topic Re: Something new and exciting sounding.. ArchiQuant in Collaboration with other software

Something new and exciting sounding.. ArchiQuant

Rick Thompson — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:03:26 GMT

I just ran across ArchiQuant by Cigraph. It does quantity takeoffs and estimates. This could be a home run, and out of the park if it works as needed, which it must or why do it. I am going to play with it, and it looks great, but should take awhile to figure out.

If anyone has used it, or Cigraph is listening in, I have a little script I use to convert the objects (rafters etc) generated from the roof wizard that takes the unusable lengths Ac spits out, and converts them to standard lumber ordering lengths... 2x10x10, rather than 2x10-x9'-3.33333". This is essential for a usable bill of materials. How many 2x10x12's to order, versus a poop load of 2x10x of many different inches that translate into 2x10x12's.

The only way I know to do floor framing is to manually place (multiply/drag copies) for all the joist. I key and quantify these by the ID's (2x10x10, 2x10x14 etc) I assume ArchiQuant will organize all the lumber by ID's? If I could get the info on the screen shot to look like it does in the spread sheet, without having to use the spread sheet, I would be a happy camper.

This is very exciting. The first thing available to generate a bill of materials other than the failed GS's ancient built-in version.

I am also assuming this means AC has committed to not doing any development along this line.

Re: Something new and exciting sounding.. ArchiQuant

Steve Jepson — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 06:07:44 GMT

Looks very good. I hope it works but I am skeptical because they do not even show a sample of what there material lists looks like in the brochures.

They only talk about what it could do if you fussed with it long enough.

They need to show a simple framing model and then show us the material list they were able to make from it. We could tell a great deal about it from a simple example like that.

Re: Something new and exciting sounding.. ArchiQuant

Rick Thompson — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:19:21 GMT

I gave it up. It seems you need to relink the database parts to the intended component manually each time. If you have say, an interior wall, each wall would need to be injected from the one wall you set up into every instance of that wall, and start over on another pln. With property scripts assigned you just place the wall and go on. Open another project and you don't need to do anything. Unless I am missing something that is a huge deal killer. I couldn't get my old AC tweaked database to import in chapters, so I ended up with an unusable long list of data. Maybe that was my error.

So, I gave it up. I never got to try and see what would happen with the rafter lengths since it was way too much trouble to work with. Maybe it is fine if you just occasionally need to set something up for a unique project, but it seems unusable for any template based work, as far as I can tell. I was trying to get a response from Cigraph, but I didn't.

O'well. Maybe you are having better success?

Re: Something new and exciting sounding.. ArchiQuant

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 20:16:13 GMT

Rick I am sure you have looked at http://www.encina.co.uk/framewright_pro.html. Looks like it does what you need and nicely at that. After all Ralph is behind it. Let use know what comes out of you quest.
Joseph

Re: Something new and exciting sounding.. ArchiQuant

KeesW — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 11:45:54 GMT

Joseph
I am also looking at ArchiQuant because it might do exactly what I want - if it works. I've tried to open your suggested link but get a 'not available' message.
Kees

Re: Something new and exciting sounding.. ArchiQuant

Anonymous — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 18:39:43 GMT

KeesW wrote:
Joseph
............. I've tried to open your suggested link but get a 'not available' message.
Kees

You are right! this link http://www.encina.co.uk/framewright.html gets redirected to Objective!
We have to get some clarification from Ralph (the creator of the great Encina)??
Joseph

Re: Something new and exciting sounding.. ArchiQuant

Ralph Wessel — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 21:50:33 GMT

KeesW wrote:
I am also looking at ArchiQuant because it might do exactly what I want - if it works. I've tried to open your suggested link but get a 'not available' message

Hi Kees,

The link had an extra dot at the end - try this: http://www.encina.co.uk/framewright_pro.html

Re: Something new and exciting sounding.. ArchiQuant

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:34:44 GMT

Rick wrote:
If you have say, an interior wall, each wall would need to be injected from the one wall you set up into every instance of that wall, and start over on another pln.

