Had to pick between a manual and digital planimeter for remodeling work

Last month I needed a planimeter for measuring some odd shaped lot lines on a set of residential plans. I was stuck between a traditional rolling planimeter for $120 or one of those digital ones for $350. I went with the manual one because I figured it would last longer and I don't need batteries. Honestly it took me about 15 minutes to get the hang of tracing those curved boundaries without slipping. The readings were coming out consistent after a few tries but it's definitely slower than I expected. Now I'm second guessing whether the digital would have paid for itself in time saved on bigger jobs. Anyone else use a manual planimeter for draft work or should I just eat the cost and upgrade?

2 comments

2 Comments

zara_hill4626d ago

Oh man I feel this. I bought a manual planimeter like three years ago for the same reason, thought I was being smart saving money. And yeah it works fine but man is it slow. I ended up timing myself on a set of foundation plans and it took nearly an hour to do all the irregular areas. The digital one my buddy has he did the same job in like 15 minutes. I kept telling myself I'd get faster but honestly I never did because the tracing is just so finicky. I still have my manual one sitting in my toolbox and I keep thinking about upgrading but then I think well how often do I really do this kind of work? Its not like I use it every day but when I do need it I really wish I had the digital.

blake_black4725d ago

I saw some guy on YouTube comparing the two and he timed both on the same set of plans. The digital one was literally 4x faster even with setup time. Kinda made me realize the manual ones are more of a nostalgia thing at this point.