HVAC Takeoff Software for Ottawa Mechanical Contractors
Start your free takeoffHow AI HVAC takeoff works
Ottawa's mechanical work leans on the public and institutional side more than most Canadian cities. Federal office buildings and their renovations, hospitals, the universities and colleges, and research labs come up for tender alongside commercial fit-outs downtown and in Kanata's technology parks. A lot of it is retrofit work in occupied buildings, where the drawings show new duct alongside existing systems that stay.
DuctIQ is HVAC takeoff software built for that mix. Upload an Ontario mechanical PDF and it reads the plan sheets, measures supply, return and exhaust duct by size, counts fittings, and pulls equipment from the schedules into a takeoff you review line by line and export to Excel.
Public-sector retrofits and a two-season climate
Ottawa has cold winters and humid summers, so its buildings carry both heating and cooling, and the mechanical sets show it: air handlers with heating and cooling coils, rooftop units, energy recovery on institutional ventilation, and long trunk runs through occupied floors. On retrofit sheets the new work sits beside existing duct, so separating what is new from what stays is part of every takeoff.
New work here is designed to the 2024 Ontario Building Code, in force since January 1, 2025 and built on the 2020 National Building Code. DuctIQ does not need a code-specific template: it reads the drawing itself, so it works on sets prepared by any Ottawa engineering firm, and the estimator keeps the final say on every quantity.
- Measures trunk and branch duct on institutional and office floors at the sheet's scale.
- Keeps supply, return and exhaust separate by size, with each line traced to its sheet.
- Counts fittings and air devices, and reads equipment tags from the schedules.
- Exports to Excel or CSV for your pricing workbook.
From mechanical PDF to bid-ready takeoff in Ottawa
The workflow is the same whether you bid one trade or many: upload the mechanical set, let DuctIQ read and measure it, review the line items, and export. For a Ottawa estimator that means the rote hours of scaling and counting collapse into a short review, and the time you save goes back into pricing and bid strategy.
- Upload the mechanical PDF for your Ontario project — vector or scanned.
- AI traces the duct runs and separates supply, return, and exhaust by size.
- Fittings are counted and equipment is pulled from the schedules.
- Review the reviewable line items; low-confidence reads are flagged.
- Export to Excel or CSV straight into your pricing workbook.
Run your first takeoff free
Upload a mechanical PDF and get a reviewable ductwork, fittings, and equipment takeoff you can export to Excel. No credit card to try your first drawing.
Built by a practicing P.Eng and principal of an Ontario mechanical contracting firm, for the estimators at that firm.
Start your free takeoff Download a sample takeoff See pricingNew to AI takeoff and want a hand? Send us your first drawing and we'll help you review the output, or book a 1:1 walkthrough.
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Frequently asked questions
Does DuctIQ work with Ottawa and Ontario mechanical drawings?
Yes. DuctIQ reads the mechanical PDF directly, imperial or metric, so it works on sets from any Ottawa engineering firm without an Ontario-specific template. It measures the duct, counts fittings and pulls equipment from the schedules.
Is it useful for Ottawa's government, hospital and campus retrofits?
Those jobs mix new duct with existing systems on the same sheets, which makes a hand takeoff slow. DuctIQ measures the runs at scale and groups them by system and size, and every line is traced to its sheet so you can confirm what is new work before you price it.
How long does a takeoff take?
Most plan sheets process in minutes. You then review the line items, where low-confidence reads are flagged, and export to Excel or CSV.
Do I still check the numbers before I bid?
Always. Every quantity is a reviewable line traced to the sheet it came from. You confirm the takeoff against the drawings before it goes into your bid.