Bobyard is an AI takeoff and estimating tool that works across several trades and asks you to book a demo before you see a price. If you bid from plan sets, it is one of the names you will compare. Where its pages describe more automation than Bildrix has today, we say so once, plainly, and keep the rest of this guide on what decides a bid.
Bildrix was built for the bid itself. It is for subcontractors and general contractors of any size bidding commercial or residential work from PDF plan sets in the US and Canada. It takes off architectural and electrical work in depth and counts plumbing fixtures on demand. It prices those quantities through your own price book, fills the gaps with AI prices and AI-written assemblies it tags as its own, and carries the same numbers into the signed proposal, the change order and the invoice. The price is published and the trial starts without a call.
We go category by category: the takeoff, architectural and finishes, electrical, plumbing, the estimate and what follows it, revisions, getting started, and price. Everything we say about Bobyard comes from Bobyard's own website, read on August 19, 2026 and, for its finishes and plumbing pages, on September 14, 2026. We link the page each time. Where its pages are silent, we say "not described" rather than guessing.
TL;DR: Bildrix vs Bobyard
| Feature | Bildrix | Bobyard | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Subcontractors and GCs of any size bidding architectural, electrical and plumbing work from PDF plan sets in the US and Canada. | Trade contractors in six trades. | For a bid you price and carry to invoice, Bildrix. |
| Starting price | $397 per seat per month, billed annually. | Not published. You book a demo. | Bildrix |
| Free trial | Yes. Free upload with every sheet named and scaled, no credit card, plus a free first takeoff. | None described. Book a demo. | Bildrix |
| Architectural and finishes | Rooms, typed walls, doors and windows matched to their schedules, finish schedules joined to rooms, elemental exports. | Rooms, wall length and surface area, finish schedules. | Bildrix for a priced bid; Bobyard for net wall areas. |
| Electrical | Legend-based device counts, editable wire runs, panel schedules read into an editable Panel Editor. | Device counts, panel schedules, riser counts. | Bildrix, on control and pricing. |
| Plumbing | Twelve fixture kinds from the sheet's legend, on demand, priced into the bid. | Fixtures detected. | Bildrix, for priced fixture counts. |
| Estimating and pricing | Your price book first, assemblies applied automatically, AI price lookup and AI-written assemblies, every line tagged. | Estimate table with assembly templates and a cost database. | Bildrix |
| After the estimate | Client e-sign, change orders, invoices, QuickBooks-ready CSV. | Proposal. E-sign, change orders, invoices not described. | Bildrix |
| Revisions and change orders | Compare two sets, then stage the diff as an AIA G701 format change order. | Not described. | Bildrix |
| Review of the AI's output | Confidence on every detection, uncertain items flagged and queued, messy scans labeled. | Confidence levels surfaced for review. | Bildrix, by the queue. |
| Overall winner | Teams that want the whole bid, takeoff to invoice, in one thread at a price they can see today. | Estimators in trades Bildrix does not take off yet. | Bildrix, for plan-set bids carried to invoice. |
Bildrix vs Bobyard at a glance
Both products start the same way: upload a plan set, let the AI read the sheets, review what it found, then price it. The differences are what the AI reads on each trade, how the estimate gets priced, and whether the numbers stop at the proposal or keep going to the invoice.
Bobyard
- AI takeoff and estimating across six trades, with a confidence level on each detection
- An estimate table with assembly templates and a cost database
- No published price or trial; you book a demo
Bildrix
- Built for subcontractors and GCs of any size in the US and Canada who bid from PDF plan sets
- Architectural: rooms, walls, doors and windows, typed from the set's door, window and wall-type schedules, with finishes from the finish schedule joined to each room
- Electrical: devices counted against the sheet's own legend, wire runs drawn or suggested run by run, panel schedules read into an editable Panel Editor
- Plumbing: twelve fixture kinds counted on floor plans, on demand
- Estimating: your price book first, assemblies applied automatically, AI price lookup and AI-written assemblies where your library is silent, and a provenance tag on every line
- Flags uncertain detections for review and labels messy scans rather than reporting confident zeros
- Carries the same quantities into the signed proposal, the AIA G701 format change order and the invoice
- A published price per seat or pay as you go with credits, and a free upload with no credit card
Quick verdict
If you only read one table, read this one.
