Scopa
Create a Schedule of Works From Construction Drawings
Upload the drawing set as PDFs. About 8 minutes later a structured schedule of works arrives by email as a spreadsheet, every item described so that it can be priced — together with a classified list of everything the drawings left unclear.
No subscription. Runs do not expire. Your drawings are deleted as soon as the schedule is sent.
In short
Scopa is construction software that converts a PDF drawing set into an editable first-draft schedule of works. It reads architectural drawings, the demolition plan, the structural engineer's drawings and schedules, and the written specification, and returns a schedule in the standard section order or in the NBS (CAWS) arrangement, plus a classified list of assumptions, conflicts, provisional items and matters needing confirmation. It is used by architects, estimators, contractors and quantity surveyors. It costs £49 a run with no subscription, and it does not price the work.
Can AI produce a schedule of works from construction drawings?
Yes — as a first draft, which is the honest version of the answer. Scopa reads the set, works out what the job involves and writes it out section by section in the order a job gets built, with each item described in enough detail to put a price against. On the published example that produced 105 items across 16 sections from 17drawings.
What it does not do is remove the checking. AI can make mistakes, and a schedule of works goes out with somebody's name on it. Read it against your own drawings and adjust it before you price or issue. The hours of typing are gone; the professional judgement is not.
What to upload
Each document decides a different part of the schedule
The quality of a schedule of works is mostly decided before the run starts. This is what each part of a set contributes, and what happens when it is not there.
| Document | What it decides | If it is missing |
|---|---|---|
| Existing floor plans | What is being removed, altered and made good, as distinct from what is new. | There is no way to work out demolition or making good, so those items go missing. |
| Proposed plans, sections and elevations | The bulk of the new work, room by room and elevation by elevation. | There is very little for the schedule to describe. |
| Demolition plan | Strip-out, structural openings and what is being taken back to what. | Demolition has to be inferred from the difference between existing and proposed. |
| Structural engineer's drawings and schedules | Foundations, beams, lintels and padstones — at the engineer’s sizes, not indicative ones. | Structural items get written from the architect's details, which are usually indicative. |
| Window and external door schedules | Types, sizes and counts, which are typically stated once in the whole set. | Those become items needing confirmation rather than priced scope. |
| Specification / materials and workmanship | Finishes, products and standards, in the wording your set already uses. | Finishes are carried as assumptions for you to confirm. |
You do not need all of it. A missing document is reported in the confirmations list rather than filled in with a guess — but the more of the set you include, the more of the job the schedule describes and the shorter that list gets.
How the set is read
A drawing and a specification are not read the same way
Drawings are read as images
A drawing is its geometry and its annotation together. Pulling the text out and discarding the sheet would throw away the drawing itself, so drawings go through as images.
Long written documents are read as text
Eight pages or more averaging at least 800 characters a page is a written document, not a drawing. That is what lets a full written specification be read end to end rather than sampled.
The engineer takes precedence
Where the structural engineer's information and the architect's details disagree, the item is written from the engineer's version and the conflict is flagged.
TBC never becomes firm scope
Anything the set leaves undecided is carried as a provisional item or a confirmation. It is never quietly resolved into something you would be pricing by mistake.
Two things worth setting before you upload
Tick the new-building box if there is no existing structure, and Scopa stops looking for alterations or asking where the existing drawings are.
Anything the drawings do not say
There is a notes box for client choices, PC sums and exclusions — kitchen supplied by the client, decoration excluded, windows to be aluminium. Those go into the schedule instead of coming back to you as questions.
What comes out
Two formats, three files, one email
You choose the format per run, and the choice is remembered.
The schedule as a spreadsheet
Standard section order — Preparation through to Fixtures & Fittings — or the NBS (CAWS) arrangement with section codes, consecutive numbering and empty PC sum and price columns. Laid out to read and print on A4.
The same schedule as CSV
For importing into an estimating package or a spreadsheet you already use. Same content, no formatting.
The confirmations as a PDF
Assumptions, exclusions, provisional allowances, PC sums and items requiring confirmation, each one classified so it can go straight to the client or the design team.
Issuing to a quantity surveyor, or pricing into a bill? TheNBS (CAWS) output is set out in full — the columns, the row types, the numbering rule and the section codes. Wondering whether a general AI assistant would do the same job? That comparison is here, including when not to buy a run.
Evidence
A published run, on a set nobody tidied up first
A domestic extension and remodel, with the architect's and the structural engineer's drawings exactly as they were issued. Every figure here is read from that run.
