Welcome to your Takeoff Plan You are now ready to create your first drawing! Explore the drawing tools, add shapes, and see how ArcSite can streamline your work. Follow the steps below to complete your first drawing, add critical details and share your project with others.
Takeoff Pest: Creating your First Drawing
Log into the ArcSite app on your device of choice.
Upon opening the ArcSite app you’ll begin at the Home Page
Tap “+ New” in the top left corner of the screen and select “New Project”
Name your project and tap Edit to add any relevant client information. Tap “Create” once complete. You’ll notice you have a new Project Folder on the left hand Project Panel. This is where all of your projects will appear.
Now tap “New Drawing to choose how you’d like to start your drawing.
There are several ways to begin a drawing in ArcSite. For your first time, let’s begin with a blank canvas. Start by tapping “Blank”
Name your Drawing and set your desired precision. You can always adjust this setting later from the canvas. Tap “Create Drawing” when you’re ready to begin drawing.
Takeoff Pest: Draw Your First Structure
ArcSite arms you with several drawing tools to create, refine, and detail your project. Using the Draw Tool and Wall tool will be core aspects of your drawing in ArcSite.
Let’s begin by selecting the Wall tool.
The Wall tool allows you to define structures on the canvas. There are a number of tools within the Wall tool that allow you to create the structure. We recommend trying each of them to see which works best for you. For this example let’s use the Continuous Lines option. Draw a basic structure like the example below.
Once you’ve created your structure tap on one wall and adjust it by tapping on the displayed measurement. Change this number and tap the green check mark. You can manually adjust the length of a line or wall in ArcSite using the Manual Number Pad.
Once your structure is complete we can begin adding details using shapes.
Takeoff Pest: Introduction To Shapes
Shapes allow you to add details to a project to highlight the environment, any findings, and recommendations you may want to share. Your account will be preloaded with the shape libraries you chose during signup. However you can add any of our prebuilt shape libraries by tapping “More...” from the top left of the Shapes Menu. You can add as many shapes as you like.
While all the shapes are available to you, you may only need a few to convey the project at hand. Navigate to the Pest Types Category and choose your favorite invasive species to add to the canvas.
In the example below you can see we’ve added a Cockroach to the canvas. Depending on the size of your project you may want to move, or resize the newly added shape. In the example below our shape is a bit smaller than we’d like to see so we’ll modify it.
Place 2 fingers on the canvas and extend them away from each other to zoom in. Once you have a clear view of your Pest Shape tap on the shape and tap and drag one of the squares on the corner of the shape to change its size. You can also move, rotate and even duplicate the shape once you’ve established the size and orientation that works best for your project.
Let’s add one more shape to give this space a label. From the Shapes Menu tap “Custom”. Label this space as the “Garage” so we know what area of the property we’re looking at. Resize and move the label to your desired location.
Takeoff Pest: Adding Annotations
Now that you’ve added your pests and determined their size, placement and quantities, and labeled the location being addressed, we can add annotations to better convey exactly what we’re looking at.
Tap the Annotate Button on the Tool Bar and select the Text Tool
With the Text Tool selected tap and drag on the canvas where you’d like to create a text box. Type the text you’d like to display in the box.
Once your text box is placed you can move, adjust the size, or extend the boundaries of the textbox to fit your needs. Tapping the textbox again will allow you to edit the textbox as well.
Now that we’ve described the situation let’s add some recommendations using the Callout Tool. Tap on Annotate again but this time select Callout.
With the Callout Tool selected tap and drag to create an arrow and label to call out specific areas of the canvas. Callouts can be moved, resized and even adjusted to lock the arrow while arranging the label placement to keep your drawings clean, professional, and organized.
Takeoff Pest: Adding Location Based Photos
Location Based Photos allow you to capture important photos of the project site and place them on the ArcSite canvas. You can snap a picture from your device in real time or you can add a photo from your library.
Tap the Photo Tool from the right tool bar and tap on the canvas where you are taking / will take the photo from. This will launch the option to take a live photo or upload an existing photo from your camera roll.
Choose a photo From Photo Library or Take a Photo. You can select a single photo or multiple from your camera roll. In our example we’re using a single photo from our existing photo library.
Tap on the photo to add markups or annotations to the image. You can use any of the tools on the tool bar to markup your Photo. In the example below we’ve used the Draw (Rectangle) tool to highlight a few problem areas. You can also use the Annotate (Text Box) tool to provide some context to the photo.
Once you’ve added your markups to the photo, tap the drawing name / back button in the top left corner of the screen to return to your drawing.
You’ll notice there is now a blue camera icon on the canvas where we initially placed the photo.
This photo icon will appear on the drawing and the photo itself will attach to a second page of your export when sharing this project.
Takeoff Pest: Adjusting Your Existing Products
Now that we’ve detailed the current environment and shared critical details we can begin creating our first products / services in the system.
Start by opening the Product Panel and tapping “+New Product”. This will open your product Library.
This menu allows you to create a new product in your environment. For this step we’ll tap “Cancel” as we’re going to start by adjusting an existing product. You have a standard library of pest products available to you to alter and use as you see fit.
Tap the Traps Category and tap the Small Traps Product. This will open the product details for this product. We’ll cover all of the details on this page in a later lesson when creating a product but for now adjust the Unit Price by tapping on the textbox and typing in your desired price.
Estimate Pest: Creating Attributes
Next we’ll add Attributes to your product. Attributes are a great way at collecting additional details in the field and providing additional context around the product/service.
