Generating a scope with AI
Upload a set of plans, write a one-line brief, and BuiltUp's AI Scope Architect builds a full priced scope — rooms, materials, labour, waste factors. Here's how to get the most out of it.
- • A project open on Scope → Estimate
- • A PDF or image of the plans (or a written description if you don't have plans yet)
- • Free users get 3 lifetime AI credits; Pro and Ultimate plans are unlimited
The AI Scope Architect is the feature most new users don't realize exists, and the one that changes how fast you can put a quote together. It reads PDFs and images of plans, understands what a builder would count, and returns a structured scope with real prices from your price book. This guide walks through how to use it well — and what to expect it to get wrong.
Click AI Assist on the Estimate tab
Open any project's Scope tab. In the toolbar across the top you'll see three orange-tinted buttons: AI Assist, Takeoff, and Room. Click AI Assist.
A modal opens with three things:
- A Full / Partial toggle at the top
- A text box for your brief
- A file uploader for plans
You need at least one of the bottom two — a brief or a file. Ideally both.
AI Scope Architect
Describe the scope or upload a blueprint. I have access to your 24 materials and 9 labor roles.
Choose Full Scope Buildout or Partial
The toggle at the top of the modal matters more than most people realise:
- Partial Scope — uses *only* the materials and labour roles already in your price book. Good when you've set up your catalogue carefully and you want the AI to stick to what you already know the cost of.
- Full Scope Buildout — the AI is allowed to invent new materials and create new labour roles with industry-standard rates when the plans call for something you don't have. Good for your first few scopes, complex fit-outs, or anything with trades you haven't priced before.
If in doubt, start with Full. You can always edit or delete items afterwards. Partial is more useful once you've been using BuiltUp for a month and your price book is dialled in.
Write a useful brief
A good brief is one or two sentences that answers three questions: what the job is, how big it is, and what's different about it. Some examples:
- *"Full fit-out of a 95sqm commercial restaurant, commercial kitchen at the rear, front counter and 30-cover seating."*
- *"Master bedroom 4x4m, rip out and replace: oak flooring, skirtings painted white, 4 new double sockets, replaster ceiling."*
- *"Loft conversion, L-shaped dormer, new ensuite, 38sqm usable floor area."*
What not to write:
- *"I need a quote"* — too vague, the AI will hallucinate details
- *"See attached plans"* — the AI reads the plans automatically, but a one-line descriptor helps it understand what you're trying to build on top of what's drawn
- Long lists of every item — that's what the scope tab is for, not the brief
Upload your plans
Drop in any combination of PDF, PNG or JPG files. BuiltUp handles PDFs automatically — it converts each page to an image the AI can read, so multi-page drawing sets work fine.
A few things to know:
- Max 100MB total across all files. For big drawing sets, you can either run multiple passes on different sheets or export just the key sheets (floor plan, elevations, services).
- Image quality matters. A crisp scan or a direct PDF from the architect's software will give much better results than a phone photo of a printed plan.
- Scale bars and dimensions help a lot. If the plans are dimensioned the AI will use those numbers. If not, it'll estimate from the scale bar. If there's neither, it'll guess — and guess conservatively.
- You don't need to convert PDFs yourself — BuiltUp does it in the browser before uploading.
Hit Generate and wait
Click Generate and BuiltUp runs through a series of steps live on screen — reading plans, measuring rooms, matching materials, calculating quantities, assigning labour, building the scope. For a typical residential job this takes 30-60 seconds. For a big commercial fit-out with complex plans, it can take 90-120 seconds.
If you see *"Still processing — large plans take a bit longer"*, don't reload the page. You'll lose the work.
If it fails (rare, but possible on very noisy scans or unusual PDF formats), BuiltUp will tell you what broke and let you try again with a shorter brief or fewer files. Failed attempts don't cost a credit.
AI Scope Architect
Scope Architect is working…
Hang tight — building your scope of works
42s elapsed
Review the scope — and expect to edit it
When the AI finishes you'll land back on the Estimate tab with rooms and items populated. This is where the important work starts: reviewing.
The AI is very good at:
- Counting rooms, doors, windows, outlets
- Matching standard materials to your price book
- Including trades you forgot (demolition, skip hire, making good)
- Respecting waste factors and markup rules
The AI is less reliable on:
- Dimensions — always sanity-check measurements against your own read of the plans
- Finishes you haven't specified — it'll default to mid-range unless you tell it otherwise
- Site-specific extras — parking permits, asbestos removal, access constraints — these need a human
Delete anything you don't want, edit quantities where you have better numbers, and add anything missing. The whole point is to start 80% of the way there instead of from zero.
The AI just saved you an hour. A scope that used to take 90 minutes now takes ten minutes of review. Use the time you saved to double-check the tricky bits — finishes, dimensions, site access — and you'll send tighter quotes than the version of you that built every line by hand.
Building a scope manually
When you'd rather build a scope from scratch — or edit what the AI gave you — here's how the scope editor actually works: rooms, components, quantities, waste factors, and the material search.
More in Estimating
The three-stage estimating flow (Takeoff → Scope → Estimate)
BuiltUp splits estimating into three linked stages the way professional estimators actually work. Here's what each stage is for, how they flow into each other, and why running them separately gets you tighter quotes and fewer disputes.
Creating your first project
Projects are the container for everything BuiltUp does — scope, quotes, invoices, files, messages. This guide walks you through creating one, understanding the status workflow, and knowing what to fill in now vs. later.
Building a scope manually
When you'd rather build a scope from scratch — or edit what the AI gave you — here's how the scope editor actually works: rooms, components, quantities, waste factors, and the material search.
Using the AI Takeoff Analyzer
Upload plans and BuiltUp extracts measurements, counts and areas — with a confidence score on every line so you know what to trust. Then push the ones you're happy with straight into your scope.