- 17
- drawings in
- 29 MB
- uploaded whole
- 105
- line items to price
- 27
- confirmations raised
- 8 min
- £49 a run
The worked example reproduces two sections of the schedule in full, shows the drawing conflicts it found, and lets you download the actual spreadsheet, CSV and confirmations PDF that a customer receives.
What it will not do
Worth knowing before you spend £49, and cheaper to say here than to discover after a run.
- It does not price anything. No rates, no quantities, no totals — the PC sum and price columns in the NBS (CAWS) output arrive empty on purpose. If you need measured quantities, what you are after is a bill of quantities, not this.
- It does not produce a programme. A schedule of works is not a time schedule; there are no dates or durations anywhere in the output.
- It reads PDFs only. Export from CAD first, up to 40 documents in a run.
- It does not produce a finished document. It is a first draft to read against your own set and correct before it is priced or issued.
- It cannot describe work that has not been drawn. A concept sketch will not produce a usable schedule.
Working out which document your project needs in the first place? The guide onschedule of works vs bill of quantities covers that, including who carries the risk when the measurement is wrong.
Who uses it
Anyone who writes the schedule from a blank document
Architects and technicians
Asked by a client to produce the schedule of works alongside the drawings you have already issued.
Scopa for architectsEstimators
Turning a tender set into something you can price without first spending a day writing out what the job is.
Contractors and builders
Pricing your own work from a set, and wanting the gaps in it listed before you commit to a number.
Quantity surveyors
Needing the schedule in the NBS (CAWS) arrangement, with the PC sum and price columns left for you.
The CAWS output in detailPricing
£49 a run, and no subscription
One drawing set in, one schedule of works out. Runs do not expire, so you pay for the jobs you use it on and nothing else.
£49
A single run
£49 a schedule
£199
5 runs
£39.80 a schedule
£349
10 runs
£34.90 a schedule
Questions about drawings and what comes back
- Can AI create a schedule of works from construction drawings?
- Yes, as a first draft. Scopa reads a drawing set — architectural drawings, the demolition plan, the structural engineer's information and the written specification — and writes a structured schedule of works in which every item is described well enough to price. It arrives by email about 8 minutes after you upload. It is a draft to work from rather than a document to issue unread: the writing is done for you, the checking is not.
- What file formats can I upload?
- PDFs only. Export your drawings from CAD as PDF before uploading — the file type is checked properly rather than by its name, so a file renamed to .pdf will be refused. You can send up to 40 documents in a single run.
- How does it read a drawing, as opposed to a specification?
- Differently, and deliberately. Drawings are read as images, because a drawing is its geometry and annotation together and extracting only the text would throw away the drawing. A long document with consistent text throughout — eight pages or more averaging at least 800 characters a page — is treated as a written document and read as text, which is what allows a full specification to be read end to end. A single sheet is treated as a drawing however much writing is on it.
- Do I need the whole set?
- No, but the more of the set you include, the more of the job the schedule can describe, and the fewer items come back as confirmations. Existing drawings matter as much as proposed ones. If a document is missing, Scopa says so in the confirmations list rather than inventing the scope.
- What happens when the architect's and the engineer's drawings disagree?
- The item is written from the structural engineer's version, and the conflict is listed in the confirmations so you can settle it. You get something to price plus a note telling you to check it, rather than a gap.
- What if the project is a new build?
- Tick the new-building box before uploading. Scopa then knows there is no existing structure to compare against and will not raise confirmations about missing existing drawings or go looking for alterations. Site clearance and demolition still appear if the drawings show anything being removed from the plot.
- Can I tell it things the drawings do not say?
- Yes. There is a notes box on the upload screen for client choices, PC sums and exclusions — for example that the kitchen is supplied by the client, that decoration is excluded, or that windows are to be aluminium. Those are carried into the schedule rather than raised back at you as questions.
- What if my set is too big?
- You are told before the run starts and before anything is charged. The limit is on how much reading a single run may do rather than on file size, so a set of large but simple sheets goes through where a set padded out with a calculation pack may not. Removing the documents that are not describing the works is usually enough.
- Does it price the work or produce a programme?
- Neither. Scopa writes what the work is, where it is and how it is described. There are no rates, quantities or totals in the output, and no dates or durations — a schedule of works is not a time schedule.
- What happens to my drawings?
- They are held only for the few minutes the run takes and deleted the moment the schedule is emailed to you. A nightly sweep clears anything left behind by a run that failed part-way, so nothing lingers because a happy path did not complete.
Send a set through and see what comes back
£49 a run, about 8 minutes, and the drawings deleted as soon as the schedule is sent.
An architect? There is a page written for practices.