Measure a yard or a roof (cut out the house, set the pitch)

Measure draws on aerial imagery and adds up what you outline. Open it from a client, request, quote or invoice so it starts at their property, or search for Measure (see Find anything). (Which imagery it uses is on Map imagery for measuring.)

The map fills the page, with the address search over its top left and Shapes, the totals and the rest in the panel on its right. The arrow at the top of the panel hides it for more map, and the button in the map’s corner brings it back. On a phone the panel is under the map.

The tools down the left of the map:

• Area for lawns, roofs, lots and driveways.
• Cut out for what isn’t part of an area: the house, a pool, a flower bed.
• Line for edges, fences, curbs, and a roof’s eaves and ridges.
• Count for trees, drains or posts.
• Edit to move corners or pick a shape.

Cut the house out of a yard

1. Outline the whole yard with Area.
2. Pick Cut out and outline the house the same way, a corner at a time. Click (or tap) the first corner to finish.

The house comes off the yard straight away. On the map the yard shows with a hole where the house is, and the house gets a red outline. In Shapes, the yard shows its size after the cutout (“13,759 sq ft”, with “16,908 sq ft before cutouts” under it), and the cutout shows what it took out in red.

A cutout comes off every area it covers, so one house drawn over the front and back yards comes off both. If part of it hangs past the yard, only the part over the yard comes off.

Already drew the house as an Area? Choose the scissors on its row in Shapes, or pick it with Edit and choose Cut out on the left. It turns into a cutout and keeps its name. Choose the same button on a cutout to count it as an area again.

Cut out buildings in one tap

Choose Cut out buildings under Shapes and Measure looks up the buildings on your areas in OpenStreetMap and cuts them out for you. It can take a few seconds. Check the outlines against the imagery and drag any corners that are off.

Note

OpenStreetMap has most buildings in towns and fewer in the country. When it has nothing there you’ll see “OpenStreetMap has no buildings on these areas. Draw them with Cut out.” A saved picture that uses its outlines carries the credit “Building outlines © OpenStreetMap contributors”.

Set a roof’s pitch

Open Roof pitch and edges under Shapes (with the Roofing app installed, it comes first). Pick the pitch, from Flat to 12/12, or type another in Other. Write it however you’re used to: 6/12, 6-12, 6:12, “6 in 12” or 26.5°. It’s saved as 6/12.

Under the buttons you’ll see what the pitch means: “×1.118: the roof is 12% bigger than it looks from above.” Pitches of 8/12 and up are marked Steep, and ones under 4/12 Low slope.

Roofing squares shows up with the totals once there’s a pitch: each roof area at its pitch, plus the Waste % (about 10% for a plain gable roof, 15% or more with hips and valleys).

A porch or dormer at another pitch

Each roof area has a pitch button on its row in Shapes (“6/12 · roof” means it follows the roof’s pitch). Choose it, then pick that section’s own pitch, or Same as the roof to go back. With more than one roof section, Each roof section in the roof card lists their squares one by one.

Read the pitch from lidar (free)

The US Geological Survey has flown lidar (laser scans from a plane) over most of the US and gives it away. Measure can read your roof’s slope from it without anyone going out.

1. Draw the roof with Area, or choose Outline the building in the middle. Draw a porch or dormer at a different pitch as its own area.
2. Under Measure it, choose From lidar (free). It finds the newest survey for that spot, downloads just the part over your roof (a few MB, usually under 10 seconds) and finds the roof’s planes.
3. It gives each roof area a pitch, like “Your roof: 4/12” and “Measured 4.0/12 from 880 points”. Choose Use 4/12. With more than one area, choose Use on one, or Use these pitches for all of them: the biggest sets the roof’s pitch and the others get their own where they differ.

If part of an area reads a different pitch, it says so (“Part of it reads 2/12, maybe a porch or dormer”). Draw that part as its own area and run it again to give it its own pitch. What it found lists every roof plane, which way it faces and its size.

Caution

The survey’s year is at the bottom of the result. Depending on where you are it was flown anywhere from the early 2000s to 2024 (most since 2010), so if the roof was replaced or the house added onto since, the lidar won’t know. It reads to about half an inch per foot; check small dormers, and anything that changes the price, on site.

When there’s nothing to read you’ll see “USGS doesn’t have lidar for this spot” (outside the US, and in a few places USGS doesn’t host, like parts of North Carolina) or that the lidar “doesn’t show a roof inside your outline” (a building newer than the survey, or one under trees). Use your phone or a photo instead.

Measure the pitch on site

Under Measure it:

• Phone on the roof: lay your phone flat on the shingles and it reads the slope from its tilt sensor. Choose Start, wait until it says Steady, then choose Use 6/12 (or whatever it reads). A thick case or camera bump can tip the phone a little; laying it on a straight board, or taking the case off, gives the best reading.
• From a photo: take a picture straight at a gable end (the triangle at the end of the roof), then drag the orange line along the roof edge and the blue line along something level, like the gutter or a row of siding. Stand square to the gable and step back rather than shooting up from close by; from off to the side it reads steeper than it is.
• Ask Google: only shows when whoever runs your Crewtavo server has added a Google key for Google’s Solar API. It lists the pitches Google sees on the building in the middle of the map.

Tip

The phone needs Crewtavo’s secure (https://) address to read its tilt sensor. On an iPhone, the first time, Safari asks to allow motion access; choose Allow. If you said no, close the tab and open the page again to be asked again. On a laptop there’s no tilt sensor, so measure from a photo instead.

