Frequently asked questions.

What is LumenCount?

LumenCount turns a lighting drawing set into a counted, reviewable fixture takeoff. It reads the luminaire schedule, the AI takes a first pass at counting fixtures on your floor plans, and you review, correct, and mark up every plan before exporting a branded Excel and a marked-up PDF.

It's built for lighting estimators, distributors, and contractors who want to get to a bid faster — without giving up control of the numbers.

How do I get access?

Just sign up. Create an account at lumencount.com — it's free, no invite needed. Manual takeoffs are free to run right away; AI fixture counting is a paid upgrade.

What does it cost?

Manual takeoffs are free. Full Access — AI fixture counting, quoting, submittals, and photometrics — is $179 per seat / month, billed to your whole team by seat. And if you'd rather not count at all, a done-for-you takeoff starts at $39 — pay per takeoff, no subscription. See the full breakdown on the pricing page.

How does team pricing work?

Full Access is priced per seat at $179/month. A seat is one person on your workspace, and the admin counts as a seat — so a 3-seat plan covers you plus two teammates. Everyone shares the same projects, counting, and quoting; nothing is metered per page.

Set your seat count at signup and change it anytime from Billing. Add seats and you're billed only the prorated difference right away; remove seats and the lower count takes effect at your next renewal. You can't drop below the number of people currently on the workspace — remove a teammate first.

How accurate is the AI count?

The AI gives you a head start, not a final answer. It scans each floor plan and proposes a count, but you review every fixture — add what it missed, remove false hits, fix types — before anything is final. The count is never locked in until you say so.

That's by design: you stay in control of the numbers you bid on.

What if my plans tag fixtures by symbol instead of a type code?

The AI count finds fixtures by the type code printed next to them. If your plans tag fixtures only by symbol — with no code at each fixture — the AI can't reliably find them.

For those jobs, use symbol-only / manual mode: skip the AI count and place every fixture by hand on a clean, boxed plan. You get the same markup tools and the same branded export — just a fast manual takeoff. Or hand the whole thing to us with a done-for-you takeoff.

What file types and trades do you support?

Today, LumenCount works on PDF lighting drawing sets. Support for lighting controls and other MEP trades is on the way.

What do I get at the end?

A branded Excel workbook with a count-by-floor matrix and the full fixture schedule, plus a marked-up PDF of every plan you reviewed — ready to drop into a bid. And the job doesn't stop at the count: the same project carries into quoting and submittals.

Can LumenCount check light levels (photometrics)?

Yes. Once a plan is counted, open Photometrics to lay out each room on the drawing and read the light the counted fixtures deliver — average maintained footcandles by the lumen method, plus a point-by-point footcandle grid with avg/min/max and uniformity ratios. It reads the sheet's printed scale automatically when it can; otherwise you set the scale with two clicks on a known dimension.

Export a per-room footcandle summary, a marked-up plan with the grid and iso-footcandle contours, and an Excel schedule. It's a fast, direct-illuminance check for laying out and sanity-checking a design — a starting point for your bid, not a substitute for a full interreflection study.

Does LumenCount handle more than the count?

Yes — each takeoff lives in a project that carries the whole job. Your counts seed a quoting workspace (add pricing line by line or import your fixture list from CSV or Excel), and from the same project you can build submittal packages and O&M manuals, with manufacturer datasheets and warranties pulled from a shared library.

Takeoffs are versioned, too: save, reopen, and save edits as a new version — so when an addendum drops, V2 doesn't overwrite V1.

What is a done-for-you takeoff?

You upload the drawing set and pick the floor-plan pages you want counted; a real lighting professional runs the full takeoff by hand — count, types, markup — and delivers it back to your project. You get the same deliverables as any other takeoff: marked-up plans and a fixture count you can quote from.

It's built for the week the bid is due and the hours aren't there.

What does it cost, and do I need a subscription?

$9.99 per selected page, with a $39 minimum per takeoff. The price is calculated from the pages you select and confirmed before you pay — you pay per takeoff through a secure checkout, and no subscription is required. It works from the free Manual tier.

How fast is it?

Standard turnaround is 48 hours from payment. When it's available, you can add a 24-hour rush for +$99 at checkout — if the rush option isn't shown, we can't promise 24 hours at that moment, and your takeoff runs on the standard turnaround.

How do I order one?

In the app, create a new project and choose "We'll do it for you." Upload your PDF set, confirm the floor-plan pages you want counted, agree to the service terms, and pay. Your finished takeoff is delivered back into that same project when it's ready.

What exactly gets counted?

Everything is counted from the electronic drawing sheets (E-sheets) you provide — we don't visit the site or verify anything in the field. Fixtures are counted as they appear on the drawings, and linear or measured items (millwork, cove, tape, and similar) are measured only where the drawings carry a reliable, stated scale; otherwise they're counted as shown and final lengths should be field-verified.

Your takeoff is a starting document for your own estimate — not a bid or a guarantee of completeness. The full service terms and scope are shown at checkout before you pay.

Is my data private?

Your drawings live in your own personal or company dashboard, visible only to you. We don't share them or use them to train AI. For done-for-you takeoffs, the lighting professional working your request accesses your set only to produce your takeoff.