Hi Rick

I am also very interested in ArchiQuant, but there is not much info out there on this product. You get the basic manual at the Cigraph site, and thats it. No users back feed.

My question is: The problem you mentioned, would it not be solved if you used favorites? I mean, every wall you use on a NEW project you just use a Fav, with all the Archiquant data in it.

One more Q: Is there any problem in opening an Archiquanted file on an AC without Archiquant? Will this give you an error?

Thanks in advance

Re: Something new and exciting sounding.. ArchiQuant

Rick Thompson — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:10:26 GMT

Krippahl wrote:
Rick wrote:
If you have say, an interior wall, each wall would need to be injected from the one wall you set up into every instance of that wall, and start over on another pln.
Hi Rick

I am also very interested in ArchiQuant, but there is not much info out there on this product. You get the basic manual at the Cigraph site, and thats it. No users back feed.

My question is: The problem you mentioned, would it not be solved if you used favorites? I mean, every wall you use on a NEW project you just use a Fav, with all the Archiquant data in it.

One more Q: Is there any problem in opening an Archiquanted file on an AC without Archiquant? Will this give you an error?

Thanks in advance

If you are starting from scratch, that should hold true. Personally, I doubt the long run development, and then you end up with another issue (new AC releases). Even with Favorites, you still have too many objects etc to laborious manage. Despite AC's archaic interface (basically the same since 4.5 when I came in) linking via property objects works great, and is automatically picked up. Another issue for me is I continuously evolve plns (stock plans), so ArchiQuant's manual setup is useless to incorporate into an existing pln. I actually could not be my data base to import in any useable manner, so that too was an issue. As you said, their info is lacking. Personally, I would not waste time and go ahead and learn AC's calc function. It really works fine, it is the abysmal lack of useful formatting tools, and the prehistoric panels (nothing is adjustable) that are my main issues. It is hard to imagine GS will ignore it forever, but I would not expect much change, and no time soon either.

Loading it and not using it shouldn't be a problem. However, removing it (as with any other add-on you might try), is pure hell to get rid or that "you are missing an add-on" warning for every file you subsequently open.

Re: Something new and exciting sounding.. ArchiQuant

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:45:30 GMT

Maybe the usefulness of Archiquant depends heavily on the construction system you use.
In your case, working on the North American market, you need all those quantities from the wooden structure.
In our market (South European), buildings are made of concrete and bricks, mostly, so quantities are related, for instance, to square meter of composite wall.
It seems to me that, in this particular market, Archiquant would be an excellent tool to have preliminary costs, during design development phase.
Of course you must be right on the "you are missing an add-on" virus, because I get that a lot on older projects I used Architerra with.
I tried to learn AC calc function, even bought the "From CAD to quantity survey", but never managed to. Need to upgrade my brain I guess.
The real problem is, I don't need a quantity survey per se, but a simple formula that lets me know, at any given time, how much the building I am currently designing will cost to build. Something simple and fast. Thats why I am so interested in Archiquant.

Re: Something new and exciting sounding.. ArchiQuant

Thomas Holm — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:45:07 GMT

Krippahl wrote:
but a simple formula that lets me know, at any given time, how much the building I am currently designing will cost to build.

If you find that, please phone me directly, I'll come and rob you of it and sell it world-wide. Won't ever have to work again

Also, I'm interested in the brain upgrade... I do have issues with Cigraph's manuals...

Re: Something new and exciting sounding.. ArchiQuant

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:55:10 GMT

This little magic window on my workspace, this is what I am dreaming of:

Re: Something new and exciting sounding.. ArchiQuant

KeesW — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 23:46:29 GMT

Miguel Krippahl

Sounds as if we are taking the same journey to the same destination. I've also bought the French book 'from Cad to quantity survey' and found it tedious and far too detailed. I've downloaded ArchiQuant demo and will probably buy the real thing. I'd like an order of cost as I go - not a detailed costing.

However, somewhere in the back of my mind, a small, quiet message says that I am wasting my money because we can already do this in standard ArchiCad - if only there were some clear (VERY clear in my case) instructions of how to do it.

