is a dedicated takeoff application: the takeoff lives in a bid, organised by conditions, and its documented partner for pricing is Quick Bid. Bluebeam Revu is a PDF tool with measurement built in: the takeoff lives in the PDF as markups, and the numbers go out through the Markups List or into Excel.
Both measure areas, lengths and counts, both find repeated symbols, and both compare revisions. The choice usually comes down to where your pricing lives and whether you want the takeoff in a bid or in the drawing. For the wider field, see AI takeoff software, compared, and for the Revu workflow step by step, How to do a takeoff in Bluebeam Revu.
At a glance
| Topic | On-Screen Takeoff | Bluebeam Revu |
|---|---|---|
| Runs on | Windows. Vendor lists Windows 11 Pro or Enterprise. | Windows. Revu 21 lists Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit. |
| The thing you measure with | A condition: Linear, Area, Count or Attachment, inside a bid. | A measurement markup with a subject, listed in the Markups List. |
| Reusing setups | Conditions saved and reused as styles, by trade or discipline. | Measurement tools saved to a tool set in the Tool Chest. |
| Repeated symbols | Auto Count scans the page for a selected item. | Visual search finds matches; a Count is applied to the ones you check. |
| Revisions | Overlay: one addendum page over a base page, blue added, red removed. | Overlay Pages for two or more files, or Compare Documents for clouded differences. |
| Pricing it | Interactive link to Quick Bid, which adds material and labor. | Quantity Link to Excel (Complete or Max plan), or custom columns. |
| Getting quantities out | CSV from the Summary or Estimate tab; OSP and OST bid files. | Markup summary as CSV, XML or PDF; PDF only on Basics. |
No price row, on purpose. Every cell is sourced in the matching section below.
Side by side, topic by topic
Where each one runs
Both are Windows desktop applications. ConstructConnect’s system requirements for On-Screen Takeoff list Windows 11 Pro or Enterprise, 32-bit or 64-bit, kept fully updated. For Mac users the same page says a Boot Camp install of Windows is supported, notes that Boot Camp is not available on newer Macs with M processors, and says ConstructConnect cannot provide technical support for a virtualised install such as Parallels.
Bluebeam’s requirements for Revu 21 list Windows 11 and Windows 10, both 64-bit. If part of your team works on a Mac, settle that before anything else on this page, because it decides more than any feature does.
Sources, read 19 October 2026: ConstructConnect: On-Screen Takeoff, Quick Bid, and Digital Production Control system requirements · Bluebeam: Revu 21 system requirements
How the takeoff is organised
On-Screen Takeoff is built around the condition. ConstructConnect describes a condition as an object you create for a measurable building element, such as a floor, a wall or a window, holding its name, dimensions, layer, quantity results and appearance. A condition can be used anywhere in the bid, its totals can be broken out by page, bid area, type or zone, and the product page describes saving and reusing conditions as styles, organised by trade or discipline. Their guide also notes that each change in height needs its own condition.
Revu is built around the markup. A measurement is a markup on the PDF; Bluebeam’s documentation has you describe it in the Subject field, and that description is what appears in the Markups List, where every markup is a row you can filter, sort and add custom columns to. Reuse comes from the Tool Chest: a measurement you have set up can be added to a tool set, which is stored in your profile and can be exported and shared.
In practice the difference is where the structure lives. In On-Screen Takeoff it lives in the bid. In Revu it lives in the PDF and in how carefully you name your subjects.
Sources, read 19 October 2026: On-Screen Takeoff 05.01: What are Conditions? · On-Screen Takeoff 05.03: Create a Condition from scratch · ConstructConnect: On-Screen Takeoff product page · Bluebeam: Takeoffs and measurements · Bluebeam: Track and manage markups using the Markups List · Bluebeam: Create an estimation tool set
Areas, lengths and counts
On-Screen Takeoff has four condition styles. Linear is for walls, foundations, curbs and piping, and can return square footage or volume when you give it a height or thickness. Area is for slabs, flooring and roofs, and returns volume when you give it a thickness. Count is for things best quantified as an each, such as footings, columns and fixtures. Attachment is a count that hangs off a parent condition and reduces it, the way a door takes area out of a wall. ConstructConnect’s guide says to pick the style by how the object is drawn, not by the result you want.
Revu’s measurement tools include Length, Area and Perimeter, the last for a multi-segment run such as a cable route, and Bluebeam’s documentation has you calibrate the drawing to a known value before you measure. A count in Revu is a Count measurement, and counts are split up by page automatically when they are placed.
Sources, read 19 October 2026: On-Screen Takeoff 05.03: Create a Condition from scratch · Bluebeam: Takeoffs and measurements · Bluebeam: Use Visual search and Count Measurements to calculate quantities
Finding repeated symbols
ConstructConnect’s product page describes Auto Count as counting objects, annotations and callouts by bitmap or pixel scanning. The same page describes Takeoff Boost, an AI feature that runs a first pass on a plan, with Smart Detection that can create conditions for you.
In Revu, Visual search finds instances of a symbol you box up, and Apply Count Measurement to Checked turns the results you tick into a count. Bluebeam’s own tutorial says Visual search can miss items or include ones you did not want, so you may need to add or remove some by hand. Whichever tool you use, that is the right expectation: check the sheet for what was not found.
Sources, read 19 October 2026: ConstructConnect: On-Screen Takeoff product page · Bluebeam: Use Visual search and Count Measurements to calculate quantities
Revisions and addenda
On-Screen Takeoff’s Overlay lays an addendum drawing over the base page. Additions show in blue and deletions in red, and the overlay displays in greyscale. Each base page takes one overlay, the overlay has to be a single-page file, and for several addenda you duplicate the base page and overlay each one on its own copy. ConstructConnect’s guide says not to do takeoff on the overlay itself, and that the tool is meant for reasonable zoom levels rather than pixel detail.
