SimplyCount
SimplyCount

How to Count Smoke Detectors on a Blueprint — Fast & Defensibly

Counting smoke detectors by hand is slow and error-prone. Detectors, pulls and horn/strobes look similar and are spread across large plans. SimplyCount finds and marks every one on your plan set automatically, and you sign off on the total.

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To count smoke detectors on a blueprint with SimplyCount, you import the plan set as a PDF and point at the smoke detectors symbol from your own legend. The engine sweeps every sheet and marks each instance, and a live count updates as you review. Miss one? Add it. See a wrong detection? Reject it — the total updates and the number you export is the one you signed off on. Everything runs locally on your own machine — even a scanned page gets counted without your plans ever touching a cloud service.

Why it's hard by hand

Detectors, pulls and horn/strobes look similar and are spread across large plans.

A miscount of smoke detectors flows straight into a wrong bid.

Doing it by hand on every revision burns evenings.

How SimplyCount handles it

What you get

  • Point at the smoke detectors symbol from your own legend — the engine finds every instance on every sheet.
  • Review the marked-up detections and reject or add any you need; the total updates.
  • Export the count to Excel, CSV or PDF.
  • SimplyCount runs on your own machine: counting is local, plan sets are never uploaded, and results live in an encrypted local database inside your firewall. The license is checked once, at app launch, over HTTPS — after that, counting runs fully offline; a fully offline build with no license check is available for air-gapped environments at negotiated pricing, and firms that want one shared install can run SimplyCount on a server inside their own firewall.
  • SimplyCount's benchmark is 60 unique symbols across 168 pages in about an hour, including review — roughly 168× faster than counting by hand. How we measured it.
168×
faster than hand-counting — 168 pages, 60 symbols, in about an hour
100%
of detections you review & sign off — you bid, not the model
0
uploads during counting — it runs on your own machine
Watch it count

Drag the line. See every symbol get found.

A real plan sheet — slide to reveal what SimplyCount marks.

A plan sheet before counting The same sheet with every symbol detected and marked Your planCounted Every symbol on this sheet — found & marked
Example: a real plan sheet.
Questions

Common questions

Can SimplyCount count smoke detectors automatically?
Yes. Point at the symbol from your own legend and SimplyCount finds and marks every instance across the whole plan set, then lets you review and sign off on the total before it lands in a bid.
Can we keep everything inside our network?
Your plan sets, yes: detection runs locally, results sit in an encrypted local database, and there is no upload step. SimplyCount checks its licence once, when the app launches — that check needs an internet connection and carries licence state only, never your drawings; after launch, counting runs fully offline. For environments that cannot allow any outbound connection, a fully offline build with no licence check is available at negotiated pricing — see the system requirements page.
How fast is it, really?
SimplyCount's benchmark is 60 unique symbols across 168 pages in about an hour — roughly 168× faster than counting by hand. Most sheets go from open plans to a draft count in minutes.
Can it learn our custom or non-standard symbols?
Yes. SimplyCount is self-learning: teach it a symbol once from your own legend and it counts that symbol on every future job, getting more accurate the more you use it.
Keep exploring

Related

Fire Alarm →counting by hand →Fire Protection Estimators →

Never manually count another symbol

Request early access with your work email — the team reviews every request, nearest bid deadlines first — then run your first plan and see a number you can defend. 168 pages · 60 symbols · ~1 hour.

Request Early Access

Free during early access · Your work email · No credit card · Counting runs on your machine

See it countRequest Early Access