D-151Features
Everything in the one edition.
Every seat gets every feature. Here's what that means today, and what's coming. Anything not in a test build yet is marked Coming.
Built in the test builds todayComing designed, not built yet
01 · Plan markup
A markup tool that also does takeoff.
DimSum is very good at plan markup, not just takeoff. Mark up the set the way you would with a red pen, on the same sheets as your walls and areas, and print the whole thing.
Switch the layers off and on below. In the app that's Markup > Show.
Dimension Lines Built
Click two points and the length is drawn and labelled at the sheet's scale. Defaults are set once in System Settings.
Highlights, text, notes, clouds and stamps Built
The markups estimators actually use, each with its own defaults: a highlighter pass, a text box, a note with a leader, a revision cloud and a stamp.
Lengths and labels on the takeoff Built
Every wall, area and count can carry its own label: name, length, area, anything a formula can say. See the label designer.
Walls printed at their real width Built
A wall prints as a band at its real width at scale, not a hairline, so the printed plan reads like the drawing.
Page tools Built
Rotate a sheet, straighten a scan, fade the plan back so your markup stands out, and turn the PDF's text off.
Overlay and Align Built
Lay one sheet over another and line them up with four clicks, to see what changed between revisions or how two levels stack.
Page scale regions Built
Draw a rectangle with its own scale for the detail drawn at 1/2" on a 1/8" sheet. The first point decides, and a crossing line warns you.
Split view and pop-out Built
Two sheets side by side, or a sheet in its own window on another monitor.
Marked-Up Plan printing Built
Print or export the marked-up sheets as PDF, with the takeoff, labels and markups at their real widths.
Legends, info boxes and print layers Coming
A legend and info boxes on the printed plan, and the same page printed more than once with different layers on.
/shots/markup.png3440 × 1400/media/markup.mp41920 × 1080 · poster /media/markup.jpg02 · Takeoff
Measure straight from the PDF.
Open a plan set, confirm the scale, and take off lengths, areas and counts right on the sheet.
Hold Ctrl to draw a wall on the other side of the line, one section at a time. Extended cursor lines run the full width of the sheet through the pointer, so you can line up with a wall across the page. Try it on any sheet frame on this site.
Linear, area and count
BuiltRuns are made of segments you can delete or split off. Areas take cutouts as real shapes you can select. Counts are clicked or typed.
One item across several sheets
BuiltKeep drawing the same wall on the next sheet. It stays one line in the estimate.
Auto Scale
BuiltReads the scale off every sheet for you to confirm, with manual calibration when a sheet is wrong.
Line side and extended cursor lines
BuiltDraw on either side of the line, and line up across the sheet.
Sharp at any zoom
BuiltSheets are drawn from the PDF's own vectors and pre-rendered in the background, so flipping back to one is instant.
Levels and groups
BuiltPut sheets on levels with elevations, or in groups like Details and Mechanical, and drag to reorder.
Pick lines from the PDF, read schedules, OCR
ComingClick a line on the drawing to take it off, read window and door schedules, and search scanned plans.
03 · Smart framing tools
Joists and beams that count themselves.
Built into DimSum and ready to copy as your own tools, with your own formulas on top.
Joist tool Built
Draw the floor area and click the edge to lay out from. Joists go in at your O.C., with doubling every one, every other or every third, and cutouts where the stairs go.
- Each joist is its own item, with a rounded length matched to your lumber list
- Rim board and sheathing layers come with it
- Attach to beam: joists cut to length at the beam, with hangers and an offset setting
Beam tool Built
Draw the beam where it sits. Set the plies, and the width follows from the material.
- Length rules order real stock: a 2-ply 4' beam orders one 8'
- Past the longest stock length, it switches to a linear-foot item
- A beam or a header, with pocket, hanger or nothing at the ends
Coming next in framingComing
Bearing joints at a beam below
ComingA beam under the joists carries them, joined by bypass, butt, lap, sister or cantilever.
The Wall tool
ComingFramed wood, metal stud, concrete and CMU walls, and what they sit on: a treated plate and anchors on a slab, for example. Then openings, posts and beam pockets.
Assemblies
ComingLayered walls, floors and roofs, with material slots that swap and recalculate everything under them.
/shots/joist-tool.png3440 × 1400/media/joist-tool.mp41920 × 1080 · poster /media/joist-tool.jpg04 · Tool Designer and libraries
Build it once. Place it on every job.
A tool is an item with its parts and formulas. Build it in the Tool Designer, test it, and place it on the next job in one click.
ROUNDUP({Item > Linear Total} / {O.C.}, 0) + 1
ROUNDUP({Item > Wall Area} / {Sheet Area}, 0)
References in braces point at named values on the item, the part, the sheet or the job.