Revu gives you two tools. Overlay Pages merges two or more files as layers, each in its own colour, with page, auto or manual alignment. Compare Documents makes a new PDF ending in _Diff with the differences in orange clouds, leaves the originals alone, works with scanned PDFs, and can put the differences in the Markups List.
Sources, read 19 October 2026: On-Screen Takeoff 11.07: Using Overlay to identify changes between revisions · Bluebeam: Compare original PDFs with their revisions
Pricing the quantities
On-Screen Takeoff’s documented partner for pricing is Quick Bid, from the same vendor. In an interactive bid, conditions, bid areas and typical areas are created and changed in On-Screen Takeoff, material and labor are added to them in Quick Bid, and On-Screen Takeoff passes updated quantities across. ConstructConnect says only one estimator should work an interactive bid at a time. The product page also mentions connecting to other estimating tools.
Revu’s documented route into a spreadsheet is Quantity Link, which moves measurement totals from a PDF into Excel as they change, with filters to choose which totals go where. In Revu 21 it needs a Complete or Max plan. Inside Revu itself, Bluebeam shows adding a unit price column and a formula column to the Markups List so it works out a cost per line.
Sources, read 19 October 2026: Quick Bid 06.03.01: Rules of interactivity with On-Screen Takeoff · ConstructConnect: On-Screen Takeoff product page · Bluebeam: Improve takeoffs with Quantity Link · Bluebeam: Create an estimation tool set
Getting the numbers out
From On-Screen Takeoff’s Summary or Estimate tab, File, Export, To Takeoff File writes a CSV, which is the only file type that route supports, and the file opens in a spreadsheet or an accounting program. To hand the whole bid to someone else, an OSP bid package carries the images and comments, and an OST takeoff file carries the bid data without the images.
In Revu, the Markups List’s Summary exports a report as CSV, XML or PDF, using the columns, filters and sort order you choose. On a Revu 21 Basics plan the only output is PDF.
Sources, read 19 October 2026: On-Screen Takeoff 16.04: Exporting the Takeoff and Worksheet tabs to CSV files · On-Screen Takeoff 16.05: Exporting projects · Bluebeam: Track and manage markups using the Markups List · Bluebeam: Markup summary
Which fits which team
If your shop prices in Quick Bid, On-Screen Takeoff is the half of the pair its vendor documents, and the interactive bid keeps quantities and prices together. If your takeoff has to live with the conditions, bid areas and zones of a bid rather than on the sheet, that is how On-Screen Takeoff is built.
If your team already marks up, reviews and shares PDFs in Revu, the takeoff can live in the same file as everything else, and the quantities go to Excel through the Markups List or Quantity Link. If you own both, decide which one holds the takeoff of record, so the number is measured once.
Comparing features before platforms
Both are Windows applications. If anyone on the team is on a Mac, that is the first question, and the vendors’ own requirements pages answer it.
Judging a tool by its count button
Every symbol search misses something and catches something it should not. Compare how easy it is to check and fix the result, not how fast the first number appears.
Forgetting where the price lives
If your pricing lives in Quick Bid, the takeoff tool is half of a pair. If it lives in Excel, the route into Excel is the feature to test.
Testing on a set you have never bid
Run a trial on a job you already took off by hand, with a scope you know the number for. Anything else tells you how the tool feels, not whether it is right.
Ignoring the plan tier
Some of the features on this page depend on the plan. Quantity Link needs Revu Complete or Max, and a Basics plan exports summaries as PDF only. Check your licence before you build a workflow around a feature.
Where Caliente AI fits
Caliente AI works in Bluebeam Revu today. On-Screen Takeoff support is coming soon.
Questions people ask
Does On-Screen Takeoff run on a Mac?
Not natively. ConstructConnect’s system requirements list Windows 11 Pro or Enterprise. For Mac users the same page says a Boot Camp install of Windows is supported, that Boot Camp is not available on newer Macs with M processors, and that ConstructConnect cannot provide technical support for virtualised installs such as Parallels.
Can I compare two revisions of a sheet in both tools?
Yes. On-Screen Takeoff’s Overlay lays an addendum page over the base page and shows additions in blue and deletions in red. Revu has Overlay Pages, which layers two or more files in separate colours, and Compare Documents, which writes a new PDF with the differences in clouds and works with scanned PDFs.
How do I get Bluebeam Revu quantities into Excel?
Two ways, per Bluebeam’s documentation. Export a Markup summary from the Markups List as CSV, which carries the columns and filters you chose, or use Quantity Link, which sends measurement totals into an Excel workbook as they change. Quantity Link needs a Complete or Max plan in Revu 21, and a Basics plan exports summaries as PDF only.
Is there an On-Screen Takeoff alternative that works inside Bluebeam Revu?
Revu itself measures areas, lengths and counts, and many teams that already own it do their takeoff there rather than in a second tool. Caliente AI works in Bluebeam Revu today: you say the scope, and it drives the Revu you have open to place native, editable markups. On-Screen Takeoff support is coming soon.
What does On-Screen Takeoff call a takeoff item?
A condition. ConstructConnect describes it as an object you create for a measurable building element, such as a floor, a wall or a window, in one of four styles: Linear, Area, Count or Attachment. Revu has no separate object for it: the measurement is a markup, and its Subject is what names it in the Markups List.
The faster way through it
Or ask for the takeoff out loud
“Take off the slab on A-101 and count the doors.” Our AI model reads the sheet, works out what the scope covers, and drives the Bluebeam Revu you already have open to place the measurements. They land in your Markups List as native, editable markups, named the way you asked for them. It asks before it writes.