Re: Something new and exciting sounding.. ArchiQuant

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 07:49:00 GMT

KeesW

I started to work with Archiquant yesterday, and so far I am impressed. It is very malleable.
For instance, if you are a calculus freak, you can extract the quantities of bricks from a given wall (great for site planning, but then I would use VICO).
If, on the other hand, you are an architect that only need rough estimates, then you can assign a price to a composite wall, taking into account all the components of that wall in a single go.
The later one is really what I am interested in.
When I am designing a building, on an early stage, I have a pretty good idea how much it will cost, just by multiplying the area by a square meter cost.
After 20 years practice, it is fairly easy for me to know the price per square meter, with maybe a 10% error margin, of a given construction method, based on former projects.
My main problem is, clients don´t BELIEVE the price that comes out this way. They usually think I am BS them, and give me the go ahead even if they don´t have the money to build it.
This results, as we all know, in later "financial engineering", when, at the bidding stage, they find out I was right.
To late then.
So, I want a tool that gives me the same price but shows them a list of components with price attached.
This way, it will be much harder for them to ignore those early warnings, and also, it will be easier for me to show them what the consequences of each design choice are on those early stages.
So, I am very optimistic on Archiquant, because, unlike standard AC calculus is very flexible on the detail level.
Ill keep you posted on my progress

Re: Something new and exciting sounding.. ArchiQuant

Anonymous — Mon, 26 May 2008 08:09:21 GMT

I can say that my first experience with Archiquant is going very well.

It took me about 2 hours to input all the data, which I chose to be simplified. I have no data for each small element, but for the big ones (the receipt in AC).

This way, I get a nice price decomposition by built elements, so I can discuss the solution with the client knowing what each choice costs.

I am very happy with this. its not perfect, but, for 2 hours work, it is more than enough.

Re: Something new and exciting sounding.. ArchiQuant

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 07:27:33 GMT

"Krippahl" wrote:
KeesW
For instance, if you are a calculus freak, you can extract the quantities of bricks from a given wall

Huh?? What has calculus got to do with extracting brick quantities. Isn't that arithmetic?

Re: Something new and exciting sounding.. ArchiQuant

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 07:33:30 GMT

Marcus wrote:
Huh?? What has calculus got to do with extracting brick quantities. Isn't that arithmetic?

You are right Marcus, of course.
Maybe I should stick to my native language, Portuguese, so as not to make any mistakes that could induce people into wrong assumptions.

Re: Something new and exciting sounding.. ArchiQuant

Rick Thompson — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:15:52 GMT

Glad this seems to be working for you. I found it too repetitive to set up, and re-set up for each and every pln. (I have many I work with).

You probably know this, but extracting the number of brick, or whatever, is pretty easy with AC, and once set up can be automatic for other plns. My gripe is the formatting limitations with AC. I am needing to export into Excel to get a nice looking presentation, and to combine a few things. In AC that wasn't something I could make happen, so I export. The issue there, is making one simple change mean another export and adjustment. If AC had better graphic manipulation I would be a happy camper.

Re: Something new and exciting sounding.. ArchiQuant

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:36:54 GMT

Rick

To tell you the truth, I tried to make ac work but my brain could not cope with it.

On the other hand, I learned ArchiQuant in under an hour.

It is a bit like using Artlantis instead of Lightworks in ac.
Which I do

Re: Something new and exciting sounding.. ArchiQuant

Achille Pavlidis — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:04:28 GMT

hi Krippahl,
i have been using Archiquant in the past few days, and i have some questions. Unfortunatelly i havent found many infos around so i would to ask you if don't mind, some clarifications...
I use the demo version of ArchiQuant, so i have many limitations, but i have found it very user-friendly. Before buying though i would like to know a couple of things:
1) Is it possible to modify the Components List once it has been saved? I have tried to, and seems i can't. But i do not know if this is because of the demo version. On the manual this thing is pretty unclear.
2) Is it possible to do a "reverse check"? I mean to find where a component has been linked to an Archicad element. I also didn't find anything on the manual but it is very usefull because sometimes when you get a number that doesn't seems right you need a cross-check.

Thanks in advance for your help!