Many Developers and General Contractors are not printing their plans for bidding. There are many obvious benefits for us and the environment. The "problem" for companies doing a lumber estimate is the record of the bidding process and the fact that changes in plans frequently occur with little or no documentation. Historically, GC's and Developers wanted their plans back to move them onto the next bidder and Framing Contractors have been reluctant to do so for obvious reasons.
Today, Architects and Engineers are able to produce their plans in PDF ,DWF or other similar electronic formats that enable the transmission of this information over the web and via email. With estimating software such as eTakeOff, we can now have an electronic "Take Off Set" with better and quicker auditing mark ups permanently but editably left "on" those plans and storable on our computers. This software also has the capability of comparing files, finding the adds, deletes, or changes and color coding them so you can easily update your bids.
I use the latest version of eTakeoff and the Lumber List estimating add-in to do lumber takeoffs. This is the same software available in the store. Using GoToMeeting I can demo the process in just a few minutes.
There is a 12 minute Flash Video showing an example of everything I normally do for an estimating project including AutoCAD drawings, Word and Excel files and annotated PDF drawings. You can find it here.
If this service is something that would work for your company, you may contact me at info@CaddyShackProductions.com. Pricing for this service is extremely reasonable: usually in the range of $.15/sf plus additional for multiple floors, siding, etc.