How do I take off quantities from a BIM model?

Instead of measuring a flat drawing by hand, 3D takeoff reads quantities that are already built into a BIM model — the model's own declared volumes, areas, and lengths, not a redrawn estimate of them.

Import the model

1. Open your project's Takeoff → BIM Model view and click “Upload model.”
2. Choose an .ifc file. IFC is the only format Buildiante parses directly — export to IFC from your authoring tool (Revit, ArchiCAD, Tekla, etc.) first if your model is in another format.

The model is parsed as soon as it's uploaded (up to 200MB). If parsing fails — an unsupported IFC schema or a corrupted export are the usual causes — the model shows a “Could not parse” status with the reason, rather than a silent empty viewer.

Select elements

Once the model is ready, it opens in a 3D viewer. Click any element to select it, or use the type filter to narrow the element list down to one IFC type at a time (walls only, say). Click an element in the list to inspect it — its type, storey, and the quantities the model itself declares (net and gross volume, net and gross area, length, width, height, perimeter — whichever the element actually carries).

Send elements into a BOQ

1. Select elements with the checkbox next to each one in the list — elements already sent to a BOQ are shown disabled.
2. Click “Add to BOQ.”
3. Choose which quantity to use — only quantities present on every element you've selected are offered, so you won't accidentally mix, say, some elements' volumes with others' areas.
4. Confirm or adjust the suggested Unit (Buildiante suggests one from the quantity type — m³ for volume, m² for area, and so on), pick the target BOQ and section, and click “Add to BOQ.”

Any selected element that doesn't actually carry the quantity you chose is skipped rather than sent in as zero — you'll see how many were skipped so nothing goes missing silently. As with PDF measurements, each element becomes its own BOQ position; see measuring a PDF drawing for the 2D equivalent of this workflow, or how measured quantities stay accurate for how Buildiante verifies what actually lands in the BOQ.