Scroll down and tap Add Attribute near the bottom of the page.
You can add a variety of Attributes to a product but for today we’ll just add a Notes section as a Paragraph attribute and a Photo attribute to capture photos on site.
To Create Your Notes Attribute
Name your Attribute “Notes” and select Paragraph as the Value Format and tap Add.
To Create Your Photos Attribute
Tap Add Attribute again and name your Attribute “Photos” and select Photo as the Value Format and tap Add.
These Attributes are now available for use with this product in the field. You can add attributes to any product in your library. Tap Done to return to your canvas.
Takeoff Pest: Adding Your First Products
Products’ main difference from shapes is their ability to calculate quantities for your proposal, takeoff report, or material list. Like shapes, products can be added as a shape based product, a linear product or an area based product. Let's look at each below.
Shape Based Product: Start by tapping products in the top of the tool bar on the right side of the screen to open the Product Panel.
Tap on the Traps category and select the “Small Trap”. You’ll see it automatically added to your canvas.
You can select, resize and manipulate your products just like your shapes. Move and resize your product so it is easily visible on your canvas. In our example we’ve added two small traps near our cockroach shapes.
Now that we have our first products on the canvas let’s add Attributes to those products. Attributes allow you to add details and context to the products you’ve placed on the canvas. Tap on one of the Small Trap Products and select Attributes from the Contextual Tool Bar at the bottom of the screen to view the Attributes for this product.
Once the Product Item Detail is open you can add text to your Notes section
Tap Add and Select to Take a Photo Live or Choose from Library
We’ll choose an existing photo for this exercise.
Once you’ve added your notes and photo you can tap Save & Close at the top right of the window. These Attributes are now associated with this instance of the product and can be displayed on our output later on.
Linear Based Product: Tap Products in the top of the tool bar on the right side of the screen to open the Product Panel
Tap on the Termite Category and select Trenching and the Draw Continuous Lines tool.
Unlike the Shape Based Product, a Linear Product requires you to draw the location the product will be added just like the wall tool in our previous lesson.
You can now see the orange Trenching line around the left side of the Garage.
Area Based Product: Tap Products in the top of the tool bar on the right side of the screen to open the Product Panel.
Tap on Pest Control category and select the Roach product.
Just like the Linear Product you can add an Area Based Product in a number of ways. In our example we’ll use the “Draw Area - Rectangle” tool to highlight an area for this service. In our example we’ve added the Roach product to the left most third of the Garage.
Now that you’ve added products to the canvas your Takeoff Report / Material List will begin to populate. We’ll cover that further in a moment but first let’s create a custom product.
Takeoff Pest: Creating / Customizing Your Products
We’ll create a shape, linear, and area based product as these will be the main Visual Types used in the system. We’ll cover all of the visual types in more detail in another lesson. [Link to Visual Type differences]
Shape Based: Tap on the Products tab again and select “+ New Product” from the top of the Product Panel
This will open your Product Library where you can make changes to your existing products or create new ones. We’ll start by making a new product. You can name your product and add details in the Description Field.
Tap on the Visual Type and select a shape based product.
Next you’ll select the visual you want to assign to this product by tapping on the Visual Box. This will open all the available shapes in your library that you can assign to this product.
**You can create your own shapes and use them when creating shape based products as well but we’ll cover that in another lesson. Creating ArcSite Shapes
You can browse the categories on the left and select from any existing shapes but for our example today we’ll tap the Pillar-Circle shape and tap Choose to save our selection.
Tap “Create” to save your new Product
You’ll see your new product in the Termite Category.
Linear Based
From your Product Library tap + New Product and repeat the process for a Linear Product. These steps will be the same until you select the Visual Style and Visual. Choose Line / Arc.
Now tap on the Visual Box and choose the color, and style for your line. We chose a Blue Dashed Line for this example. Once you’re finished tap Choose then tap Create to save your new product.
You can now see your new linear product in your library.
Area Based Product
From your Product Library tap + New Product and repeat the process for an Area Product. These steps will be the same until you select the Visual Style and Visual. Choose Area.
Now tap on the Visual Box and choose the color, and style for your Area product. You can choose your fill color, border color. Feel free to explore these options but for now let’s choose a red fill color. Select Choose once you’re finished.
Tap Create to save your Area Product
Tap Done to return to the canvas and open the Termite Category from the Products Panel
Takeoff Pest: Publish and Sharing
Once you’ve added your products, you can produce a Takeoff Report. There are a few options you can experiment with but for this lesson we’ll use a PDF From a Template.
Start by tapping Reports at the top of the Canvas. Select "Export Other Reports" and choose Takeoff Report PDF
This will open your summary tab which will show the summary of products, quantities, and pricing for any products added to the canvas.
Once you’ve reviewed your Summary, tap next to begin Publishing and Sharing your Project.
Tap Start to Publish your project. This will publish your project to the cloud make your project available to other users in your account.
Once Published you can send your Project using your method of choice by tapping the Share button in the top right of the screen.
Takeoff Pest: Publish and Sharing
From here you can put your skills to work and create your own project in ArcSite. While this getting started guide is meant to walk you through the essentials there is much more to explore. Like all tools, ArcSite is best mastered with practice and repetition. As a next step consider one of the following.
Grab a stack of old projects and replicate them in ArcSite to hone your skills.
**Pro Tip: Once you’ve created your old projects in ArcSite, send them to any prospects that haven’t closed yet to reignite the conversation.
OR
Jump into another lesson from the options below.