| If you want… | Choose |
|---|---|
| Architectural counts typed from your schedules, with finishes joined to rooms | Bildrix |
| An estimate priced from your price book, with AI prices tagged where it is silent | Bildrix |
| A takeoff that becomes the signed bid, change order and invoice | Bildrix |
| A price you can see and a free start today | Bildrix |
| Net wall surface areas, or landscaping, mechanical and paving takeoffs | Bobyard |
Feature comparison
A good demo gets you through the afternoon. Features get you through bid week. In each category below we show what each product does and call a winner, and where the call does not go to Bildrix we say so. Every Bobyard statement links to the page it came from.
Takeoff experience
Bobyard's homepage says it automates the first pass and keeps the estimator in the verification loop, and its Bobyard 2.0 post adds a review workflow with confidence levels, a legend manager and search across pages.
Bildrix names every sheet from its own title block when you upload a PDF plan set. Architectural quantities are detected at upload, and Detect All then runs electrical and, when you ask, plumbing fixtures across the set. Every detection carries a confidence level, the uncertain ones are flagged and queued, and every count, boundary and wire route is editable on the drawing. Messy scans and sparse sheets are labeled as such, not reported as confident zeros. Ask AI cites the sheet on every answer. The complete guide walks through the first pass.
Bildrix flags the detections it is not sure about, so you review the flagged minority instead of the whole sheet.
| Feature | Bildrix | Bobyard |
|---|---|---|
| Upload | PDF plan sets. Sheets named from their title blocks. | Drawings, schedules and specs. File types not listed. |
| What the AI detects | Rooms, doors, windows, walls, schedules, electrical devices, wire runs, panel schedules, plumbing fixtures. | Trade-specific models across six trades. |
| Counting symbols | Matched against the sheet's own legend; symbol search from a cropped symbol. | Legend manager; text count. |
| Searching and asking | Text search over the set; Ask AI cites the sheet. | Search across pages; a spec chatbot. |
| Knowing what to double-check | ✅ Confidence on every detection; uncertain items flagged and queued. | ✅ Confidence levels surfaced for review. |
| Scans and messy sets | ✅ Labeled messy or sparse, not reported as certain. | Not described. |
Winner: Bildrix
Close on clean drawings. On a bad set, the margins go to Bildrix: a messy scan is labeled messy instead of returning a confident zero, uncertain items wait in one queue, and Ask AI cites its sheet.
Architectural takeoff and finishes
Most of a plan set is architectural, and a general contractor's bid starts there. The count is only half the job: a door is not priced until you know its type, and a room is not priced until you know its finishes. Bobyard's finishes page describes room detection, wall length and surface area by type, finish schedules, and door and window openings deducted from wall area.
Bildrix reads the schedules, so the counts arrive typed. Rooms are detected as polygons with area in SF or m², named from the drawing's own labels. Walls come in as runs with length, typed from the legend or hatch: partition, exterior 2x6, 1HR rated. Doors and windows are counted with their marks, and the door, window and wall-type schedules are read across the set, so the schedule row beats the plan label. Press Room Schedule and the finish schedule, in English or French, joins floor, wall and ceiling finishes to each room by code, with a Finish Summary in the export. Wall finishes price from room perimeter times the ceiling height the sheet notes.
Typed counts then apply your assemblies on their own. Where nothing in your library fits, the line stays visibly unresolved instead of being priced as a partition, and where no assembly exists anywhere, the AI writes one from the sheet's legend, notes and schedules and tags it for review. The elemental export fills CIQS Class D or UniFormat II PDFs with the quantities. The architectural page shows each step.
