topic Re: Schedule Square Footages in Collaboration with other software

Schedule Square Footages

jameshart — Thu, 28 Jul 2016 16:06:18 GMT

On a multifamily project I am trying to setup an automatic schedule to count the residential units which will replace the unit count schedules that we currently make in Excel.

I have modeled a zone in each residential unit hotlink module, and then created a schedule that is set to merge uniform items. This works well for all columns until we get to the square footage columns. We need one column that shows the square footage for that unit type, but ArchiCAD adds them all together. Is it possible to tell the schedule to show the area in that column PER UNIT instead of COMBINED? Or can anyone suggest another approach?

Thanks!

Re: Schedule Square Footages

jameshart — Thu, 28 Jul 2016 16:10:56 GMT

Screenshot #2: our progress so far. Note the square footages are all combined, can we get the schedule to not add them?

Also, what are the little superscript numbers? And how can I reduce the number of decimal points? I thought changing the dimension settings (US Architect, US Builder, etc.) would change this, but so far it is not.

The Gross and Net areas are currently showing the same and they should not be, but that is a discussion for another time (http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=258077#258077.)

Re: Schedule Square Footages

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Jul 2016 19:55:06 GMT

jameshart wrote:
Also, what are the little superscript numbers? And how can I reduce the number of decimal points? I thought changing the dimension settings (US Architect, US Builder, etc.) would change this, but so far it is not.

Lets start with this one.

Superscript represents "Extra accuracy". (search the online help for the keyword if you need more info).

The changes you need to make are not related to dimensions.
They are related to calculations and schedules and are located here: Options > Project Preferences > Calculation Units and Rules

Re: Schedule Square Footages

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Jul 2016 19:59:22 GMT

jameshart wrote:
Is it possible to tell the schedule to show the area in that column PER UNIT instead of COMBINED?

I am not sure what the intention here is. What does a column need to show? 615, 615, 629 instead of 14139, 615 and 1259?

Re: Schedule Square Footages

jameshart — Thu, 28 Jul 2016 21:12:35 GMT

Anton wrote:
jameshart wrote:
Also, what are the little superscript numbers? And how can I reduce the number of decimal points? I thought changing the dimension settings (US Architect, US Builder, etc.) would change this, but so far it is not.
Lets start with this one.

Superscript represents "Extra accuracy". (search the online help for the keyword if you need more info).

The changes you need to make are not related to dimensions.
They are related to calculations and schedules and are located here: Options > Project Preferences > Calculation Units and Rules

Extra accuracy was it, thanks Anton!

Re: Schedule Square Footages

jameshart — Thu, 28 Jul 2016 21:31:58 GMT

Anton wrote:
jameshart wrote:
Is it possible to tell the schedule to show the area in that column PER UNIT instead of COMBINED?
I am not sure what the intention here is. What does a column need to show? 615, 615, 629 instead of 14139, 615 and 1259?

I'm trying to setup a schedule that will generate the unit chart that we use to make manually in Excel.

The first screenshot (the original schedule that we made in Excel) shows for unit type 1.1.0B (column 1) the square footage per unit is 615SF (column 2), there are 23 total units of type 1.1.0B (column 7), and the total square footage of type 1.1.0B units are 14,139sf (column 8).

This can be recreated in the interactive scheduler except for column 2 which ArchiCAD adds all the 1.1.0B units together (column 8.)

How can I create column column 2?

Re: Schedule Square Footages

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Jul 2016 07:53:19 GMT

jameshart wrote:
How can I create column column 2?

To get it straight, I assume we are talking about AC18 in your signature, as other ARCHICAD versions will differ in this area.

So, initially, you have a schedule that looks like the top one (see image attached).
Then, you check "Merge Uniform Items" and the schedule contracts to look like the one in the middle.
Finally you want a schedule to look like the bottom one, by adding the second column with a typical area of a unit?

Right?

Re: Schedule Square Footages

jameshart — Fri, 29 Jul 2016 16:07:14 GMT

Anton wrote:
jameshart wrote:
How can I create column column 2?

To get it straight, I assume we are talking about AC18 in your signature, as other ARCHICAD versions will differ in this area.

So, initially, you have a schedule that looks like the top one (see image attached).
Then, you check "Merge Uniform Items" and the schedule contracts to look like the one in the middle.
Finally you want a schedule to look like the bottom one, by adding the second column with a typical area of a unit?

Right?

Yes, absolutely! How did you do that?

