Construction platforms
Estimateria vs Autodesk Forma Takeoff for door, hardware and finish takeoffs
Autodesk Forma Takeoff — the product formerly called Autodesk Takeoff — does 2D and 3D takeoff in one place, which matters when the model is the source of truth and the drawings are derived from it. It is sold inside the Forma preconstruction bundle, alongside Forma Estimate, BuildingConnected and ProEst, and its price is shown only through the buy flow. Estimateria does no 3D at all. It reads the door, hardware and finish schedules off the sheets, prices the hardware behind each opening, measures the plan in 2D, and carries that into its own running bid and recap, so it can stand alone on a Division 8 job or hand a file to whatever estimate you are building.
What Autodesk Forma Takeoff is
An online takeoff product that combines 2D and 3D quantities in one place, sold per user or on an unlimited-users plan and bundled with Forma Estimate, BuildingConnected Pro, ProEst and TradeTapp in Autodesk's preconstruction offering. It sits in the same ecosystem as Autodesk Build, which absorbed PlanGrid, and ProEst, Autodesk's cloud estimating product with a cost database and bid-day analysis. A 30-day money-back guarantee is offered; amounts are shown only through the buy flow.
What Estimateria is
A small, focused workspace for schedule-driven trades. The set is classified locally, the door, hardware and finish tables come off the pages into an editable grid keyed by door mark, hardware sets break into items priced from supplier listings, and every row keeps its page and region. Measurements feed conditions, assemblies, supplier quotes and a recap. No model, no bundle, no ecosystem — one file out at the end.
How the same job goes
One door schedule on a set of architectural PDFs, from the drawings to a priced, exportable list.
In Autodesk Forma Takeoff
- 1Work inside the Autodesk ecosystem, where the model and the sheets already live.
- 2Take off 2D quantities from the drawings and 3D quantities from the model in the same product.
- 3Classify and organise the quantities against your own system.
- 4Carry them into Forma Estimate or ProEst for the cost database and bid-day analysis.
- 5Use BuildingConnected for the bidding side of the bundle.
- 6For the door schedule itself, read the table on the sheet and enter the openings.
In Estimateria
- 1Upload the architectural sheets and the spec book as PDFs. No model required.
- 2Pages are classified locally, so the schedules are already located.
- 3Select the schedule on the page; the rows land in the grid, one per door mark.
- 4Hardware sets break into items, matched and priced from supplier listings.
- 5Review the flagged rows with the drawing one click away on the source chip.
- 6Measure the plan in 2D, put the measurements under conditions and assemblies, and read the running bid and recap.
- 7Export the estimating package to Excel, or the marked-up sheets to PDF.
1 · On the sheet
The schedule table on page 3 of A-601, found on the sheet and selected.
2 · In the grid
| Mark | Type | Size | HW |
|---|---|---|---|
| 101 | Hollow metal | 3'0" × 7'0" | HW-01 |
| 102 | Solid core wood | 3'0" × 6'8" | HW-04 |
| 103 | Hollow metal | 3'0" × 7'0" | HW-01 |
| 104 | Storefront pair | 6'0" × 8'0" | HW-07 |
One row per door mark, editable like a spreadsheet. Sample data.
3 · Back to the page
Door 102
Solid core wood · HW-04
A-601 · p.3Opens the page at the row it was read from
A reviewer checks the number against the drawing in one click.
Stay with Autodesk Forma Takeoff when
- There is a model, and 3D quantities are part of the estimate.
- Your firm is already on Autodesk and the preconstruction bundle is the natural home.
- You want estimating, bidding and vendor risk in the same purchase.
- Unlimited-user pricing suits a large preconstruction team.
- You need a cost database behind the takeoff, through ProEst or Forma Estimate, or bid invitations and vendor risk through BuildingConnected and TradeTapp.
Choose Estimateria when
- There is no model — just architectural PDFs and a spec book, which is most Division 8 bids.
- The quantities are in a schedule table rather than in geometry.
- You want the hardware behind each opening priced, not just counted.
- You are a specialty subcontractor who will not buy a preconstruction bundle.
- You want to start on today's bid rather than after an ecosystem decision.
