FAQ > Estimating Tools > What is a simple, inexpensive estimating program?
Many of our customers use the Brava Reader. There is a free demo version you can try to see if you like it and the version most people use only costs $115. It is available here: http://www.bravaviewer.com/reader.htm.
For some work environments, Adobe Acrobat Pro can be a good choice. It costs $450, but there is also a free demo available at: http://www.adobe.com/downloads/. Acrobat Pro has only a few basic measuring tools, but is very good at modifying and extracting pieces of plans to be used in other documents. It is also very good at working with multiple PDF files.
Bid4Build offers a program called the Bid4Build Takeoff Live On Screen Digital Takeoff System. It costs $495 and has a free demo version at: http://www.bid4build.com/OVERVIEW.htm.
There are dozens of other programs you can find online. These are just three that we know many of our customers use.