Planformer
Blueprint takeoffs, measured from your phone.
Overview
Estimators have always had two options for measuring a set of plans: a paper roll and a scale ruler, or a heavy desktop suite that costs more than most tradespeople want to spend. Planformer set out to put that whole workflow on the device already in the contractor's pocket.
We built the app end to end — the measurement canvas, project management, the calculator, cloud sync and the subscription layer — and shipped it to the App Store and Google Play from a single codebase.
Scale, linear, area and count in one canvas
Shipped from a single React Native codebase
Available now on the App Store and Google Play
The challenge
Takeoff is unforgiving. If the scale calibration is off by a hair, every downstream number is wrong, and the estimator finds out on site when the material order comes up short. So the measurement engine had to feel precise and be precise, on a touchscreen, with fingers instead of a mouse.
The second problem was trust. People who measure for a living are sceptical of software that hides its math. We needed the numbers to be legible and checkable at every step, not buried behind a slick animation.
Inside the app
A few screens from Planformer. Tap any of them to take a closer look.
How we approached it
We started with the canvas because everything else is decoration if the measuring feels bad. A crosshair with a magnifier lets you drop points exactly where you mean to, and a scale-calibration step ties on-screen pixels to real-world units before any measurement is trusted.
From there we layered on the four tools an estimator actually reaches for — scale, linear, area and count — plus a calculator that sits over the plan so you never lose your place. Multi-page projects, quick search and cloud backup keep a working estimator organised across dozens of live jobs.
Because the whole thing runs on React Native, a fix to the measurement logic lands on iOS and Android at the same time, which kept the two apps genuinely in step instead of one lagging behind the other.
What we built
Calibrated measurement
Set the scale once against a known dimension and every linear, area and count reading inherits it.
Four takeoff tools
Scale, linear, area and count — the core set, without the clutter of a desktop suite.
On-canvas calculator
Run quick sums over the plan itself, so the number and the drawing stay side by side.
Projects that scale
Multi-page plans, status tracking and search keep long job lists manageable.
Cloud backup
Work syncs off-device, so a lost phone never means a lost estimate.
Pro subscription
A clean upgrade path with a 7-day trial gates unlimited plans and cloud storage.
Got something like this in mind?
We take products from a first sketch to the app store. Tell us what you're building and we'll tell you honestly how we'd approach it.