Start from the building’s outline

Put the building in the middle of the map and choose Outline the building in the middle. Measure adds OpenStreetMap’s outline of it as an area. Outlines follow the walls, so drag the corners out to the eaves (often 1 to 2 ft).

Eaves, rakes, ridges, hips and valleys

Draw the roof’s edges with Line, then pick what each one is on its row in Shapes: Eave, Rake, Ridge, Hip or Valley. It’s renamed to match (“Rake 1”). With the Roofing app installed, you can pick the edge first instead: in the Roof card, choose Eaves, Rakes, Ridges, Hips or Valleys, and every line drawn after that is that edge. Each kind of edge has its own color on the map and the saved picture.

Rakes, hips and valleys run up the roof, so they’re longer than they look from above. Measure stretches them by the pitch and shows both (“70.8 ft”, with “63.3 ft from above” under it). Eaves and ridges are level, so they stay as drawn.

The roof card adds them up: feet of each edge, Drip edge (eaves and rakes) and Ridge cap (ridges and hips).

Use it on a quote

Price list formulas can use the roof’s squares and edges as well as the area: squares (the roof’s surface at each section’s pitch, with the waste), roof_squares (the same without waste, for tear-off), steep_squares (squares at 8/12 or steeper), roof_sqft, and the edges eave_ft, rake_ft, ridge_ft, hip_ft and valley_ft. For example, a drip edge line can use eave_ft + rake_ft and ridge cap ridge_ft + hip_ft. pitch_factor follows each section’s own pitch, so area_sqft * pitch_factor is still the whole roof’s surface when a porch is at another pitch. Businesses set up for the Roofing & Exteriors trade start with shingle and metal roofs, tear-off, Drip edge, Ridge cap, Valley flashing and a Steep roof charge on their price list.

With the Roofing app installed, you can take a roof from here to a priced estimate in the Roofing section: see Get a roof estimate out from the aerial. For how a lawn’s size prices the mow, see Free lawn measuring.

Save the measurement

1. Type a name in Name this measurement in the panel, like “Front lawn and driveway”. The client sees it if you show them the drawing. Left empty, it’s saved as “Measurement”.
2. Choose Save measurement at the top right. It says “Saved: 13,759 sq ft” (or “Saved on quote #12: …”).

Saving keeps a picture of the drawing on the map, for the quote, the invoice and the PDF (“Saving a picture of the drawing…”). When you’ve been drawing on Google’s imagery, the picture uses free imagery instead, since Google’s terms don’t allow keeping pictures of it. If the picture can’t be kept, you’ll see “Saved, but the map picture couldn’t be kept, so clients would see the sizes only. Save again to retry.”

The button says Saved until you change something, then Save changes. Where the drawing is kept depends on where you opened Measure from:

• From a quote or invoice: it’s on that quote or invoice.
• From a request: it’s kept with the request, and goes onto the quote you make from it with Create quote.
• From a client or property: it’s kept with the property, and offered on that property’s quotes and that client’s invoices.

Owners, admins, office staff and estimators can measure and save. Crew leads can too, when they choose Put on the map on a job’s plan.

Put a drawing on a quote or invoice

Once it’s saved, the panel shows Put it on a quote or invoice: “The picture and sizes go with it. You choose whether the client sees them.”

1. Pick the Quote it’s for (this client’s quotes are listed, apart from lost and archived ones), or the Invoice, or both. You’ll see “Added to the quote. Turn on “Client sees it” to show it there.”
2. Turn on Client sees it on this quote (or on this invoice) when it’s ready for them. Until then it’s for your team only.
3. Open the quote (or Open the invoice) takes you there.

The Drawings card on a quote

A quote has a Drawings card in its side column, under the totals (an invoice has one too):

• Drawings on the quote are listed with their picture and sizes, and a Client sees it switch. Client sees it is off until you turn it on.
• Under “Drawings for this client you can add to the quote” (or “More for this client”) are other drawings of the property. Choose Add to put one on the quote.
• A drawing’s ⋯ menu has Open the drawing and Take off this quote.
• Measure opens the map for this quote, and the drawing you save there goes on it.

Moving a drawing to another quote or invoice hides it there until you turn Client sees it on again. If a drawing was saved without its picture, the card says “No picture saved; the client sees the sizes only.”

Fill the quote’s quantities from a drawing

While the quote can be changed, each drawing on the card has Fill quantities. Every line whose price list service has a formula gets its quantity (or its price, for a service set up that way) from the drawing, and the card lists what each line got, like “Lawn mowing: qty 13759”. Lines without a formula keep what you typed. If none have one, it says “No lines on this quote use a formula.” Filling also puts the drawing on the quote.

For mulch, gravel and asphalt, formulas need a depth. Type it in Depth (inches) on the card before you choose Fill quantities, or leave it empty to use the depth saved with the drawing (the Depth card on the Measure panel). Formulas are set up on your price list: see Set up your price list.

Change the drawing later, save it, and choose Fill quantities again to bring the quote up to date.

What the client sees

When you show a drawing (with Client sees it on the quote’s or invoice’s Drawings card, or Client sees it on this quote after saving it), the Client Hub and the PDF show its picture and name, and list each area at its size after cutouts and each cutout as “left out” (“Building (left out)”). If roof sections have different pitches, each one says its own. Under it, the client reads “Measured from aerial imagery. Sizes on site may differ slightly.”