Side by side
| Feature | Estimateria | Autodesk Forma Takeoff |
|---|---|---|
| 2D and 3D in one product | No 2D only: area, length, count and volume (an area times a depth you enter) on the drawing. |
Yes 2D and 3D takeoff combined. |
| Works without a model | Yes Built for architectural PDFs and spec books; no model is expected. |
Yes 2D takeoff on drawings is supported too. |
| Schedule table read into rows by door mark | Yes Door, hardware and finish modules, with hardware and finish hanging off the mark. |
No Built around measuring drawings and model geometry. |
| Hardware set breakdown and pricing | Yes Sets split into items, priced from supplier listings and selected in the grid. |
Partly Costs come from ProEst or Forma Estimate in the bundle, not from the takeoff product. |
| Cost database and bid-day analysis | Partly Assemblies with waste and labor rates, a price library you fill, supplier quote levelling and a recap. No shared cost database and no bid-day analysis across bidders. |
Yes ProEst provides a cost database and bid-day analysis inside the bundle. |
| Bidding and vendor risk | No Supplier quotes can be recorded and levelled. Inviting bidders and prequalifying vendors are not built. |
Yes BuildingConnected Pro and TradeTapp in the bundle cover bid invitations and subcontractor risk. |
| Runs where you work | Yes In a browser on any machine, plus an early desktop app for Mac and Windows. |
Yes Online product in the Autodesk cloud. |
| Where a quantity came from | Yes Every row and accepted detection carries its page, region, producer and confidence. |
Partly Quantities tie to the object or markup measured; not documented across revisions. |
| Search the whole drawing set by text | Yes Full-text search across every page, plus find within the open sheet. |
Partly Search exists across the Autodesk ecosystem; capability inside the takeoff product is not clear from public pages — check directly. |
| Symbol counting on the plan | Partly Doors, rooms and count-by-exemplar as reviewable suggestions. Accuracy measured on synthetic drawings only. |
Partly Counting is supported; the extent of automatic symbol recognition is not clear from public pages — check directly. |
| A price you can see before you buy | No Free to sign up; no published price yet. |
No Amounts are shown only through the buy flow. An aggregator quotes about $1,250 per user per year; unverified. |
| Sold on its own | Yes There is nothing else to buy. |
Partly Sold per user or unlimited users, and pushed as part of the preconstruction bundle. |
Reviewed September 2026, from public information. Products change. Spot something out of date? Tell us and we will fix it.
What Estimateria does not do
If one of these decides the job for you, Autodesk Forma Takeoff is the better answer and we would rather you knew now.
- No 3D or BIM takeoff of any kind. Volume is an area times a depth you enter.
- No shared cost database and no bid-day analysis. Assemblies and the price library are ones you build.
- No connector into Autodesk products; the handoff is an exported file. The only outside connection is Procore, and it signs in but imports nothing yet.
- No visual revision overlay; reissued sheets are compared by number and text only.
- Several rows above say 'check directly' because Autodesk publishes little about this product without a buy flow.
What it costs
- Autodesk Forma Takeoff
- Not shown on the product page; amounts appear only through the buy flow, per user or on an unlimited-users plan, with a 30-day money-back guarantee. An aggregator quotes about $1,250 per user per year or $155 per month; we could not verify that.
- Estimateria
- Sign-up is open and free while the product is being built, so there is no published price yet. The free calculators need no account at all.
Prices are what the vendor published when this page was reviewed, and they move. Check with Autodesk Forma Takeoff before you budget.
Common questions
Why are several rows marked 'check directly'?
Because Autodesk publishes less about this product than the other vendors on these pages, and much of it sits behind a buy flow. We would rather mark a row unknown than guess at it.
Is Autodesk Forma the same thing as Forma Takeoff?
Forma is the name Autodesk now puts on a family of products, and Forma Takeoff is the takeoff one, which used to be called Autodesk Takeoff. This page compares that takeoff product. Forma's design-side tools are a different job, and are not compared here.
Does it replace Forma Takeoff?
No. If you have a model, Forma Takeoff does something this cannot do at all. This replaces the part where a Division 8 estimator types a door schedule out of a PDF.
Is there an Autodesk integration?
No. The handoff is an Excel or PDF file, or the generated estimating package.
What happened to Autodesk Takeoff and PlanGrid?
Autodesk Takeoff was renamed Forma Takeoff. PlanGrid was acquired in 2018 and its features now live inside Autodesk Build; it is no longer sold separately.
Other comparisons
- Construction platforms vs Procore Takeoff as one module of a platform that runs the whole project, and where a specialist tool fits beside it.
- Spreadsheets and general tools vs Excel The spreadsheet most estimates end up in, and how retyping schedules into it compares with extracting them.
- Spreadsheets and general tools vs ChatGPT and general AI General assistants can read a PDF. Here is what changes when the output has to survive a bid review.
See it on your own set
The fastest way to compare is with your drawings. Create an account and put a set through it.