Re: Schedule Square Footages

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 23:14:04 GMT

jameshart wrote:
Yes, absolutely! How did you do that? 🙂

I don't really like short answers.
I believe understanding is very important for productive workflow, so, bear with me, as this is going to get a bit convoluted.

There are three types of parameters you can add to any of your schedules in AC18:
1. General project parameters you can find under Fields > Available Parameters area of schedule dialog box. You are already familiar with those, so we going to skip this section.
2. Object/Zone parameters. Any object (or zone stamp) in ARCHICAD can fetch you any parameter/variable available in that object/zone stamp. These are not project-related parameters, but rather object-related. This means before you can add those parameters to your schedule you will have to specifically select an object/zone stamp in your library you want to pull parameter into your schedule.
3. IFC property. I would take a wild guess that Industry Foundation Classes are not yet on your immediate priorities list, so I will skip this section too.

Now, if you think about the parameter you want to input into your Schedule (the area of a typical unit), you already know where it is. You entered it yourself into Zone stamp by opening Zone Tool from the Toolbox and editing Zone properties for each zone (unit). All zone-related parameters are stored by ARCHICAD in a Zone stamp, which is itself — just a GDL object.

So, to add a column "two" with a typical floor plan area you will need to pull parameter from a Zone Stamp object (see image attached for more info) in a few steps:
1. Create a schedule with two project-level parameters — "Zone Name" and "Calculated Area" by selecting them under Available Parameters > Zone (you've already done that).
2. Look at the very bottom of the dialog window and locate a black triangle (I marked it with a red ellipse).
3. Press it to review more options to add data to your schedule.
4. Chose "Add Object Parameters" (after all the parameter we are looking for is a Zone Stamp-related, right?)..... see next post.

Re: Schedule Square Footages

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 23:15:26 GMT

5. Select object you need (one of the default Zone Stamps, usually the first one, as shown in my image, but can be any other Zone Stamp Object you use).
6. Find the parameter you need (in our case, called "ROOM_AREA", shown as unselectable grey entry, as it is already added to the area "7" by the time this screenshot was taken).
7. Add "ROOM_AREA" parameter to the schedule and click "OK"

Done. Make sure the column displaying "ROOM_AREA" parameter is in the right place by moving it up or down the schedule list.

If you have any more questions — let me know and I will take the time to answer them.

Re: Schedule Square Footages

jameshart — Thu, 11 Aug 2016 00:13:15 GMT

Anton wrote:
5. Select object you need (one of the default Zone Stamps, usually the first one, as shown in my image, but can be any other Zone Stamp Object you use).
6. Find the parameter you need (in our case, called "ROOM_AREA", shown as unselectable grey entry, as it is already added to the area "7" by the time this screenshot was taken).
7. Add "ROOM_AREA" parameter to the schedule and click "OK"

Done. Make sure the column displaying "ROOM_AREA" parameter is in the right place by moving it up or down the schedule list.

If you have any more questions — let me know and I will take the time to answer them.

(Sorry for the delayed response, I thought I replied before vacation.)

Thanks Anton! We've used Object Parameters and IFC Properties in our Door and Window schedules, but I never thought to look there for this particular piece of information! Unfortunately it comes in square meters instead of square feet. I checked each of the 5 zone objects I found by searching for objects that start with "zone" while looking for a property that gives the value in square feet, but I didn't find any. Are you aware of any other property that I missed? (Hopefully some day the U.S. will adopt the Metric System!)

Thanks again Anton!

Re: Schedule Square Footages

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Aug 2016 19:34:30 GMT

jameshart wrote:
I checked each of the 5 zone objects I found by searching for objects that start with "zone" while looking for a property that gives the value in square feet, but I didn't find any. Are you aware of any other property that I missed?

You are correct. No related zone_stamp object has a variable in sq.ft. and ArchiCAD does not apply proper formatting to variables pulled form objects to account for different calculation systems (it should, but it doesn't).
The easiest option I can see here, since ArchiCAD is not very cooperative, is to add additional variables in sq.ft. to zone_stamp object in question. Need help there?

Re: Schedule Square Footages

jameshart — Mon, 15 Aug 2016 15:12:53 GMT

Anton wrote:
jameshart wrote:
I checked each of the 5 zone objects I found by searching for objects that start with "zone" while looking for a property that gives the value in square feet, but I didn't find any. Are you aware of any other property that I missed?
You are correct. No related zone_stamp object has a variable in sq.ft. and ArchiCAD does not apply proper formatting to variables pulled form objects to account for different calculation systems (it should, but it doesn't).
The easiest option I can see here, since ArchiCAD is not very cooperative, is to add additional variables in sq.ft. to zone_stamp object in question. Need help there?

