Free roll plot converter

How to use it

1. Click Choose PDFs, or drop one or more roll plot PDFs on the box. Each page of each PDF is one roll, listed in file name order; switch between them under Roll. Click Add PDFs to bring in more, and use the ↑ and ↓ arrows beside Roll to change a roll's place in the booklet.
2. Under Drawing scale, pick the roll's scale, such as 1" = 40'. Leave Not to scale if the roll has none.
3. Pick Paper (11×17 or 8.5×11) and a Print scale: full size, a standard reduction, or a percentage on an unscaled roll.
4. Click Stamp frames, then click the roll to place the first sheet. Click near the end of the last frame to snap the next one beside it with ½" of overlap. Right-drag to pan without leaving Stamp frames.
5. On curves, turn the next frame with [ and ] or 45° L and 45° R. Drag a frame's number to move it, holding Alt to skip snapping. Shift+click numbers, or press Ctrl+A or ⌘A, to select several frames, then drag, turn or delete them together. Click a number and press Delete to remove it; Ctrl+Z or ⌘Z undoes.
6. Tick Key sheet before each roll for an overview page, or untick Credit line to leave the Zip Takeoff logo and credit line off. Click Export PDF, then Download PDF.

What you get

• One landscape sheet per frame, 11×17 or 8.5×11, holding the original drawing cropped to that frame. Linework and text stay vector, so they print sharp and stay searchable, whenever the source PDF allows it. Rolls from several PDFs export together as one file, in the order listed under Roll.
• A dashed match line wherever two frames overlap, labeled MATCH LINE - SEE SHEET and the neighboring sheet's number, and CONTINUED ON or CONTINUED FROM where one roll hands off to the next.
• A title strip with the file and roll name, a graphic scale, the printed scale (a reduction names the original, such as SCALE 1" = 80' (REDUCED FROM 1" = 40')) and SHEET n OF N, numbered straight through every roll.
• An optional key sheet before each roll showing the whole roll with its frames numbered, marked NOT TO SCALE.
• A small Zip Takeoff logo and "Made with Zip Takeoff · ziptakeoff.com" line in the title strip, never on the drawing, which you can turn off.
• In the full Zip Takeoff app, the same sheets can also carry your takeoff markup and each sheet's quantities between its match lines.

Limits and checks

• Frames are not saved. Export before you close or reload the page.
• Paper locks once a roll has frames; click Clear frames to change it. Changing Print scale resizes every frame around its center, so check the overlaps again.
• The printed scale is only right when Drawing scale matches the roll. Print at actual size, not fit to page, and check the graphic scale or a station interval before you measure a print. Unscaled sheets and key sheets say NOT TO SCALE.
• A sheet is only as good as the source: a scanned roll prints as the scan. When a PDF opens but its drawing can't be copied as vectors, such as some encrypted files, its sheets print from a 200 dpi image instead.
• A password-protected PDF that won't open in the browser can't be converted. Save an unlocked copy first.
• A roll holds up to 200 frames. Very large PDFs, or many PDFs at once, use a lot of browser memory; if the page runs out, close other tabs, choose fewer PDFs or split the PDF into fewer rolls. A roll with no frames is left out of the booklet.

With takeoff in the app

Zip Takeoff's Roll Plot Converter builds the same sheets from a roll you've taken off. It prints your takeoff markup on every sheet, adds a legend with each measured item's quantity between that sheet's match lines, and puts roll totals on the key sheet.

Make a roll plot booklet with your takeoff