Everything you need to know about a scan

Your plan set and specifications as PDF files. Site photos are optional — add them if you have them.

Not yet. Grudar can't read a native CAD file — a .dwg, .dxf, or similar file straight out of AutoCAD, Revit, or similar drafting software — as a drawing. Export it to PDF first, then upload the PDF instead. The CAD file will still upload and store on your project, but it won't count as evidence the scan can read; if it's the only drawing set you have, the scan will tell you to export to PDF before it can run.

No. A documents-only set still gets a full scan and a full report. If you do add site photos, the scan folds them into the same report as a dedicated section on existing site conditions — not a separate product. Site-photo pricing is announced at launch. Either way, you'll see the exact total before you click.

Your files finish processing first — usually well under 2 minutes, though occasionally longer if a file sits in a virus-scan queue. Once your set is ready, you click one scan. The scan runs, and then your report is ready. There's nothing else to trigger in between.

Usually about 20 minutes. Sometimes — mostly on larger, multi-volume sets — it takes up to about an hour and a half. Those are real measured times from scans that already ran, not a promise, and you'll see the expected wait before you click.

• Narrative

  A plain-language summary of what the scan found, so you know where to start reading.

• Conflicts

  Places where the drawings, specs, or other documents in the set disagree with each other.

• Questions & Open Items

  The specific questions worth asking before you price or issue, drafted from what the set leaves unclear or missing.

• Existing Conditions

  Only appears when you upload site photos — what they show about existing conditions, folded into the same scan.

• Scope

  What the set puts in scope, organized so you can see what you're actually pricing or building.

• Risks

  Conditions and notes in the set worth flagging for attention.

• Project Context

  The project basics worth knowing: site, structure, and permitting.

• Coverage

  A plain accounting of what the scan actually read, so a partial result never reads like a complete one.

Today, Grudar is open to architects, so the report is written for the person issuing the set: the questions bidders will ask, before you issue. A contractor version comes with Grudar for GCs, which is locked until launch.

It doesn't perform quantity takeoff, generate pricing, or produce a bid for you. It's a QA read of your document set — it tells you what to check, question, and verify. You (or your own estimating process) still do the takeoff, the pricing, and the bid.

No. Long findings are never cut short. And every report includes a Coverage section that plainly states what the scan could and couldn't read, so you always know what's covered and what isn't.

You'll get an in-app notification the moment it's ready. Scan accounts also have "Email me when a report is ready" turned on by default, in Settings → Notifications — turn it off there if you'd rather rely on the in-app notification alone. That email goes out once, to whoever started the scan, and it says so plainly if the report it points to only finished partially. Either way, the in-app notification always fires.

You pay for the document set you scan, sized to how big it is — no seats, no subscription. Final prices are still being set and will be announced at launch, and you'll always see the exact price for your set before you click.

You're credited automatically — a scan that doesn't finish, finds nothing readable, or only partly finishes is credited back without you having to ask. See the pricing page for exactly which cases are covered. If something still looks wrong, contact support below with your project name and roughly when it happened.