[Andrew Veggian]

If you do start your takeoffs and realize later that you forgot to flatten first, then turn on the “Author” column in the markups list. Sort by Author, select all markups that are not yours, then flatten them.

Here’s my list of steps that I always go through to prep my drawings before takeoffs.

1. Delete all viewports (if prompted when I open the file for the first time)
2. Flatten (usually without recovery)
3. Create page labels (using Automark – sheet number only)
4. Create bookmarks (using Automark – sheet number and title)
5. OCR
6. Batch link (using the page labels I already created, and overwriting all existing hyperlinks)
7. Set scales
8. Create spaces (if needed to separate takeoffs)