Drywall takeoff software for partitions, board and ceilings

What a drywall takeoff measures

What to look for in drywall software

Software drywall estimators use

As described on each vendor's own pages, checked November 3, 2026. Prices change; check with the vendor.

For tools that cover every trade on one plan set, see the construction takeoff software and construction estimating software guides.

Takeoff and material calculation: one tool or two?

Many drywall contractors still measure in one program and calculate materials in a workbook that has grown for years. That works until a wall type changes two days before the bid and both have to be updated by hand.

Togal and PlanSwift both put assemblies inside the takeoff¹³, so materials and labor move with each wall as it is measured. STACK does the same on its Pro plan⁵. The practical test is to rebuild one of your real wall types as an assembly in a trial and check the board and stud counts against a job you already built.

Outlet boxes in rated partitions: spacing, putty pads and firestopping

Every receptacle, switch and data box in a rated wall is a membrane penetration of your assembly. NEC 300.21 requires openings around electrical penetrations into or through fire-resistant-rated walls, partitions, floors or ceilings to be firestopped by approved methods to keep the rating (2020 NEC)⁶. UL's guidance for listed metallic boxes in walls rated up to 2 hours limits each box to 16 square inches, the total to 100 square inches per 100 square feet of wall, and the gap between box and board to 1/8 inch, and it calls for 24 inches of horizontal separation between boxes on opposite sides of the wall unless listed wall-opening protective materials such as putty pads are used⁷.

That hits the drywall bid in two places. Back-to-back boxes in hotel and apartment party walls usually mean putty pads, and the scope should say whether the electrician, the firestopping sub or your crew installs them. Oversized or sloppy cutouts past 1/8 inch become a patch-and-reinspect cost, so cut quality around boxes is worth a line in your labor rate on rated jobs.

Ask the electrical contractor for the device locations in rated walls before you finalize the partition takeoff. Their box sizes come out of a box fill check and the device count from the electrical estimate, and the data and security boxes from the low-voltage scope go into the same walls.

Where drywall takeoffs go wrong

• One height for every wall when some run to the deck and others stop above the ceiling.
• Counting the wall length but not the number of layers per side.
• Missing shaft walls, chase walls and furring that sit on different sheets from the main partitions.
• A spreadsheet formula dragged one row too far, which nobody catches until buyout.
• Splitting a big set between estimators and double counting walls at the boundary.

Trades that bid the same job

A drywall bid rarely stands alone. The trades next to it on the schedule read the same drawings and often share scope lines, so it pays to know how they take off too: framing takeoff software, painting estimating software, insulation estimating software and commercial door estimating software.

Where AmpCount fits

AmpCount only counts electrical devices and fixtures, so it does not measure partitions, board or ceilings. On the same project, the receptacles, switches and fixtures that end up in your walls and ceilings are what AmpCount counts for the electrical contractor, from the electrical sheets rather than the architectural ones.

How electrical takeoff software counts a plan set

Questions

Guides and tools for any trade