Christmas Light Design and Estimating Software Built for Contractors Show them
the after
first.
The contractor's photograph of the property.
Generated from the runs traced on that same photograph.
Show them the finished house, hand them a real proposal, and close while they are still excited — then give the crew exactly what sold.
Upload a photo of the property and trace the rooflines once. That single piece of geometry produces the footage, the materials, the price, the night render, the customer proposal and the work order — 10 runs and 266 bulbs on this house, none of it entered twice. The same trace does a seasonal Christmas display or a permanent architectural install.
Already have an account? Log in to subscribe or manage your plan.
No credit card required. Full access for 14 days, and the trial does not convert — at the end of it access pauses until you choose to subscribe, and your projects are kept either way.
Choosing a plan starts a subscription — $69/month or $499/year — which renews automatically on that interval unless you cancel before the renewal date. Canceling stops the next renewal; the period you have paid for runs to the end.
14 days, full access. No credit card, and it does not convert on its own.
Watch one job, end to end
Photograph to work order, without cuts.
One house, one sitting: the photo, the scale, the trace, the render, the price, the proposal and the crew’s work order — so you can judge the pace of it rather than take our word for it.
The job you already lost
You didn’t lose it on price. You lost it on Thursday.
You stood in the driveway on Monday and told them it would look great. They believed you. Then you went home, measured off the photos, built the quote around the kitchen table on Wednesday, and emailed it Thursday.
By Thursday the excitement is gone and your number is sitting next to two others in an inbox. Nothing about your work was the problem. The delay was the problem — and the delay exists because the design, the measurement and the price all had to happen somewhere that wasn’t the driveway.
The same house, four steps
The picture they fall in love with is the one you measured.
Every frame below is one real project in C9X PRO — the same house, the same 10 runs, the same 229 feet. The render isn’t an artist’s impression sitting beside a separate estimate. It is drawn from the geometry the price was calculated from.
01 · Their house
One photograph from the driveway.
02 · Scale set
Two taps across something of a known size.
03 · Traced once
10 runs · 229 ft · 266 bulbs.
04 · What they see
Generated from those runs, not from a guess.
Two ways to sell the same job
Same house. Same crew. Different Thursday.
The old way
- Measure off the roof, or off photos back at the truck
- Tell them it will look great, with nothing to show them
- Build the quote that evening, or that weekend
- Email it two days later, into a pile of three others
- Re-measure before the install, because the estimate was rough
- Hand the crew a number and hope it matches what was sold
Four days between the handshake and the number. Two measurements of the same roof. One crew working from a total nobody can trace back.
With C9X PRO
- Set the scale once on a photo, then trace the rooflines
- Show them their own house lit up, on the tablet, in the driveway
- Price it from that same trace, at your price book
- Send the proposal before you leave
- The measurement was already real, so nothing needs redoing
- The crew gets the accepted scope, frozen, run by run
One visit. One measurement. One trace that the render, the price, the proposal and the work order all come out of.
How the sale actually goes
Three moves, all of them in the driveway.
01
Photograph it
One picture from the driveway
Set the scale once by tapping across the garage door. From that moment every line you draw measures in real feet.
02
Trace it
Draw the rooflines you'd hang
Footage, bulbs, clips and price build as you go — 229 ft and 266 bulbs on this house, at your prices, not ours.
03
Close it
Show them, then send it
They see their own house at night. The proposal goes out before you leave the driveway, itemised and branded.
Straight about the difference
A mockup wins the “wow”. A measurement wins the job.
Plenty of tools will put lights on a photograph, and some of them look superb. The question to ask any of them is what happens after the customer says yes — whether the crew installs what was drawn, or whether somebody goes back out with a tape measure.
What C9X PRO is not
Not a photo filter with a price attached
A mockup tool paints lights onto a picture. Nothing underneath it knows how long the roofline is, so the number beside it is a separate guess that happens to sit nearby.
Not an estimate you have to redo
If a measurement had to be re-taken before the install, the first one was decoration. The trace that sold the job is the one the crew works from.
Not a number invented to fill a gap
A run with no scale set has no length, and the product says so instead of producing a plausible figure.
What it is
Measured from a calibrated photo
You set the scale against something of a known size, and every run measures against it. Each figure records how it was derived.
One trace, everything downstream
Footage, materials, price, render, proposal and work order all read the same geometry. That is the only reason they cannot disagree.
Frozen once it sells
What the customer accepted is locked and handed to the crew as work order #1007 — run by run, at the spacing that was sold.
01 — Upload
Start with the customer’s actual house.
Photograph the property on a phone in the driveway, then set the scale once by tapping the two sides of something you already know.
