Construction Statistics?? What is Possible to get?

[Anonymous]

I am a non-user working for a home construction company. Our designer uses ArchiCAD to design all of our homes. We would like to get information from ArchiCAD to use in our estimating/purchasing. Can we get square footage of ceilings, drywall, floor, roof, concrete, etc? Any information is appreciated.

[Dwight]

Absolutely. This is what ArchiCAD is for. Ideally, the ArchiCAD model provides building information including all windows and doors, their costs and any other relevant cost data.

Extracting construction data means predetermining assembly compositions in advance. Values must be assigned - by you.

It is far from a simple task, however, and requires careful quantity survey knowledge for accuracy. For example, ArchiCAD can assign the numbers of studs in a given length of wall, but you'll still need to apply a fudge factor for waste.

Likewise with floor areas - actual sheets of plywood used takes the next level of estimating.

Generally this feature is used to compare alternative material usage relatively, not absolutely.

Tell your guy to read the manual. And give him a month or so....

[Jefferson]

Nkoster

The element information palette is a great start for all the information you asked about, without going into the calculate morass. It's not very refined but it's instant, and always there especially for surface calcs.

There area different display options for the level of information of each selected objects and some experimentation will payoff.

Cheerz

[Karl Ottenstein]

nkoster13 wrote:
I am a non-user working for a home construction company. Our designer uses ArchiCAD to design all of our homes. We would like to get information ...

Could you clarify your situation a bit more? (1) Is your designer in-house? I assume so ... if he/she designs all of your homes... (2) do you have more than one ArchiCAD license so that you or someone else can learn to work with the model to do quantity surveying and set things up for future designs? Or are you hoping that your designer will produce take-offs for you?

And, I suppose, (3), are you asking rhetorically, or is your firm looking for training and/or a subcontractor to help with this task? [And, have you contacted your reseller, David Pacifico?]

Karl

[Anonymous]

Karl wrote:
Could you clarify your situation a bit more? (1) Is your designer in-house? I assume so ... if he/she designs all of your homes... (2) do you have more than one ArchiCAD license so that you or someone else can learn to work with the model to do quantity surveying and set things up for future designs? Or are you hoping that your designer will produce take-offs for you?

And, I suppose, (3), are you asking rhetorically, or is your firm looking for training and/or a subcontractor to help with this task? [And, have you contacted your reseller, David Pacifico?]

Karl

Our designer is in-house. We only have one ArchiCAD liscense. Nobody else in our company is an ArchiCAD user. Initially, we would really just like to know square foot of drywall, concrete flatwork, concrete walls, roof area, etc. Long term, if we could use ArchiCAD to know more (i.e. lumber take-offs, etc.) that would be exceptional.

I think we would be interested in training or possibly hiring an outside consultant to set it up for us. We have not contacted our reseller as far as I know.

Thanks again.

Nick

[Anonymous]

Select the materials for which you want quantities, eg select all roof sheeting. Then go to the Calculate menu at the top of the ArchiCAD screen. The first item on the drop down menu is List Elements. Select List Elements and then select Basic. This brings up a screen with the area of roof sheeting or whatever you are finding the quantity of.
Composites are useful but for a simple area this method above is quick and useful.
If you know how many joists/rafters/purlins etc you have per square foot or square metre it is then possible to calculate the lineal amount of framing for that area.
This can be also simply done for walls, floors, paving, etc.
Cheers,

[Karl Ottenstein]

nkoster13 wrote:
Our designer is in-house. We only have one ArchiCAD liscense. Nobody else in our company is an ArchiCAD user. Initially, we would really just like to know square foot of drywall, concrete flatwork, concrete walls, roof area, etc. Long term, if we could use ArchiCAD to know more (i.e. lumber take-offs, etc.) that would be exceptional.

Nick,

Thanks for the add'l info ... easier to answer! The things you want initially are very easy to obtain and are something that your designer can spit out for you on his/her own. For just areas and volumes (concrete), I'd use the Interactive Scheduler since it exports transparently to Excel for further action. As Graeme says, the list schemes work, too.

Lumber take-offs, etc. get more complicated and likely will call for a consultant/trainer (several of us are on this list when the time comes). I would imagine that David Pacifico, your reseller, being very close physically is the most economical bet for getting your designer trained to pull out the easy numbers you mention.

Karl