Rooms, walls, doors and windows detected at upload, named from the drawing and typed from its schedules.
| Feature | Bildrix | Bobyard |
|---|---|---|
| Rooms | ✅ Polygons with area, named from the drawing. | ✅ Room boundaries detected. |
| Walls | ✅ Length, typed from the legend or hatch. | ✅ Length and surface area by type. |
| Doors and windows | ✅ Counted with marks and matched to their schedules across the set. | ✅ Detected; openings deducted from wall area. |
| Finish schedules | ✅ Joined to rooms by code, in English or French, with a Finish Summary export. | ✅ Finish callouts and schedules detected. |
| Wall and ceiling finishes | Priced from perimeter times ceiling height; no separate surface measurement. | ✅ Surface area by type. |
| Pricing the counts | ✅ Your assemblies apply automatically; missing ones written by the AI and tagged. | Estimate table with assembly templates. |
| Elemental estimate | ✅ CIQS Class D and UniFormat II fillable PDFs. | Not described. |
Winner: Bildrix for a priced architectural bid, Bobyard for net wall areas
If you price paint or wall covering by the net square foot, Bobyard's pages describe that surface measurement and ours do not. For everyone else pricing architectural scope, Bildrix reads the schedules the bid depends on, joins the finishes to the rooms, and prices the typed counts through your own assemblies before you have touched a line.
Electrical takeoff
Electrical is Bildrix's deepest trade. Both products read panel schedules; what differs is how much of each run you control and where the counts go next.
Bildrix finds the legend first and counts devices against it. Wire runs are yours: draw them with a live footage readout, or let the AI suggest switch legs, receptacle chains and homeruns and review them one at a time, accept, reject, or drag the route. Panel schedules are read after upload into a Panel Editor you correct circuit by circuit; devices link to their circuits and homeruns group by panel. A built-in electrical catalog of 159 items prices the counts until your price book replaces it, and everything lands in a division-26 estimate. The electrical page shows each step.
Wire runs in Bildrix snap to devices and elbow orthogonally, with footage updating as you draw. AI-suggested runs are reviewed one at a time.
| Feature | Bildrix | Bobyard |
|---|---|---|
| Device counts | ✅ Against the sheet's own legend, by type and room. | ✅ Devices, panels, fixtures and equipment. |
| Wire runs | ✅ Drawn with live footage or AI-suggested run by run, editable. No automatic conduit routing. | ✅ Homeruns routed automatically. |
| Panel schedules | ✅ Read into an editable Panel Editor: circuit, description, breaker trip and poles, load. | ✅ Read from the schedule. |
| Riser and equipment counting | ❌ No riser pass yet. | ✅ Counted off the riser. |
| Pricing the counts | ✅ Built-in 159-item catalog, your price book first, tagged AI prices where it is silent. | Cost database. |
Winner: Bildrix, on control and pricing
Bildrix gives you a wire footage you drew or approved, panel schedules you correct line by line, and counts that price themselves into a division-26 estimate and carry through to the invoice.
Plumbing takeoff
Bildrix's plumbing is fixture counts on demand, and we will keep it at that: it does not measure pipe.
What Bildrix does, it does carefully. Press Plumbing Fixtures, or include it in Detect All, and twelve fixture kinds are counted from the sheet's own plumbing legend, each boxed at the symbol, never the callout beside it. It runs on floor plans and asks before running on a site plan or detail sheet, so no credit goes on the wrong page. The counts land in a Plumbing estimate preset: your price book prices what it can, the AI looks up a price for the job site's market and tags the rest to confirm with your supplier, and any fixture still unpriced is named before the estimate goes out. The plumbing page lists all twelve kinds.
Create estimate on the Plumbing preset: four fixture lines carry AI prices to verify, and the one still unpriced is named.
| Feature | Bildrix | Bobyard |
|---|---|---|
| Fixture counts | ✅ Twelve kinds, read against the sheet's plumbing legend. | ✅ Fixtures detected. |
| Wrong-sheet guard | ✅ Asks before running on anything but a floor plan. | Not described. |
| Pricing fixtures | ✅ Your price book, then tagged AI prices; unpriced lines named before sending. | Estimate table and cost database. |
Winner: Bildrix, for priced fixture counts
If fixtures are what you count, or plumbing is one trade inside a GC's bid, Bildrix counts them, prices them and carries them to the invoice with everything else.