That was the only other thing I could think of, but I had been avoiding that workflow because it's easy for someone to forget to update the variable if the unit is changed. Oh well, maybe for ArchiCAD 21?

Thanks for all your help Anton! You rock!

Re: Schedule Square Footages

Anonymous — Mon, 15 Aug 2016 16:33:03 GMT

jameshart wrote:
I had been avoiding that workflow because it's easy for someone to forget to update the variable if the unit is changed.

Are you sure? I don't see any need for manual entry here.
Create a variable linked to already existing one and multiply it by 10.763910417 (m2 to sf.ft. coefficient), then just add that new variable to a schedule.

Am I missing something?

Re: Schedule Square Footages

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Oct 2016 19:36:21 GMT

Can you provide the steps to, "Create a variable linked to already existing one and multiply it by 10.763910417 (m2 to sf.ft. coefficient), then just add that new variable to a schedule."

Thank you!

Re: Schedule Square Footages

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 10:22:57 GMT

jfa_ra wrote:
Can you provide the steps to, "Create a variable linked to already existing one and multiply it by 10.763910417 (m2 to sf.ft. coefficient), then just add that new variable to a schedule."

Sure.

1. Locate GDL object that you use as your Zone Stamp.

2. Open that Zone Stamp GDL object for editing.

3. Find a GDL variable you are using in your schedule (the variable that only gives out meters instead of square feet).

4. Make a new GDL variable with similar name and data type appending something like "_SQFT" for readability.

5. Assign a value to the "_SQFT" variable equal to a value of the variable from step 3 multiplied by 10.763910417.

6. Add that new "_SQFT" variable to your schedule.

Side note: Joe, if the steps above do not seem intuitive enough, please PM me with your e-mail address and I will help you modify a Zone Object to your liking.

Best,

Re: Schedule Square Footages

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 12:21:50 GMT

Anton,

Thank you for your assistance. While I was able to create the variable and conversion calculation, there seems to be a unresolvable issue within ArchiCAD. It seems that once the value exceeds 1,000 SF, it simply displays the value as 1.00. Upon further testing to confirm the theory; area greater than 2,000 SF becomes 2.00, etc. (Not very useful!) So regrettably, the data is not reliable. I am attaching a few screen shots for reference. Thank you again!

(It would be so beneficial if ArchiCAD enhanced the functionality and usability of both the Scheduling Feature and Zone Tool. There is an inherent efficiency to have a schedule that can do basic math functions inside of ArchiCAD too. Simple things like addition, multiplication, suffixes, etc.) I know ArchiCAD 20 now has a Property Manager tool, but that still involves an external source to manipulate the data. Once a third party application needs to be introduced, such as Excel, the immediate, accurate flow of data to inform the design process is squelched.)

Re: Schedule Square Footages

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 14:21:51 GMT

jfa_ra wrote:
... there seems to be a unresolvable issue within ArchiCAD. It seems that once the value exceeds 1,000 SF, it simply displays the value as 1.00.

Joe,

I like finding ArchiCAD bugs as much as the next guy, but lets not pin this tail somewhere it does not belong.

The variable in question is just a number — it should work. Attached is a screenshot of a simple schedule I put together with both columns for each unit — m2 and sq.ft. Representing an existing variable ROOM_AREA, as well as, new one called ROOM_AREA_SQFT equal to ROOM_AREA * 10.76391

Re: Schedule Square Footages

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 14:33:11 GMT

I really do not like finding bugs in ArchiCAD and would prefer that not to be the case. Maybe I missed something in the variable definition.

Did you have a chance to look at the three screenshots in the previous pdf file?

Here is a snap shot of just the IFC settings.

Re: Schedule Square Footages

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 14:38:38 GMT

jfa_ra wrote:
Did you have a chance to look at the three screenshots in the previous pdf file?

Actually, no.
Sorry, I missed it.
I do see it now, though.

I am lost.

The Original Poster of this thread asked about Interactive Schedules, not about IFC scheme or object property setup, but your screenshot is of IFC Scheme Setup dialog window... I, currently, fail to see any correlation with this thread's topic.

You must be talking about something else entirely.