A reference you already know
A double or single garage, an entry door, a door height — or type the real measurement yourself.
Bigger references measure better
C9X PRO says so on the sheet, because a doorknob-sized reference multiplies its own error across the roof.
No CAD, no manual take-off
Nothing to import and no drawing package to learn.
02 — Design
Trace it once. It measures as you draw.
Click or tap along each roofline. Every run carries its own product, color and spacing, and the footage and bulb count update as you go.
Specified the way you buy it
C9, C7, C6, mini, icicle and uplight, at spacings from 4″ to 36″. The type you pick drives the bulb and clip counts.
Pitch is corrected, not guessed
A run along a sloped gable measures short because the photo flattens the climb. Record the pitch and the length corrects.
Color is independent of geometry
Warm white, red and white, multicolor — the scheme changes what they see and never changes the measurement.
03 — Render
Hand them the finished house.
The daytime photograph becomes a nighttime presentation of the display you just designed — their colours, their layout, their house.
Generated from your design on your customer’s own home. Review and refine before presenting.
THE SAME PHOTOGRAPH, BEFORE
04 — Price
The same trace becomes the price.
Every traced run arrives as a line at your own rates. Nothing is measured twice and nothing is typed in again.
Three quantities, kept apart
Measured is what the geometry says, billed is what the customer pays for, prepare is what the crew cuts and loads.
Charge for the hard ones
A difficulty uplift — 15% here for a second story and steep pitch — applies to the work, because that is what costs more per foot.
A lift is a dollar amount
It costs the same on an 80-foot house as a 400-foot one, so it is carried as an expense with your cost and your charge held separately.
05 — Propose
A proposal, not a take-off.
Generated from the same job. The render leads, because that is what a homeowner holds up to show somebody else — then the package and the number, and nothing else.
06 — Install
The sale becomes the installation plan.
Accepting the quote freezes what was sold. The crew’s copy keeps reading that snapshot even if the design is edited afterwards.
Everything the proposal hides
Per-run footage, product, color and spacing; bulbs, clips and wire to load; the allowance; crew notes.
Equipment it was priced around
A lift priced into the sale cannot be edited off the crew's copy. A sold job reaching the schedule without it is a wasted day.
Frozen, and says so
The page states on its face whether you are looking at the sold scope or the live design.
One design. Everything downstream.
Measure, design, price, propose and prepare the crew — six jobs that used to live in a spreadsheet, an estimating tool, proposal software and a handwritten note. Here they are one trace, which is the only reason they cannot disagree with each other.
01
A design is measurements, not a picture
Restyle a traced house in any scheme and the measurement does not move.
02
Every render is kept
A new one never replaces the last, so you can always show a customer what you promised them.
03
Imagery you are licensed to use
Aerial and street imagery that may only be displayed is never stored or sent to the model.
04
Never a made-up number
A run with no scale set has no length, and C9X PRO says so instead of inventing one.
Do the arithmetic
One job covers the year. The rest is margin.
$3,810.20
The job on this page
229 ft, 10 runs, second story and steep pitch. The proposal C9X PRO produced from one trace.
$499
A full year of the product
Billed once a year. No per-seat pricing, no tiers, nothing held back.
7×
What that one job returns
If it wins you a single job you would otherwise have lost to a slow quote, the year is already paid for several times over.
That is one real project, not an average and not a promise. We have no close-rate statistics to quote you, because we are not going to invent them — take the fourteen days and run it on your own bids instead.
Try it on this week’s bids
14 days. No card. Nothing to cancel.
Use the whole product on real customers for 14 days. We do not ask for a card at any point, so there is nothing that can quietly turn into a charge on day 15.
Already have an account? Log in to subscribe or manage your plan.
No credit card required. Full access for 14 days, and the trial does not convert — at the end of it access pauses until you choose to subscribe, and your projects are kept either way.
Choosing a plan starts a subscription — $69/month or $499/year — which renews automatically on that interval unless you cancel before the renewal date. Canceling stops the next renewal; the period you have paid for runs to the end.
Full access, not a demo
Every part of the product for 14 days — design, pricing, renders, proposals, work orders.
No credit card
Not at signup, not during, not at the end. There is nothing on file to charge.
It does not convert
Nothing happens automatically on day 15. Subscribing is a separate, deliberate decision you make or don't.
Your work is kept
If access pauses, your projects, designs and proposals stay exactly where they are, waiting for you.
Pricing
Two ways to pay. One product.
Everything is included on both plans — there are no tiers, no per-seat charges and nothing held back. Start with 14 days free; no credit card, and nothing to cancel if you stop there.