From takeoff to priced estimate, signature and invoice
A takeoff is not the job. The job is a priced bid the client signs and an invoice that gets paid, and this is where Bildrix does the most that Bobyard's pages do not describe. Bobyard's Estimate Table takes quantities from takeoff to proposal, with assembly templates, a cost database, taxes and margins.
Bildrix prices in three layers and tells you which one priced each line. Your price book comes first: assemblies apply themselves to detected rooms, walls, doors and windows and re-apply when a sheet changes, and counted devices price from the built-in catalog until your own rows replace it. Where your library has no price, the AI looks one up for the job site's market and writes it on the line as an AI-estimated price, a draft to confirm with your vendor. Where no assembly exists, the AI writes one from the sheet's own legend, notes and schedules, prices it and marks it as its own work. Every line carries its tag, option sets let a client compare alternates, and unpriced lines are named before anything goes out.
Then the same numbers keep going. The client signs on a share page that hides your cost and margin, sealed with a SHA-256 fingerprint and bound to the plan revision. Payment schedules, deposit and progress invoices, retainage, online payment and QuickBooks-ready CSVs close the loop.
Every line in a Bildrix estimate shows where its number came from: your price book, an AI price, or an AI quantity.
| Feature | Bildrix | Bobyard |
|---|---|---|
| Your own prices | ✅ Price book and assemblies applied automatically, re-applied when a sheet changes. | Assembly templates and a cost database. |
| AI price lookup | ✅ A price for the job site's market, tagged for review. | Not described. |
| AI-written assemblies | ✅ Drafted from the sheet's legend, notes and schedules, tagged. | Not described. |
| Provenance on every line | ✅ Library price, AI-estimated price or AI-estimated quantity. | Not described. |
| Option sets | ✅ Alternates a client can compare. | Not described. |
| Client proposal and e-sign | ✅ Share page, comments, e-sign sealed to the revision. | Proposal described. E-sign not described. |
| Invoices and payments | ✅ Deposit, progress, final, retainage. Online payment. | ❌ Not described. |
| Accounting export | ✅ QuickBooks-ready invoice CSVs. | ❌ Not described. |
Winner: Bildrix
Bobyard's pages stop at the bid going out, and its pricing is templates and a cost database you apply. Bildrix prices the takeoff while you review, tells you which prices it drafted, and carries the same quantities through the signature, the change order and the invoice, so a fixture counted on sheet A-101 is the fixture the client signed for and the one you billed.
Revisions and plan comparison
Drawings change. An addendum lands two days before the bid, a bulletin lands after award, and the cost of a missed door, fixture or circuit is yours. The Bobyard 2.0 post describes a toggle between the current drawing and the previous one; nothing we read describes pairing revised sheets or turning the difference into a document.
Bildrix treats the revision as the start of a document. Upload the revised set and the sheets pair by drawing number. Compare Pages overlays any two sheets. Then the diff is staged as a change order in AIA G701 format, added scope priced from your estimate and reductions booked as credits, ready for the client to sign against the revision it references. It is sealed like the original proposal.
The revision diff becomes a priced change order in AIA G701 format, with reductions booked as credits.
| Feature | Bildrix | Bobyard |
|---|---|---|
| Comparing two sets | ✅ Compare Pages overlays any two sheets. | Not described. |
| Sheet matching | ✅ Revised sheets pair by drawing number. | Not described. |
| What the diff becomes | ✅ A priced change order in AIA G701 format. | Not described. |
| Credits for removed scope | ✅ Reductions book as credits. | Not described. |
| Document trail | ✅ Signed, sealed and bound to the plan revision. | Not described. |
| Addenda before the bid | ✅ Run detection on the new sheets; only the new sheets use credits, none on Pro. | Re-run cost not described. |
Winner: Bildrix
The clearest gap in the guide. With Bildrix the revision becomes a signed change order with the credits already on it. For a contractor, that gap is a week of chasing, an argument about which revision was priced, and sometimes a credit you forgot to claw back.
