Review wall
classification.
Quantities are only as good as the wall types behind them. Here is how to read the colored overlays and confirm each one against the legend.
Why classification comes first
Every number in your BOQ rolls up from a decision the model made about each wall: what type is it? A wall classified as a one-hour rated partition pulls a different stud, board count, and insulation row than a generic interior wall. Get the classification right and the quantities follow. That is why estimators review the overlays before they trust a single total.
Reading the overlays
After a takeoff runs, Pilars shows the floor plan with detected wall segments highlighted in color, each color tied to a wall type from your legend. The fine-tuned vision model produced these — it is what lets the quantities trace back to something you can actually see on the sheet.
Step by step
- Open the classification view from the takeoff result. The plan appears with colored wall segments and a key tying each color to a wall type.
- Match colors to the legend. Pull up the wall-type legend you uploaded and confirm that the color the AI used for, say, type B2 corresponds to the right assembly.
- Walk the rated assemblies first. Corridors, shafts, stair enclosures, and demising walls carry fire ratings. Confirm these read as rated partitions — a mis-read here is the most expensive kind.
- Check the big rooms. Long runs drive the totals. If a perimeter wall is colored as the wrong type, the LF and SF for that whole type shift.
- Note anything to adjust before exporting. If a segment is mis-typed, you know which line in the BOQ to scrutinize.
When the model and the legend disagree
Occasionally a wall is tagged ambiguously on the plan, or the same color is reused for two assemblies in a messy set. The overlays make that visible immediately — you see a segment colored one way that the legend says should be another. Treat the legend as the source of truth: the schedule defines the assembly, the overlay shows where the model placed it. Where they line up, trust the quantity. Where they do not, that is your spot-check list for the verify-quantities workflow.
Pro tips
- Always reconcile colors against the legend you uploaded, not your memory of a typical set — tags vary by project.
- Rated corridors and shaft walls are the highest-stakes classifications. Confirm them every time.
- If two wall types share a color, it usually means a tag was missing or duplicated in the legend sheet — fix the input and re-run.
- Use the overlays as a teaching tool for junior estimators: it shows exactly how a wall type maps to a quantity.
Frequently asked
What do the colors on the plan mean?
Each color is a wall type from your legend. The fine-tuned vision model highlights every detected wall segment in the color of its classified assembly.
Which walls should I check first?
Rated assemblies — corridors, shafts, stair enclosures and demising walls — then the long runs in big rooms, because those drive the totals.
What if a wall is classified wrong?
Treat the legend as the source of truth, note the mis-typed segment, and scrutinize the matching BOQ line. A common fix is correcting a missing or duplicated legend tag and re-running.