Tool Designer, with formulas and properties
BuiltParts nested under tools as deep as the estimate needs, and properties that understand feet, inches and square feet.
Design the tool's own form
BuiltLay out the settings dialog your estimators see, on a grid. A number with a Min and a Max becomes a slider.
Material libraries from your price lists
BuiltImport your own lists as CSV (save them from Excel). A part loaded from the library stays linked to it.
Advanced Parts
BuiltA part that picks the right SKU from a table by filters: species, size, the length that's at least the span. It re-matches when its inputs change, and flags when nothing matches.
Tool updates reach your jobs
BuiltChange a tool and the jobs that placed it get the change on their Updates screen, for you to accept. A job never changes behind your back.
A starter library in the box
BuiltDimSum Defaults ships with tools and reports, so the first job doesn't start from a blank page.
Tool Packs and building templates
ComingShare a set of tools as one pack, and start a job from a whole building's worth of levels and tools.
05 · Report Designer
Reports that look like yours.
Lay out a report on a grid of bands, pick the data, and see the preview beside the layout as you work.
Use Courier for a count sheet the yard is used to reading. Put in every line yourself, solid or dotted: a report draws no lines you didn't place.
Bands on a grid
BuiltHeaders, details, group bands and totals, dragged and sized on a grid, with zoom and pan.
Grouping, sorting and combining
BuiltGroup by and sort by with a drag. Combine lines on the fields you pick, so ten 2x6 x 16' entries become one.
Calculated columns and totals
BuiltFormula columns with their own totals, and totals tables at the end.
Fonts and lines
BuiltYour choice of fonts, including Courier, and solid or dotted lines where you put them.
Print, PDF and CSV
BuiltPrint, export to PDF, or export to CSV, which opens in Excel. Starter reports come in DimSum Defaults.
Proposal template, report branding, export profiles
ComingA proposal ready to send, your logo and terms set once by the Workspace admin, and exports mapped to your point-of-sale import.
/shots/report-designer.png3440 × 1400/media/report-designer.mp41920 × 1080 · poster /media/report-designer.jpg06 · Label designer
Labels that say what you need.
Each tool gets its own label template, designed in a small designer of its own.
A label template per tool
BuiltText pieces with fields and formulas, symbols and a box. "2x10 @ 16" O.C. · 14'-0"" if that's what the joist should say.
Placement you control
BuiltAnchored where you like, turned with the line or level, one per item, section or run. Set once in System Settings, and changed per tool or per item.
Drag with a leader
BuiltDrag a label clear of the drawing and a leader line follows it back. Reset puts it home.
Printed with the plan
BuiltLabels print on the Marked-Up Plan, and label changes reach jobs as a tool update.
07 · Speed
Fast on the big sets.
DimSum's engine is written in Rust, and sheets are drawn from the PDF's own vectors on your graphics card. Big multifamily sets pan as smoothly as a single-family one.
Every build is measured against written speed targets, on real plan sets, and a build that gets slower doesn't ship. These are the targets:
| Action | Target |
|---|---|
| Open a job, first sheet on screen | under 1 s |
| Switch to another sheet | under 150 ms |
| Pan and zoom | 60 fps |
| A sheet you've already visited | no loading at all |
| Recalculate after an edit | under 16 ms |
| Lay out a joist area again after an edit | under 50 ms |
| Save each step | under 10 ms |
08 · Files
One file per job. Everything undoable.
There's no Save button. Every action is recorded the moment you make it.
One folder, one file per job
BuiltEach job gets a folder named after it with a single .dsum file inside, wherever you keep your jobs.
Undo everything
BuiltEvery edit is a recorded step. Undo walks back through all of them, even a deleted level with its sheets and takeoff.
Crash-proof
BuiltClose at any time. After a crash, the job reopens exactly where you left it.
Encrypted job files
BuiltA .dsum is encrypted, so other programs can't read your takeoff.
Files bound to accounts
ComingA copied file won't open for anyone it wasn't shared with.
Coming with accountsComing
Your DimSum, on any computer.
At the commercial release, DimSum runs signed in to your Planbase account. That's how your license is tracked, and it opens up these.
Sign in
One account for the license, your seat and your machines. Offline, DimSum keeps working for 30 days and says plainly whether it's online.
Cloud sync
Jobs, tools, reports and settings back up to your account, and come down on any computer you sign in on. You choose what syncs, type by type.
Web remote session
Connect from a browser to your own DimSum running on Windows, macOS or Linux. It's your computer, not cloud software, and it can wake a sleeping PC.
Workspace defaults folder
Build the company's report once and share it to the Workspace. It's there for everyone.
A Share button on everything
Tools, reports, materials, lists and jobs, shared to a person by email or to the whole Workspace.
Automatic updates
Stable and Beta channels. Updates install on restart, never mid-job, and critical fixes are required.