Getting started: trial, sign-up and support
To use Bobyard, you book a demo on its demo page, which includes a live takeoff on one of your projects. Its pages describe onboarding with a customer success manager, and no trial, sign-up link or price.
Bildrix assumes you would rather try it than talk about it. Start free in the app with no credit card and upload your own plan set: every sheet is named and scaled, and the AI takeoff runs on credits you buy only when you need them. If you would rather have our eyes on it, book a call and we will run your first takeoff free. Live chat is staffed Monday to Friday. The price is on the pricing page. Nobody has to qualify you first.
| Feature | Bildrix | Bobyard |
|---|---|---|
| Free trial | ✅ Free upload with every sheet named and scaled, no credit card. | ❌ None described. You book a demo. |
| Free first takeoff | ✅ Your plan set, our walkthrough, free. | A live takeoff in the demo. |
| Sign-up | ✅ Start in the app today. | Book a demo, then onboarding. |
| Seats | ✅ One seat per person, priced on the pricing page. Add seats as the team grows. | Not described. |
| Cancellation | ✅ Annual billing, cancel renewal any time. | Not described. |
| Support | ✅ Live chat Monday to Friday, email, the review call. | Onboarding with a customer success manager. |
| Where it's built for | US and Canadian projects. USD subscription, NEC or CEC conventions by job site, plans in imperial or metric, metric and CA$ display in the app. | Not stated. |
| File types | PDF plan sets only. | Not listed. |
Winner: Bildrix
This is a verdict about how you get in the door. A contractor bidding on Thursday does not have time for a demo on Tuesday and a pricing conversation after. Uploading a set tonight, seeing what the AI flags on your own drawings, and deciding with a number in front of you beats a walkthrough. We just will not make you book one to learn the price.
Pricing comparison
Only one of these products publishes a price. Bobyard has no pricing page. The closest thing to a figure is its own comparison post, which calls Bobyard "a premium subscription priced for serious commercial bid volume" and says Togal.AI's public starting price, around $299 per user per month, "is currently less than Bobyard". As of August 19, 2026, from their pages and ours:
| Bobyard | Bildrix |
|---|---|
| Price: not published. A premium subscription, in Bobyard's words. | Pro: $397 per seat per month, billed annually. $4,764 per seat per year. |
| Seats and tiers: not described. | Two ways to pay: Pro for every project, with no credits, or pay as you go with credits that never expire. |
| Trial: none described. Book a demo. | Free upload, no credit card, with every sheet named and scaled. First takeoff free with a review call. |
| Cancellation: not described. | Cancellation: cancel renewal any time. The year is charged up front. |
We cannot do the math when one side is blank. Bobyard describes itself as premium and prices above Togal's per-user figure; Bildrix puts its price per seat on a public page, and every seat includes the estimate, e-sign, change orders and invoicing. Prices change; check both sites.
Where Bobyard goes further
A comparison that hides the other side's strengths is not worth reading, so here they are, briefly:
- Measurement automation: equipment counted off the riser, and wall surface areas with openings deducted. Bildrix prices wall finishes from perimeter and ceiling height.
- More trades: landscaping, mechanical and paving, which Bildrix does not take off.
- Onboarding: a customer success manager and a live takeoff in the demo. Bildrix has live chat Monday to Friday and a free first takeoff review.
Bildrix advantages
Bildrix was designed for the estimator whose name goes on the bid, and for the part of the job that starts after the counting. Every advantage below comes from that decision.
- One takeoff across the plan set: architectural counts typed from the set's schedules with finishes joined to rooms, electrical devices, wire runs and panel schedules, and plumbing fixture counts, all flagged where the AI is unsure. The product page covers each trade.
- Estimating built in: your price book first, assemblies applied automatically, an AI price lookup for the job site's market and AI-written assemblies where your library is silent, and a tag on every line saying which. Nothing enters the bid unmarked.
- An AI that shows its doubt: a confidence level on every detection, a review queue, and messy scans labeled rather than reported as confident zeros. We publish no accuracy percentage; our research page explains why.
