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DESTINI Takeoff: Working with Conditions

Conditions are predefined measurement rules used to quantify materials and building components from digital construction drawings. Instead of using generic markup tools, you can create conditions for specific materials or assemblies, allowing DESTINI Takeoff to automatically calculate quantities and organize results.

Table of Content

Conditions Overview

Main Types of Conditions

  • Linear Conditions – Measure items by length, such as walls, baseboards, conduit, piping, and framing.
  • Area Conditions – Measure surface-based materials, including flooring, roofing, ceilings, insulation, and concrete slabs.
  • Count Conditions – Tally individual items such as doors, windows, fixtures, columns, and equipment.

What a Condition Includes

A condition typically stores:

  • Visual properties (color, line style, patterns) to distinguish items on plans.
  • Dimensional properties such as wall height or thickness for advanced calculations.
  • Calculation rules for quantities, waste factors, volume, weight, labor, or cost.

Why Conditions Matter

  • Organization: Automatically groups quantities by material or assembly type.
  • Efficiency: Reusable condition libraries speed up future takeoffs.
  • Integration: Quantities can flow directly into estimating and bidding systems for pricing and labor calculations.

In short, conditions define what is measured, how it is measured, and how quantities are calculated, making digital takeoffs faster, more accurate, and more consistent.

Note the following important distinctions in DESTINI Takeoff:

  • AI takeoff automatically detects elements in a drawing, such as walls, doors, windows, and rooms.

  • Conditions control how those elements are measured, displayed, and organized. 

 You can use Conditions with manual and AI takeoff. 
 

Add Default Conditions to Your Project

If your organization has already created a set of basic or default conditions, you can save time by loading them into your takeoff project.

  1. Load a drawing into DESTINI Takeoff.
  2. Click the Conditions tab in the left panel.
    Click the Conditions tab in DESTINI Takeoff
  3. Click the + button on the Project tab. The Condition Library opens.
    Click the + button to open the Conditions Library.
  4. DESTINI Takeoff administrators see two tabs in the Condition Library: Projects and Company. Users who aren't admins in DESTINI Takeoff see the Conditions list.

    Admins can click the Company tab to view all conditions saved in the system. The page can take a few seconds to load, depending on how many conditions exist in DESTINI Takeoff.
    Click the Company tab to view the list of default conditions
  5. (All users) click the name of a condition (not the checkbox beside it) to view the properties. 
    Click the name of a condition to view its properties
    Select one or more conditions (or a group) and then click Add Selected.
    Click the checkbox beside one or more properties to add them to the project
    DESTINI Takeoff adds the conditions to the Project tab.
    Conditions added to the project tab.
  6. Click the ellipses (...) beside a condition to view an options menu. You can edit, copy, add a takeoff item, or delete a condition from the menu. 
    Click the ellipses to view an options menu for conditions.
    Add Takeoff Item initiates Add Mode, which enables you to draw takeoff associated with that condition.

    Create Custom Conditions

    If you need additional conditions beyond the default, you can create your own. 

    1. Click +Add > Create Condition in the left panel. The Add Condition dialog box opens.
      Click Add and then Create Condition to create custom conditions.
    2. Configure the new condition using the following options. When you're finished, click Save to add the new condition to the Project tab.
      • Type: Choose between Linear, Area, and Count takeoff.
      • Backout: Designates this condition as a backout, which removes quantities. Use this option with manual takeoff.
      • Category: Choose a category, for example Walls or Flooring. To create more categories, click the Advanced tab.
        Click the Advanced tab to add more categories.
      • Name: Enter a name.
      • General/Advanced: You can create more categories and attributes on the Advanced tab.
      • Dimensions: Configure measurements like thickness, width, height, and slope. These options change dynamically based on the selected Type.
      • Appearance: Configure the stroke and fills color, or the shape of the condition items. These options change dynamically based on the selected Type.
      • Results: Define how this condition will define quantities, like count, perimeter, surface area, and more. Also set the desired Unit of Measure.
      • Description: Add more detail to the intended uses of the Condition.

    Using Conditions with Takeoff

    If you previously performed AI takeoff, you can quickly map conditions on the AI Takeoff tab, as described in the next section, Map Conditions to AI Takeoff. If you want to manually add conditions to your drawing, continue with the following procedure.  

    1. Click on a condition to select it for takeoff. The example in this procedure uses Wood Single door. 
    2. Click the ellipses (...) beside it and then click Edit Condition.
      Select a condition and edit it to change its shape
    3. Under Appearance, choose Shape, and then scroll up and choose LH Door.
      Select a new shape for the door
    4. Click Save.
    5. Press the space bar on your keyboard to enter Add mode or click the ellipses next to the condition and select Add Takeoff Item.
      Select a condition to add takeoff to a diagram

      Add mode will be confirmed as shown:
      Add mode is active
    6. Sketch conditions onto the diagram by drawing walls or areas, single-click doors, or selecting count items. For Wood Single doors, single-click left-hand doors.
      Sketch conditions onto the diagram
      Note: After you add a condition to a diagram, you can reposition it if it doesn't align with the drawing, as shown in the following example.
      Misaligned condition on a drawing
      To reposition a condition on your diagram, exit Add mode (or press the Esc key on your keyboard). Select the condition and drag it to the desired location. Then click the rotation icon.
      Click the condition and the rotation icon
      Rotate the condition until its flush with the corresponding takeoff item on the diagram.
      The condition in proper alignment

    7. Drawn takeoff items are automatically added, categorized, and quantified on the Page tab in the left pane according to their associated condition.
      Takeoff quantities on the Page tab

    Mapping Conditions to AI Takeoff

    If you used AI takeoff to identify items on your drawing, you can quickly map conditions onto the AI-generated takeoff. Mapping conditions onto AI-generated takeoff is considerably faster than manually adding conditions and the process quickly organizes takeoff to improve estimating and reporting consistency.

    1. Open a drawing in DESTINI Takeoff.
    2. In the left navigation, click AI Takeoff and then hover over a takeoff zone until the ellipsis (...) appears. Click the ellipses.
      The AI Takeoff tab
    3. In the popup menu, click Map Conditions.
      Click Map Conditions
      The Mapping Mode panel opens.
      Mapping Mode panel
    4. Click a condition and then click a relevant AI-generated takeoff item in your drawing. The condition is assigned to the selected item. In the following example, the Wood Flooring condition has a pink checkboard pattern. With a single click, the condition is assigned to the conference room.    
    5. Map conditions onto multiple items. As you map conditions, the left navigation pane displays a checkmark beside items mapped with the condition. You can clear a checkmark to remove the condition from the item.
      Items display a checkmark when mapped to a condition
    6. Select a new condition and continue mapping. Also note that you can map multiple conditions onto the same item.
    7. At the bottom of the Mapping Mode panel, view the number of unmapped items. The Apply button displays the number of mapped items. 
      View the number of mapped and unmapped items.
    8. When you're finished, click Apply. The left navigation switches to the Conditions tab and displays counts and measurements for mapped conditions.
      Information about mapped conditions

     

    For information about assigning WBS properties to conditions and mapping conditions to line items in an estimate (which automatically updates totals), see DESTINI Takeoff: Mapping WBS Properties and Line Items to Takeoff.