I.S.>Component Lists Question

[Craig Bagley]

AC15 Reference Guide, p 1414 (U.S.) states: "Component Lists also let you categorize demolished components (e.g. recyclable, hazardous waste, etc.)"

This sentence is actually in the section about the Renovation feature, but it has more to do with Interactive Schedules, and I find this ability to categorize components quite useful.

However, I'm not sure I'm doing it right.

As background, Component Lists allow one to take composites, and list quantities based on a composite's skins, something an Element List (I.S.) isn't set up to do.

However, I don't find anywhere in a composite's attributes, or an element's Tags and Categories, or a component's parameters, where I can tag skins of a wall, for example, with the categories "recyclable", "hazardous waste", or whatever I choose, and then have the list sort on those categories.

I CAN use the Scheme Settings to add custom text fields to an I.S., then simply add text as appropriate to each component on a list ("recyclable", or whatever), and sort on those, and perhaps this is the way it's intended to work.

But this is truly not automated as lists are designed to work. So I feel like there's more to the sentence on p. 1414 than I'm understanding. Just wondered if I was missing something.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Craig wrote:
I CAN use the Scheme Settings to add custom text fields to an I.S., then simply add text as appropriate to each component on a list ("recyclable", or whatever), and sort on those, and perhaps this is the way it's intended to work.

But this is truly not automated as lists are designed to work. So I feel like there's more to the sentence on p. 1414 than I'm understanding. Just wondered if I was missing something.

This page seems like marketing-speak to me. The demo status combined with a text field, such as you mention, would let you tag something as recyclable, hazerdous, etc if it were a single item.

But, I see no way for what is proposed on that page to work in general:

1. AC 15 does not have the ability to mark an individual skin or fill of a composite / profiled element as 'demo' - only the entire element. So, there is no way to track the removal of asbestos siding from a composite wall, for example.

2. If a wall is demolished and contains materials to be tagged by volume for recyling and rubbish dumpsters, there is no mechanism to do that with a Components schedule - again, all skins of a composite/profiled element would be tagged the same. Exporting the list to a database program that further categorizes the materials would let you match materials to their disposal-type: but you still wouldn't know which skins were being disposed of. Even a property object and a list scheme is of no help here due to the inability to tag individual skins by renovation filter.

3. The suggestion in each case on that page is to generate two lists (e.g., existing and after demo) and to compare (meaning subtract matching quantities) each to end up with the desired final list - demo materials, or new materials. As mentioned above, this could be possible if every element in the entire model was assigned a unique ID so that the corresponding quantities could be matched and then subtracted ... but there is nothing automatic about that in Excel/etc since the rows of output will not match at all. Only a database program, e.g., can/could join up the corresponding entries and do the math.

So... I think whoever wrote that page was dreaming and had not tested their idea. 😉

Would love to hear from someone that I'm wrong and that they figured out how to make this work. 🙂

Cheers,
Karl

[Craig Bagley]

Thanks, Karl. Your help is always very thorough and I appreciate it very much.

I thought I'd wait a few days before responding, to see what other replies might be forthcoming.

Since the Renovation feature is new, perhaps this section in the Reference Guide will get "massaged" a bit more than the others in the future, to include further clarification of this question.

Craig

[Karl Ottenstein]

You're welcome, and thanks, Craig. I was hoping somebody else had an idea for how to make this work as well... maybe 16 or 17...

Cheers,
Karl