Beta 0.5.44 — available now
| Your drawings | PDF, DXF, DWG, scans and photos (TIFF, PNG, JPEG) |
|---|---|
| Sorting | By building, by floor, by type |
| On the drawing | Annotate, draw, measure lengths and areas, count symbols from the legend table |
| Output | An Excel workbook: one column per drawing, grouped by floor |
| Who for | Project manager, architect, quantity surveyor — electrical, HVAC, plumbing, all trades |
| Where | Everything happens on your own PC |
The drawings, by building and by floor
The scale and the measuring tools
The symbols counted on the drawing
The quantities, as they go into Excel
The workshop: on the left the drawings of the project, sorted by building and by floor; in the middle the drawing at scale, with the symbols counted one by one; below the quantities, which go straight into the Excel workbook.
A whole tender document set imports in one go: you give a project name and a folder, and Kantibat sorts the drawings by building, by floor and by type — elevation, section, detail. Counting a symbol then sweeps the whole drawing in a single move, and your corrections are remembered for the drawings that follow.
The scale is calibrated from the title block or from a known dimension, and every measurement is then taken on it. Automatic counting proposes markers that the surveyor accepts or rejects: nothing enters the quantities without them, and nothing leaves them to be retyped by hand.
A Windows application installed at your place. No CAD licence to annotate a DWG or count its symbols, no printed drawing, no highlighter, no scale ruler. Drawings and measurements stay in your user folder; the interface is translated into everyone's own language.
Kantibat opens PDF, DXF and DWG drawings with its own reading engine: no CAD software, no licence and no converter to install.
| Vector or scanned. | |
| DXF | Read directly. |
| DWG 2000 to 2026 | Read by the built-in DWG engine, from the 2000 versions up to the 2026 releases, whichever software saved it. The file format has not changed since 2018: a drawing saved with a recent version opens just like an old one. |
| DWG R13 and R14 | Older than 2000: not read by the built-in converter. A DXF export brings them back. |
No account, no connection, no time limit
Open your PDF, DXF and DWG drawings without any other software, several at once in tabs, turning the layers of the original file on or off. Annotate and draw on a separate layer — the file you received is never modified — then export an annotated PDF with its title block. None of this needs an account.
60-day trial, then a licence
Everything browsing does, and the takeoff with it: import of a whole tender document set, scale calibration, length and area measurements, automatic symbol counting, Excel and CSV export of the quantities. An account is asked for at that point, not before.
The account is only asked for at the first takeoff action, and that is what the 60-day trial is counted on, not the machine: reinstalling or switching PCs does not reset it. Before the very first launch, either way, Kantibat shows the full licence agreement offline and does not open until it is accepted. Students and apprentices get 50% off takeoff work, on proof of enrolment.
Find or create a project: status, sourced progress, resume in one click.
The business info only: name, reference, client, trade profile — one page, no steps.
Drawings, buildings/floors, scale calibration, measurements and symbol counting.
CSV of the takeoff and cross-level quantities Excel — no made-up amount.
“No made-up figure: every quantity is sourced — measured, counted — or flagged to be measured.”
This is the rule that holds the product together: where a talkative tool would give a plausible number, Kantibat says what it does not know. You remain solely responsible for the quantities carried into your contractual documents.
Kantibat is first a tool to organize and open your PDF, DXF and DWG drawings, annotate them and draw on them, and to check the takeoff — useful for a project manager as much as a quantity surveyor. Opening a drawing, annotating it and exporting an annotated PDF needs no account and no connection. Measuring, calibrating scale, counting symbols and exporting the quantities to CSV and Excel needs an account, then a licence after a 60-day trial. Version 1 is in preparation.
Yes for takeoff work: no drawing, measurement or project leaves the PC, and losing the network does not interrupt a job in progress. Opening, annotating and exporting a drawing needs no connection. A connection is needed to create the account, at the first takeoff action, then for account management — sending a reset code, for example. The supplied AI runs locally.
PDF, DXF and DWG. Kantibat opens DWG files from the 2000 to 2026 versions with its own reading engine. It opens several drawings at once, in tabs, and lets you turn the layers of the original file on or off — only the display changes, the drawing itself is not modified.
No. Kantibat reads DWG with its own engine, written in-house from the public description of the format: nothing else to install, no CAD licence. Opening a DWG is free everywhere — Autodesk publishes a viewer with no licence, and it is enough to look at a drawing. That is where it stops. Counting the symbols of a legend, keeping your annotations in a project you reopen, producing an Excel quantity take-off: that, Kantibat does without a licence.
Windows is Kantibat's reference platform: Windows 10 and 11 in 64-bit, with no Node.js and no database to install beforehand. A macOS package also exists, for Apple Silicon Macs (M1 and later) — signed and notarised by Apple, it updates itself; Intel Macs are not served. A Linux x64 package also exists, served by a signed APT repository that brings each following version on its own; taken by hand, the package stays at the version installed. An iOS version is planned for phase 2 of the project; it does not exist today. On the hardware side, plan for 8 GB of memory at a minimum and 16 GB if you turn on the local AI, with an SSD: takeoff itself needs no dedicated graphics card.
In Kantibat the AI is off by default, and the takeoff works entirely without it. Once enabled, it does three things: read the labels of a drawing legend, suggest which building and floor a drawing belongs to when the file name does not say, and give a cross-check estimate of the number of symbols. That estimate is an order of magnitude shown next to the count; it is never carried into the quantities.
Drawings, measurements and projects are stored on your computer. The offered AI engines are local. If you select a remote AI provider, the extracts described before sending are transmitted to it; you may also voluntarily attach files to a support request. Account, licence and update services use separate technical exchanges without sending your drawings.
Kantibat is for anyone who works on drawings. First for those who measure: quantity surveyors, construction economists, pricing departments, project managers, and installation companies of every trade. Then for those who read a drawing without measuring it: architects and project supervisors who check and annotate, clients and social landlords, maintenance and facility management, fire safety, cleaning and building services, insurance loss adjusters, solar, EV charging points, low-voltage systems and fibre. Four trade profiles ship with it: electrical, HVAC — heating, ventilation, air conditioning —, plumbing, and all trades.
In Kantibat the scale is calibrated from the one in the title block, or from a known dimension drawn on the sheet; lengths, areas and counts are then measured on it. Automatic symbol counting proposes markers that the surveyor validates or rejects — nothing enters the quantities without them. As long as the scale is not calibrated, a drawn item is kept but its quantity stays flagged “to be measured”: Kantibat never writes a number it has not measured.
Not to browse: opening a drawing, annotating it and exporting an annotated PDF needs no account, no connection, and no licence, now or ever. Measuring, calibrating scale, counting symbols and exporting the quantities needs an account, opened at the first of these actions, then a licence after a 60-day trial without a card — the licence covers one active PC at a time, and the trial is counted on the account, not the machine: reinstalling or switching PCs does not reset it. Before the very first launch, the application shows the full licence agreement offline and does not open until it is accepted, whether to browse or to measure. Students and apprentices get 50% off on proof of enrolment. Subscriptions are taken online on the pricing page; the installer itself downloads with no account and no form.
Yes, and that is exactly what browsing, with no account and no connection, is for. Kantibat puts your annotations on a separate layer: the PDF or DWG you received is never modified. You annotate, circle, draw, choose the colour and the line thickness, then you export an annotated PDF carrying a title block that recalls the site, the drawing, the scale and the date. The person you send it to installs Kantibat and answers with their own annotations on the same drawing, without having to create anything or pay.
Going further (pages in French)