Built for mid-market GCs
Defensible VE proposals from your plan set.
3 days → 30 min · manual extraction on a typical plan set
Upload your plan set. Get a VE log of substitutions and drawing issues, cited to the sheets, specs, and schedules they came from.
Sheet M-201 · Spec 23 81 26
VRF heat-recovery → staged split DX
Sheet M-201 · Spec 23 81 26
$320K–$420K
22–28% on HVAC scope
Sheet E-401 · Spec 26 51 00
Type A luminaire overspec on back-of-house
Sheet E-401 · Spec 26 51 00
12–17%
on lighting scope
Sheet A-501 ↔ A-512 · Spec 08 44 13
Curtainwall thermal spec contradicts schedule
Sheet A-501 ↔ A-512 · Spec 08 44 13
abstained
VE is the craft. The rest is the tax.
Not a takeoff tool. VEbase is a VE tool. We stay in our lane. Keep Bluebeam. Keep your cost database. Keep your subs.
Preconstruction is where the number has to hold. Someone has to read the technical book nobody else reads carefully. Someone has to catch the gotcha buried in a spec section. Someone has to propose the substitution the architect will actually approve. Someone has to hold the GMP inside the owner’s budget as the design moves.
- 01
3–4 days re-keying schedules from a 500-page PDF
~30 min. Parsed and structured
- 02
Hunt the spec section in a separate PDF. Cross-reference by hand
Every line auto-linked to spec section and page
- 03
Substitutions proposed from memory, defended verbally in the OAC meeting
Source sheet + spec section + downstream impact on every line
- 04
$180/sf → $210/sf. Nobody can say what changed where
Line-by-line diff across schematic, DD, CD, and GMP
- 05
VE proposals rejected on handoff for “missing paper”
Sourced receipts the owner, architect, and lender can verify
- 06
Hire another estimator. $70–90K, 9-month ramp
Monthly subscription. Cancel anytime
Same scope. Less grunt. Every line defensible.
See a sample VE logEvery line is defensible. Or we don’t output it.
Every VEbase suggestion ships with five citations an owner, architect, or lender can verify in under a minute. Here’s one.
Plan excerpt
A-501 · rev 04 · ground floor
Spec section
08 11 13.2.1 · Hollow Metal Doors
2.1 SUBSTITUTIONS
A. Or-equals permitted. Contractor shall submit substitution request per Section 01 25 00, including manufacturer’s data, fire-rating certification, and hardware compatibility matrix, a minimum of thirty (30) days prior to fabrication.
Door schedule
Sheet A-601 · row D-14
VE log · row 14
Sub hollow-metal door D-14 with Steelcraft H-series.
Equal spec · same fire rating · same hardware set · same finish. Applies to 26 doors of this type in the set.
- 04
Compliance check
LEED MR-1 unchanged · 30-day or-equals submittal clears before fabrication
- 05
Pricing source
Steelcraft H-series catalog (Mar 2026) · $162.00/unit delivered
Savings
$4,200
Across 26 doors of this type
Precedent
approved on prior projects
If VEbase can’t cite all five, it abstains. Flag for review is a feature, not a failure.
Different tool at every stage. VEbase runs every stage where VE lives.
Precon schedule
Stage · tool category · active window
Markup
Bluebeam · Adobe Acrobat
Takeoff
PlanSwift · Togal · STACK · OST · Kreo
VE
VEbase
Estimating
Procore · Sage · WinEst · DESTINI
Buyout
Your subs · Your cost database
Every tool runs its window. VE lives across all of them. Keep Bluebeam. Keep your takeoff tool. Keep Procore. VEbase spans the full window, schematic through IFC, so every revision reconciles to the last.
Priced against the estimator you can’t hire.
A full-time estimator runs $70,000–$90,000 per year, before benefits, overhead, and the nine months to ramp. Precon is $8,388 a year. Roughly 10% of one junior estimator. Billed monthly, cancel anytime. Your data exports to Excel or Bluebeam on the way out.
No 50% renewal hikes. No perpetual-license bait-and-switch. No “call sales for a quote.” Unlimited estimate revisions on every paid plan, schematic through GMP, at no extra charge.
Fair questions.
Upload a plan set. See what you get back.
If the first suggestion isn’t defensible, close the tab. No one will follow up.
- Transparent pricing
- Cancel anytime