Guide

How to measure a floor plan in a PDF.

Set the scale, click inside a room, and read the area. Then total the rooms and send the numbers to Excel.

Five rooms measured on a sample plan

Steps

Four steps.

1
Set the scale first
Every area and length depends on it. Use a preset, calibrate on a known length, or run Autoscale.
2
Click inside a room
Dynamic Fill draws the area around the room and measures it at the page scale. Drag a corner to adjust the outline.
3
Measure the rest
Use the length, perimeter and area tools for walls, runs and odd shapes. Add a cutout to subtract a shaft or column.
4
Total and export
The takeoff panel adds up the measurements by item. Export to Excel or CSV.

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Closed rooms fill best

If a room is open to the rest of the sheet, close the gap in the wall or draw the area by hand.

Keep the numbers honest

Measurements are only as good as the scale. Test one length you know before you trust the totals.

Group by building or floor

Type a group name in the takeoff panel to keep each building or level separate.

Questions

Short answers.

How do I measure area on a PDF floor plan?

Set the scale, then use an area tool, or click inside a closed room with Dynamic Fill. The area shows in real units, such as square feet.

Can I measure a PDF on a Mac?

Yes. Redpen runs natively on Mac and Windows.

Can I export measurements to Excel?

Yes. The takeoff panel exports to Excel or CSV.

Does it work on scanned plans?

It measures scanned sheets once you set the scale by calibrating on a known length. Autoscale needs the dimension text, which Redpen can read from a scan with offline OCR.

Screenshots use a sample plan, not a real project.

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