Still Unsure of Using AI in zzTakeoff....

Thanks for posting this Tysen 🙂🚀 It's exciting seeing all the things you guys are creating.

I wish there were a course, showcase, or something for how it's being used for workflow things (not plugin creation) so I can get some help convincing my company to pay for my Claude subscription. I'm starting to figure things out and it's both exciting and a bit scary to see the things I'm able to do faster. zzTakeoff was already a HUGE improvement to OST, but with the MCP it's becoming otherworldly.

Changing my mindset from a task/feature based approach to a results based approach made all the difference in using AI/MCP. Rather than stringing together commands in a script/programming approach, just say what you want for an end result. You may need to tweak and fine tune it but that is just as easy.

I've been involved in automation and process improvement for over 30 years. This is by far the biggest productivity gain I've seen in any space. I caught myself blinking and shaking my head in disbelief to what I watched unfold. I created three new projects and ran it again and again because I didn't believe it did what I saw it do. I have no idea where this is taking me...but I am re-evaluating our entire workflow process including outside ZZ.

Still shaking my head...

Hey Tysen, thanks for posting.

I was in that meeting with Gary as well, and the tool showcase was fantastic! Thanks, Gary, for taking the time to share what you've been working on.

I spent part of the weekend having some fun coding up UG Pipe, UG Structures, Length/Area tools, and a couple of HTML/Excel output tools. It's pretty amazing what you can put together once you get started!

I agree with Tysen's advice: Start by thinking about what you want the tool to do and what you need as an output. Give your favorite LLM the ZZ coding rules (Todd walks through this in one of his videos), explain what you're trying to accomplish, and go to town!

Don't get discouraged if it doesn't work perfectly the first time. It may take several rounds of testing and revisions, but that's part of the process, and the results are worth it.

I bounced between Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini throughout my sessions, and all three worked well.

My advice: Just dive in and experiment. You might be surprised at what you can build, even without a programming background. And it's a lot of fun!

Hi Victor, I am applying Claude-MCP in a workflow mode only, no plugins whatsoever. While the time savings ratio varies from function to function, yesterday I built a Claude skill that is a 90 percent time savings vs manual effort. That one savings does not justify a Cost Benefit Analysis for your company. However, if you put a few of those savings/throughput numbers together, it tells a compelling story that might convince your management to buy it and try it. Additionally, I would encourage anyone to include feedback postings from this community as peer group validation (i.e. you are not crazy by yourself - we are all crazy here :D ) to increase their persuasive leverage. It begs the question to management, "what ideas do you have to improve productivity by these amounts?"

I hope you find the traction you need!

Here is all I've got to say regrading this topic.

This is a partial screenshot of a comment I posted on here back in March of 2025:

Here's some partial screenshots of where I'm at a year and a half later:

That day is here now thanks to AI & zzTakeoff

A week ago:

No AI used by me.

A week later (today):

Completely AI performed takeoffs, AI directly populates our company's quote form (skip reports), AI completed vendor forms with sketches, AI created libraries/templates, AI mass updated libraries/templates. Granted, I will be tweaking things with AI but it is completing these processes. Aside from a few "asks" and button clicks, it compresses the human factor out of the process.

What ZZ built and how AI can drive it will quickly amaze you. Don't let "I don't know what I don't know" intimidate you from trying. Fear of making mistakes? I did too. However, any perceived mistakes I made quickly revealed how to change my interaction with AI.

I suggest:

1) Create a test project in ZZ

2) Connect AI-MCP

3) Tell AI to do something. For the best WOW experience, tell it what end result you want (avoid task-by-task approach) and initially don't tell it too much.

*If AI tells you it cannot read something in your plans and suggests dragging a PDF into AI, use the Print > Export PDF - Vector in ZZ. My experience is this vector version works much better than typical PDF's.

4) Have your popcorn ready, invite friends over...

The Dev Team deserves an extended vacation!

Hey All,

I've been playing with the MCP over the last 3 jobs... i currently have a large job 3 buildings x 9 levels each... i was hoping the MCP could measure all the skirting for me, however it's saying it can't access the Snap Nodes and therefore can't actually draw the lines, however it can tell me skirting type (5 different types) room locations etc.... I'm wondering how anyone has overcome this because Skirting is a very time consuming repetitive task, it would be absolutely amazing to automate it.

Cheers

Hey Thomas! We will be exposing vector/snap data to the MCP soon, which should help a ton.

Related Post

Amazing news!!! Don't suppose you're doing it on Monday so I can submit this job 🤣 😂