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    <title>TakeOn Field Notes</title>
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    <description>Guides and field notes on electrical takeoff and estimating, from the team building TakeOn.</description>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <lastBuildDate>Fri, 02 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT</lastBuildDate>
    <item>
      <title>Conduit homeruns on a PDF plan: measure them without tracing</title>
      <link>https://www.takeonbid.com/blog/auto-route-conduit-homeruns/</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 02 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>To measure conduit homeruns in TakeOn, mark panels as Landmarks and pick Route to… on a run. It routes to the panel around keep-out zones and totals the length.</description>
      <category>routing</category>
      <category>electrical takeoff</category>
      <category>conduit</category>
      <category>how-to</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>How to count symbols on a PDF plan automatically</title>
      <link>https://www.takeonbid.com/blog/count-symbols-on-pdf-plans/</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.takeonbid.com/blog/count-symbols-on-pdf-plans/</guid>
      <pubDate>Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>To count symbols on a PDF plan automatically, box one example and let image matching find the rest. TakeOn's Find Similar proposes matches; you accept them.</description>
      <category>how-to</category>
      <category>ai</category>
      <category>electrical takeoff</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Markup vs margin in an electrical bid: formulas and a table</title>
      <link>https://www.takeonbid.com/blog/markup-vs-margin-electrical-bid/</link>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>Markup is profit as a percent of cost; margin is profit as a percent of the sell price. A 20% markup gives a 16.7% margin, and a 20% margin takes a 25% markup.</description>
      <category>estimating</category>
      <category>bidding</category>
      <category>electrical estimating</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>How to connect Claude to your electrical takeoff with MCP</title>
      <link>https://www.takeonbid.com/blog/connect-claude-to-your-takeoff-mcp/</link>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 23 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>TakeOn has an MCP connector: add it to Claude or any MCP client, approve the workspaces it can read, and ask about your takeoff, bid, specs and sheets.</description>
      <category>ai</category>
      <category>mcp</category>
      <category>electrical takeoff</category>
      <category>how-to</category>
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      <title>Panel schedule to takeoff: turn PDF schedules into counts</title>
      <link>https://www.takeonbid.com/blog/panel-schedule-to-takeoff/</link>
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      <pubDate>Mon, 21 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>To turn a panel or luminaire schedule on a PDF into a takeoff, capture the table as data, map its columns to a count template, and review the counts it creates.</description>
      <category>schedules</category>
      <category>electrical takeoff</category>
      <category>how-to</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>What is an electrical takeoff? Definition, steps, errors</title>
      <link>https://www.takeonbid.com/blog/what-is-an-electrical-takeoff/</link>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 19 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>An electrical takeoff is the count and measurement of every electrical item on a drawing set, producing the quantities an estimator prices to build a bid.</description>
      <category>takeoff basics</category>
      <category>electrical takeoff</category>
      <category>estimating</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>From PDF to BOM in 15 minutes: a takeoff walkthrough</title>
      <link>https://www.takeonbid.com/blog/pdf-to-bom-walkthrough/</link>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 03 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>To turn a PDF electrical plan into a bill of materials in TakeOn: check the scale, define count and linear templates, click and measure, export grouped totals.</description>
      <category>walkthrough</category>
      <category>electrical takeoff</category>
      <category>bill of materials</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Template properties: how a contractor saved 40% of estimating time</title>
      <link>https://www.takeonbid.com/blog/template-properties-deep-dive/</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.takeonbid.com/blog/template-properties-deep-dive/</guid>
      <pubDate>Sun, 26 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>TakeOn template properties are custom fields on a takeoff item — type, voltage, circuit — with value lists and conditional fields. The takeoff groups by them.</description>
      <category>features</category>
      <category>templates</category>
      <category>electrical takeoff</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Why we built a web-based takeoff tool when Bluebeam already exists</title>
      <link>https://www.takeonbid.com/blog/why-we-built-takeon/</link>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 12 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>TakeOn is browser-based electrical takeoff software, built because Bluebeam, PlanSwift and On-Screen Takeoff are Windows-only and hand counts to a spreadsheet.</description>
      <category>positioning</category>
      <category>electrical takeoff</category>
      <category>bluebeam alternative</category>
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