Drop-to-Start: Instant Project Creation from Your Drawings

Getting a bid started used to mean 30 minutes of manual data entry. Steelbridge eliminates that entirely. Drop a set of building drawings onto the homepage and the system creates the project, reads every page, and fills in the specs automatically.

The Drop-to-Start flow works with individual PDFs, image files, ZIP archives, or entire drag-and-drop folders — including macOS bundles with .DS_Store files that other systems choke on.

How it works

The flow runs in three phases:

1. Drop files: Drag drawings directly onto the homepage. Steelbridge immediately creates a project and begins uploading. Anonymous authentication means uploads work before any login is required.
2. Watch pages classify: Multi-page PDFs are split into individual pages automatically. Each page is classified by type — plan, elevation, section, detail, specification, or photo — as a progressive thumbnail grid fills in.
3. Review the pre-filled form: AI reads the spec sheets to extract the project name, client, location, and building dimensions. Every extracted value shows a citation badge pointing to the document it came from. Review, adjust anything that looks off, and save.

The whole cycle — from dropping the files to having a fully categorized project ready for analysis — takes under two minutes.

What gets extracted automatically

The intake process captures everything a quote starts with:

• Project name and client name
• Site location (city, state, zip)
• Building dimensions (width, length, eave height)
• Document count and page-level classification

Each extracted field includes a source citation so you know exactly which document the value came from — and can click to verify it.

Why it matters for estimators

Busy estimating offices handle dozens of active bids at once. Every minute spent on data entry is a minute not spent reviewing specs or writing proposals. Drop-to-Start removes the administrative overhead from the very first step, so the moment drawings arrive, the project is already in the system and ready for the team to work.