- One thread from plan set to invoice: client e-sign sealed to the revision, change orders in AIA G701 format with credits, invoices with online payment, and QuickBooks-ready CSVs, all from the same quantities.
- A price you can see and a free start: a per-seat price on the pricing page, pay as you go with credits if you'd rather not subscribe, a free upload with no card, a free first takeoff, and a stated scope: US and Canada, PDF plan sets.
Which platform should you choose?
It comes down to what you measure, and how much of the job after the measurement you want in the same tool:
Choose Bobyard if you…
- Mostly measure net wall surface areas
- Bid landscaping, mechanical or paving
- Are comfortable learning the price on a demo call
Choose Bildrix if you…
- Bid architectural, electrical or plumbing work from plan sets in the US or Canada
- Want the schedules read and the counts typed before you price
- Want your prices first, with AI prices tagged where your library is silent
- Want the takeoff to become the signed bid, change order and invoice
- Want to see the price and start free today
Conclusion
Bildrix reads the plan set across architectural, electrical and plumbing work, prices it with your numbers first and tags every price it drafted, and carries the bid to the signature, the change order and the invoice at a price you can read today.
For contractors pricing plan-set work, Bildrix comes out ahead where a bid is decided: the schedules, the estimate, the thread to invoice, revisions, getting started and a published price.
If that sounds like your work, try it on your own plans. Upload a plan set free in the app, no credit card, and see every sheet named and scaled. Or book a free first takeoff review.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Bildrix better than Bobyard?
For a contractor of any size in the US or Canada bidding architectural, electrical or plumbing work from PDF plan sets, who wants the takeoff priced and carried to the signed bid and the invoice at a price it can see today, yes.
- What is the biggest difference between Bildrix and Bobyard?
The estimate and what follows it. Bildrix prices the takeoff through your own price book first, looks up a market price where your library is silent, writes missing assemblies from the sheet's notes and schedules, and tags every line with where its number came from. Then the same quantities become the signed proposal, the AIA G701 format change order and the invoice. Bobyard's pages describe an estimate table and a proposal; AI price lookup, e-sign, change orders and invoicing are not described.
- Which is better for general contractors and architectural work?
Bildrix, for a priced architectural bid. It detects rooms, walls, doors and windows, reads the door, window and wall-type schedules across the set, joins finishes from the finish schedule to each room in English or French, and prices the typed counts through your assemblies.
- Which is better for electrical contractors?
Bildrix counts devices against the legend, reads panel schedules into an editable Panel Editor, lets you draw or review wire runs one at a time, and prices the counts into a division-26 estimate that becomes the signed proposal, change order and invoice.
- Does Bildrix do plumbing takeoff?
Fixture counts, on demand. Twelve fixture kinds are counted on floor plans against the sheet's plumbing legend, then priced through your price book or a tagged AI price, and anything still unpriced is named before the estimate goes out. Bildrix does not measure pipe, fittings or risers.
- Does Bildrix price the estimate, or only count?
Both. Your assemblies apply themselves to detected rooms, walls, doors and windows, counted electrical devices price from a built-in catalog until your own rows replace it, and where your library is silent the AI looks up a price for the job site's market and tags the line to confirm with your vendor. Tagged lines are drafts; the tag stays until you replace the number.
- Which is more affordable?
Bobyard does not publish a price. Its own comparison post calls it a premium subscription and says Togal.AI's public starting price, around $299 per user per month, is currently less than Bobyard. Bildrix Pro is $397 per seat per month billed annually, $4,764 a seat per year, or pay as you go: upload free with no credit card and buy credits for the AI takeoff when you need them. A seat is one person. Prices change; check both sites.
- Can I switch from Bobyard to Bildrix?
Yes, and you do not need to export anything from Bobyard first. Bildrix works from the PDF plan set: upload it, let Detect All run, and compare the results with the takeoff you already have. The fair test is one real project: bring a set you took off in Bobyard to the free first takeoff review and compare counts, flags and time to a priced estimate.