Steel takeoffs that took days. Now a fraction of the time, with AI that reads the drawings.
Roseworx Engineering is a family-owned Western Australian steel fabricator. Before it can price a job, every piece of steel has to be worked out from the drawings, and a large takeoff could take up to two days. We worked with their managing director and estimator to build an AI-assisted takeoff process that reads their CAD drawings, so takeoffs that took days now take a fraction of the time.
What does Roseworx Engineering do?
Roseworx is a family-owned steel fabricator in Forrestdale, in Perth's south-east, with close to two decades of experience. It fabricates structural steel, conveyors, plate work, pressure vessels and pipe work for mining, oil and gas, petrochemical, commercial and residential projects.
The work runs end to end, from a site survey or the client's drawings through engineering, shop detailing, fabrication and surface treatment to installation, under a quality management system that works in accordance with ISO 9001.
What problem were they solving?
Takeoffs. A takeoff is working out every piece of steel a job needs from the engineers' and architects' drawings, so the job can be priced. A simple job took a couple of hours, and a large one could take up to two days once everything was double-checked.
It is careful, skilled work: reading the plan view, side views, elevations, sections and details together and measuring each member. Every quote waited on it, and the time spent on takeoffs set how many quotes could go out. Shorter takeoffs meant more quotes, and more quotes meant a better chance of winning work.
The team already used Claude for emails and documents, and had tried it on PDF drawings. It helped, but it was not accurate enough for a takeoff.
What did we do?
We worked with the managing director and the estimator to build a takeoff process where AI reads the CAD drawings directly, instead of PDFs, and produces the takeoff the way they would.
- Connected their CAD and drawing markup software to Claude, so it works from the source files where measurements are exact
- Ran takeoffs on real sets of drawings and checked them against the team's own
- Corrected what it got wrong and repeated until the output matched how Roseworx does a takeoff
- Saved that method as a skill, a set of instructions Claude follows the same way every time
We trained the team on the process as we built it, so they can run it on every new job and refine it themselves.
What did it achieve?
Takeoffs that took days now take a fraction of the time. AI does the measuring and counting, and the estimator reviews the result rather than building it from scratch.
That frees up the estimator for the judgement calls, and means quotes go out sooner. For a business that wins most of its work through repeat clients and word of mouth, being able to price more jobs, faster, means more chances to win work.
AI for steel fabrication and engineering businesses in Australia
Any business that prices custom work from drawings has the same slow step: someone skilled measuring plans by hand before a quote can go out. AI is now good enough to take on much of that measuring, as long as it is set up properly.
Where AI helps first
Takeoffs and quantity estimates are the obvious first win for fabricators. Others include drafting quotes and scopes from the takeoff, checking drawing revisions for changes, and preparing documents such as inspection and test plans from templates.
What to know before you start
Work from the source files where you can. CAD and model files hold exact measurements, while PDFs make AI guess. Teach the AI your method on real past jobs, compare its output with your own, and only rely on it once it matches. Keep a person checking every takeoff before it goes into a price.
Drawings often belong to your clients, so treat them carefully. Use AI tools that do not train on your data, control who can access them, and keep the Australian Privacy Principles in mind for any personal information in project files. Start with one job, get it reliable, then move on.
See automate quoting if you would like us to build it, or AI training to get your team building with AI on its own work.
Common questions
Does AI do the whole takeoff on its own?
No. AI reads the drawings and produces the takeoff, and the estimator checks it before it goes into a quote. The skilled part of the job stays with a person, without the hours of manual measuring.
Why not just give AI the PDF drawings?
Roseworx had tried that, and it was helpful but not accurate enough for a takeoff. The process we built works from the CAD files themselves, where the measurements are exact.
How did the AI learn the way Roseworx does takeoffs?
We ran takeoffs on real drawings, compared them with the team's own, corrected what it got wrong and repeated. The final method was saved as a set of instructions Claude follows the same way every time.
Updated 1 November 2026
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