$499/year
Equivalent to $41.58/month, billed once a year.
Save $329 a year compared with paying monthly.
Already have an account? Log in to subscribe or manage your plan.
Start your 14-day free trial. No credit card required. Your access pauses after 14 days unless you choose a plan. Your work stays saved.
Subscribing authorizes a $499/year subscription that renews automatically each year unless canceled before the renewal date. Canceling stops the next renewal; your access continues through the period already paid for.
Included on both plans
- ✓One company, one subscription — the whole product
- ✓Photo measurement, design, pricing, proposals and work orders
- ✓Night renders of the design on your customer's own home
- ✓Your price book, your material rules, your margins
- ✓Support by email from the people who built it
Done-for-you launch option
Need a website too?
Launch with a professional website built for your lighting business—and get your first year of C9X PRO included.
$1,499one-time
A one-time project fee. The website itself does not renew.
Software on its own stays $69/month or $499/year — see the plans.
- ✓Professional, mobile-ready website
- ✓Up to five pages
- ✓Template-based build
- ✓Lead form routed to your email
- ✓Basic on-page SEO
- ✓Analytics setup
- ✓Two consolidated revision rounds
- ✓First year of C9X PRO included
Website services are delivered by Obsidian Lynx, LLC.
Domain registration, hosting and other third-party charges are separate. CRM setup, ongoing website management and marketing services are not included. After the included year, continued C9X PRO access requires a separate subscription at the then-current monthly or annual price. The bundle does not automatically begin a paid software renewal.
Resources
How to do the job, not just the software for it
Estimating, mockups and what a lighting business actually needs to run on — written for people quoting real houses.
- 11 min readHow to estimate a Christmas light installation jobMeasure the roofline, count what it takes, price the access, then decide the margin — in that order, and without measuring the same house twice.
- 9 min readHow to create a Christmas light mockup a customer believesA mockup wins the reaction. Whether it also wins the job depends on whether anything underneath it can be installed for the number you quoted.
- 12 min readWhat software a Christmas lighting business actually needsSix jobs, and they are not all the same job. What to buy first, what a spreadsheet still does fine, and where one tool doing two of them saves a re-measure.
Before you ask us
The questions we actually get.
Do I need a credit card to try it?
No. The 14-day trial takes no card at any point, so nothing can turn into a charge when it ends. If you decide not to subscribe, you do nothing and access simply pauses.
What happens to my work if I don't subscribe?
It stays. Projects, designs, renders and proposals are kept — access pauses, the work is not deleted. Subscribe later and it is all still there.
How accurate are the measurements, really?
They are as good as the scale you set. You calibrate against something of a known size in the photo — a garage opening, an entry door — and every run measures against that. Larger references are more reliable, and the product says so on the sheet. A run with no scale set has no length at all; you will never be handed a number that was invented to fill a gap.
Is this just AI putting lights on a photo?
No. You trace the rooflines, and the trace is what everything is built from — the footage, the materials, the price and the render. The image the customer sees is generated from the geometry you drew, which is the same geometry the crew installs from.
Will it price jobs below my numbers?
It uses your price book, your material rules and your margins. It does not ship with market rates and it never quotes below what you set. Difficulty uplift, lift hire, minimum job, deposit and tax are all yours to set.
What does the crew actually get?
The accepted scope, frozen. Once a quote is accepted it locks, and the work order is generated from exactly what was sold — run by run, with the product, colour and spacing on each. The page states on its face whether you are looking at the sold scope or the live design.
I'm not a computer person. Is this going to be a fight?
You take a photo, tap twice across the garage door, and draw along the rooflines with your finger. There is no CAD package, nothing to import and no drawing software to learn. If you get stuck, you email us and a person who built it replies.
Does the subscription auto-renew?
The trial does not — there is no card. A subscription does: once you deliberately subscribe, it is an annual charge that renews each year unless you cancel before the renewal date. Both of those are true at once, and we would rather say so than let you find out.
Start free today
Start Your 14-Day Free Trial
14 days. Full access. No credit card required. It does not turn into a subscription on its own — when the trial ends, access pauses until you deliberately choose a plan, and your projects and designs are kept either way.
$69 a month, or $499 a year and save $329. Everything is included on both — no tiers, no per-seat charges. You pick the interval at the end of the trial, not now.
Start your 14-day free trial
14 days. Full access. No credit card required. Keep it for $69/month, or $499/year and save $329. You choose at the end of the trial, not now.
Stop describing it. Show it.
Photo to signed proposal in one sitting — on a tablet in the driveway, or back at the office.