Modeling
About Archicad's design tools, element connections, modeling concepts, etc.

Archicad - Constructor -Revit

Anonymous
Not applicable
I would like to know if Revit has anything like Constructor.

Also I believe GS should include some king of version of Constructor in to Archicad, especially I am thinking of the Control and 5d Presenter. This would give Architects a way of competing for larger project where Constructor is used.
17 REPLIES 17
Anonymous
Not applicable
Ignacio wrote:
On the other hand most US construction companies are 'virtual' companies, they bid and manage subs and have *no* (2) true cost estimating system at all because they don't need it --their subs do that, and each sub has his own system or lack of system.

If the complexity of both (1) and (2) individually is beyond most practices, the complexity of (1) times (2) can be dealt with by a Skanska or a Toyota prefabs and I don't know who else.

For those reasons I think that Constructor can work only for systems or prefab builders (say, Butler, if they didn't have their own system, or if Constructor could be customized into something better than what they have), or perhaps large production builders with their own teams and equipment that are really into finetuning their construction and cost estimating systems. I suspect that for a small design-builder the investment in systems setup would be too high, and in any case the complexity of the problem at hand can be dealt it faster, more flexibly, and as accurately (given that the accuracy of the result will depend on the accuracy of the setup) with tools that don't need that investment.

Of course Graphisoft is aware of all this from the start, and that is why they made Constructor a separate product with a totally different marketing approach.


Your facts are correct but you are blind to the larger picture.
Architects do cost and time estimates and in a BIM world it should be done as Constructur does it.
Scott Davis
Contributor
Krippahl wrote:
Laura´s work is amazing!
Now imagine if she would be allowed to do it with an adequate tool, like constructor.
If the company wanted to buy and manage another piece of software.
Scott Davis
Autodesk, Inc.

On March 5, 2007 I joined Autodesk, Inc. as a Technical Specialist. Respectfully, I will no longer be actively participating in the Archicad-Talk fourms. Thank you for always allowing me to be a part of your community.
Adalbert wrote:
Your facts are correct but you are blind to the larger picture.
Architects do cost and time estimates and in a BIM world it should be done as Constructur does it.
If my facts are correct, then the correct conclusion is that the larger picture shows that 'BIM estimating' ('the way Constructor does it') just does not belong in the architects' time-and-cost-estimating world.
Anonymous
Not applicable
This is actually very different in every country. And we are actually right now (as the whole industry) in the time of big/huge changes. We are probably going to see new standards to be developed.
-Who is modeling Construction?
-Who is making Tasks splitting? (ex. Pour Sequencing)
-Who is making schedules?
-Who is making Blind Estimates?
-Who is preparing model for Estimates?
-When Finally model from Architect will be a legal document?

etc.
Anonymous
Not applicable
Ignacio wrote:
Adalbert wrote:
Your facts are correct but you are blind to the larger picture.
Architects do cost and time estimates and in a BIM world it should be done as Constructur does it.


If my facts are correct, then the correct conclusion is that the larger picture shows that 'BIM estimating' ('the way Constructor does it') just does not belong in the architects' time-and-cost-estimating world.


If cost does not belong to the Architect
Time does not belong to the Architect
Structure does not belong to the Architect
Lighting does not belong to the Architect
Power does not belong to the Architect
HVAC does not belong to the Architect
Energy compliance does not belong to the Architect
Fire protection does not belong to the Architect
Alarm and IT does not belong to the Architect
Plumbing does not belong to the Architect
Site design does not belong to the Architect
Hydrology does not belong to the Architect
Roads do not belong to the Architect

That that leaves only Means of Egress and Furniture to the Architect.
The rest is all the subjective as fashion is and does not require a license

In fact if we let engineers take care of Means of Egress and Decorators of furniture then the profession does not need to be licensed.
Dwight
Newcomer
Boss belong to the Architect.
Dwight Atkinson
[I don't question that architects that want to control cost estimating as well as lighting and structural and interior design and etc. have a better chance of delivering a better service and product, what I am saying is that Constructor-type-setups are not the right tool for the cost estimating architects should be expected to do and occasionally do.]

15 years ago [EDIT: it was 1997, that is *10* years ago, I scrwed up my estimate] I had a detailed setup for cost estimating (for a general contractor that did exclusively supermarkets, that is to say, the projects were highly repetitive so you could develop a standard template, invest in finetuning it, get feeback and improve it, etc.) using Minicad (old VectorWorks) and Excel. The model produced a Minicad spreadsheet that I just exported, opened and copy-pasted into a pretty complex Excel template, and boom, you had your estimates and man hours and investment curves and all that.

That *works*, *today*, with technology that has been available for more than a decade, with a lot more flexibility, with a minimal learning curve, with less investment in software and setup. The Constructor setup is a whole different story which again I think makes sense only for systems builders or highly repetitive production builders who actually want to invest in finetuning their systems (perhaps when the market cools down and things become more competitive).
Ignacio wrote:
15 years ago I had a detailed setup for cost estimating (for a general contractor that did exclusively supermarkets, that is to say, the projects were highly repetitive so you could develop a standard template, invest in finetuning it, get feeback and improve it, etc.) using Minicad (old VectorWorks) and Excel. The model produced a Minicad spreadsheet that I just exported, opened and copy-pasted into a pretty complex Excel template, and boom, you had your estimates and man hours and investment curves and all that.

That *works*, *today*, with technology that has been available for more than a decade, with a lot more flexibility, with a minimal learning curve, with less investment in software and setup.
It drives me crazy that I can't _reasonably_ do this with Archicad, yet have no problem getting usable quantity/cost information from programs that cost 1/2 as much, or less. (e.g. Vectorworks, Chief Architect, Softplan, and who knows what else.)
Richard
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Richard Morrison, Architect-Interior Designer
AC26 (since AC6.0), Win10