A 3D Takeoff Before Lunch
This morning was one of the wildest experiences I have had using AI.
I was working on a construction job around $50 million in size. With Astra, Python scripts, and Three.js, I had a 3D model and a takeoff workflow running in the browser before lunch. I could move around the work, isolate scopes, inspect quantities, and follow elements back to the drawings.
Work I would have expected to spend a week on had moved into a morning. Some of the individual changes were happening in minutes. Seeing it happen on a job that size made the progress feel very real.
From plans to something I could walk around
The starting point was a set of construction drawings. Python scripts extracted linework and text from the PDFs. Geometry processing turned that information into model elements. Profiles, dimensions, schedules, and sections supplied the information needed to place the work in three dimensions.
Three.js rendered the result in an HTML page. I could open it locally, move the camera, turn scopes on and off, and select objects. The model could also export as a GLB file, which can be imported into Blender. Quantity exports gave me rows I could use alongside the estimate.
I wanted to understand the technology while I was using it, so I wrote wiki notes on Three.js, extracting PDF linework with Python, and GLB and glTF.
The quantity is what makes it useful
A 3D view is exciting. Being able to connect it to the takeoff is what changes the work for me. A footing has dimensions, a location, a scope, and a source. When I can inspect those together, the estimate becomes easier to question and explain.
There is an important boundary to this morning's result. The viewer still has incomplete coverage, unresolved elevations, and coordination holds. Its modeled subtotal is separate from the bid workbook total. I am describing how quickly I could build and work with that model and takeoff, not claiming that every quantity on a $50 million job was verified before lunch.
That boundary does not make the experience less remarkable to me. I can spend more of the morning looking at the work, finding gaps, and checking the assumptions because the first pass and the tools around it came together so quickly.
What happens to takeoff software now?
I came away from this morning convinced that 3D rendering is going to change construction forever. AI is making it faster and more accessible, and that opens up possibilities far beyond takeoffs. Being able to see the work, connect it to quantities, and talk through it together could change how we estimate, plan, coordinate, and build. It is amazing to watch that become something we can put to work in a single morning.
We are moving beyond a workflow where the estimator has to hold the entire third dimension in their head while marking up flat sheets. Plans still matter. The opportunity is to make the connection between the drawings, the geometry, and the quantities much easier to see.
Access to a model with Astra's level of coding competence lowers the barrier to building that connection. I expect competing models with similar abilities to open the same door. You still need to understand the work, explain what you need, and review the result. But you can now build a tool around a specific job in a way that used to feel out of reach.
It makes me intensely curious about the takeoff world. My expectation is that the larger AI companies and construction software companies will push further into this work as the models improve. From where I am sitting, the pace feels like a rocket ship.
Why I want this on openmud
This is exactly the kind of work I want to explore with openmud: reading plans, producing traceable quantities, making missing information visible, and giving people files they can actually use. This was a custom workflow built with Astra; bringing more of that process into openmud is the direction I want to pursue.
I have used AI to build a lot of things. Getting this far into a model and takeoff for a job this size, in one morning, changed my sense of what is possible for an estimator with these tools.