The full walkthrough
Here's the whole flow, from upload to a finished bid sheet.
Upload your plan set
It needs to be a real digital plan file — the kind your architect or engineer exports from their own design software — not a scanned or photographed page.
Let it read the whole document
As soon as your plan set opens, it starts scanning every page automatically. A progress bar shows roughly how long is left; a large plan set (100+ pages) can take several minutes.
Don't worry about "Not calibrated yet"
That message is about the separate, optional manual measuring tool on each page — it has nothing to do with the automatic scan, which reads each page's own printed scale by itself. You only need to calibrate a page if you plan to manually click-measure something on it.
Review your results
Once the scan finishes, click "Open results" to see a table with one column per material — CMU, Metal, Lumber, Drywall, Insulation. Each row is labeled matched, ambiguous, or needs confirmation (see below for what those mean).
Add anything it didn't catch
The 5 categories above cover most framing and masonry, but doors, windows, pipe, fixtures, and other one-off items aren't auto-detected. Click any page, then either click a line/shape directly on the drawing or use "Manual count" in the sidebar — both add straight to your takeoff, using the same calibrated scale as everything else.
Export your bid sheet
Use "Export these results (CSV)" above the results table for the auto-detected materials, or the Export CSV/Excel buttons in the sidebar once you've added anything manually — either one gives you a spreadsheet ready to drop into a bid.
Come back anytime
Every plan set you've uploaded stays listed under "Your projects," and your billing and usage are always visible in the Billing panel at the top of the page.
What the labels mean
Every auto-detected result is labeled — never left unmarked.
API access
Read-only access to your own documents and takeoff summaries, for scripts or other tools you use.
Create a key from the "API access" panel in your account (below the Billing panel). Every key is scoped to your own account only — it can list your documents and read a document's material summary, and nothing else. There's no way to upload, edit, or delete anything through the API.
Authentication
Send your key as either an Authorization: Bearer header or a plain X-API-Key header — use whichever your tool defaults to.
curl https://readmyblueprint.onrender.com/api/v1/documents \ -H "X-API-Key: rmb_your_key_here"
List your documents
GET /api/v1/documents
[
{ "id": 12, "filename": "unit-a-floor-plan.pdf", "page_count": 24, "created_at": "2026-09-10T14:22:00" }
]
Get a document's material summary
GET /api/v1/documents/{id}/summary
[
{ "item": "2 1/2\" steel stud @ 16\" o.c.", "quantity": 12452, "unit": "ft", "count": 9422, "notes": "" }
]
Rate limited to 60 requests/minute per account. A document that doesn't belong to your account returns a 404, the same as everywhere else in the app.
Use it from Claude Desktop or Claude Code
An MCP server wraps this same API so you can ask about your plan sets directly in an AI chat — "what materials did my last upload need?" It runs on your own computer; your key never leaves it except in requests to our own API.
pip install https://readmyblueprint.com/assets/mcp/readmyblueprint_mcp-0.1.0-py3-none-any.whl
Then add it to Claude Desktop's config as an MCP server (command: readmyblueprint-mcp, env: READMYBLUEPRINT_API_KEY) or run claude mcp add readmyblueprint --env READMYBLUEPRINT_API_KEY=your_key -- readmyblueprint-mcp for Claude Code. Two tools: list_documents and get_document_summary.
Common questions
Why not just ask ChatGPT or Claude for a takeoff?
A chat tool reads a plan sheet the way a person reads a photo: it can estimate, but it can't measure. It will give you a confident stud count with no way to check it, and ask twice and you may get two different numbers.
ReadMyBlueprint doesn't look at the picture. It reads the actual line geometry inside your CAD-exported PDF at each page's printed scale, matches every wall to your plan's own wall-type legend, and shows you the wall behind every number. Anything it can't match is flagged for you instead of guessed, the same plan set gives the same answer every time, and a 100+ page set comes back as one results table you can export to Excel.
You could build something similar with an AI subscription, but that means writing the PDF parsing, scale detection and legend matching yourself. That's the part we've already built and tested.
How many plan sets can I upload?
Solo Estimator includes 10 plan sets a month. If you go over, a one-time Per Upload credit ($49) covers the extra one — you're never just locked out. If you're consistently over 10, Small Firm gives unlimited plan sets.
Why is a page showing a scanned/raster PDF error?
This tool only measures the actual lines and shapes drawn in a digital plan file — not a scanned image. A scanned or photographed sheet has nothing on it for the tool to measure, so it can't be traced automatically. If a specific page is scanned but the rest of your plan set is a real digital file, the other pages still work fine.
How do I cancel my subscription or get a refund?
Click "Manage billing" in the Billing panel to open your account portal, where you can cancel any time — you keep access through the period you already paid for. Not happy with your results on Solo Estimator or Per Upload within 7 days of a purchase or renewal? Email support@readmyblueprint.com for a full refund, no questions asked.
Is my data secure?
Your plan sets and takeoff data are private to your account — every request is scoped so another customer's data is never visible to you, and vice versa. We never see or store your card details; those go directly to Stripe. See our Privacy Policy for the full details.
Does this work with scanned or flat-image PDFs?
No — it needs a real digital plan file exported from design software like AutoCAD or Revit. See "Why is a page showing a scanned/raster PDF error?" above.
Still stuck?
Email support@readmyblueprint.com and we'll help directly.