Schedule Cost Calculation.

[OfAnna]

I am trying to create a living cost calculator for doors/windows/and surfaces. 

I would love to build a schedule allowing me to price out all the items in the details sheet that could appear on their respective schedules and would change while I build or edit the model/floor plan. 

One example, with doors, I would have two types of doors that cost different. Door A, a single swing door, would be 200 in total cost, while door B, four pocket doors, come to 300 each, however, the client may want to add another swing door in place of one of the 4 pocket doors. I would love to be able to go and switch out the door without having to go into Excel and update the schedule there. 

In the image attached to this post, on the door schedule, you will see a cost at the bottom that remains at 0. Basically, I am trying to figure out how to times the quantity to the purchase price. 

Likewise, when dealing with surface areas, I want to try to have the Area Column times the cost per unit/Volume to get a purchase price. 

Essentially, I am asking if there is a way to have the Feild Lines interact with each other. 

Operating system used: Windows 27.2.0

  

[Nyarumian]

I'm trying to do this myself today. Funny only two days after your post. Did you ever figure it out?

[Ricardo Lopez]

Hi @Nyarumian 

Once you have assign the Purchase Price to the element (Door) you can create a schedule and select the purchase price field to be summarized, just clicking on the å symbol.

[OfAnna]

This Helped for Items like doors and windows or various other objects. Thank you for that. The other thing is trying to get pricing on surfaces to show up. If I have a Slab, with a top surface of a tile texture and I am trying to auto-calculate how much tile will cost in the schedule, do you know of a way to set that up?

[OfAnna]

I got it to work with Items like doors, windows, or various objects.

Ricardo below showed an easy way in the comment to do that. If you need more help, let me know!

However, for surfaces, like slap surfaces, no luck yet. I found this video that shows how to set up schemes, but it wasn't helping me. Perhaps you can find more fortune in it. 

https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Wishes/Calculation-formulas-in-schedules/m-p/49126#M5037

[Barry Kelly]

Cost per unit is relatively simple as you have discovered.

Each object has a cost parameter and is is a simple sum or total in the schedule.

Cost per area is a little more involved as you need to multiply the area by the cost per unit.

Schedules can not perform multiplications.

So you need to do this with 'Expressions in Properties'.

There are plenty of posts here that should help and of course the Help reference file.

Basically your slab will need a 'Classification'.

You then create a 'Property' in the 'Property Manager' for the cost per area unit (m²).

You also need to create another 'Property' that has an 'Expression' to multiply the surface area x cost per unit property.

Now you have the total cost which you can now schedule, similar to how you schedule the object parameters.

Barry.

[OfAnna]

Thank Barry, 

I am still having trouble with it. 

I had been playing with the property management, but when I tried to set an expression, It would say the text had an error. 

Also, do you have a link to any of these posts on this forum on this topic dealing with my issue? I would look, and I get in a rabbit hole on posts not addressing this issue. Find posts that have something relating to the issue, but like, your response, it tells me what I need to do, but not how to do it. Will you be willing to tell me how to do that? 

[Ricardo Lopez]

Hi @OfAnna 

Let's see an example step by step as @Barry Kelly mentioned for slabs modeled as floor coverings where we want to schedule top surface areas.

1. Classify the slabs as Covering> Flooring.

2. Create a new Unit cost property only available for flooring classification. It must be a number so you can set a different value for each one if needed.

3. Create a number property for the math, I will name it as flooring total cost. It is a simple expression: 
{Property:FLOORINGS/Unit cost} * {Property:Slab/Surface Area of the Slab Top (Gross, with holes)} / 1 m2

Be aware of you need to divide the area by the unit (1m2). It will be available only for the same classification.

4. Populate Unit cost property for the flooring slabs.

5. Create a surface schedule where you set a criteria just for slabs classified as flooring covering. Add the properties you need and do not forget to set the summarize symbol (å) for the total expression.

Regards.

[OfAnna]

Thank you, this has been helpful, however, I am Having an issue with the sequence. 

I changed the class of the slab

Created and set up the Unit Cost

But as I setup the Total Property, there is an error. 

 

This is what it looks like in the sequence. 

Also, Although I live in the U.S. so I'd like to stick to feet, I did try it along with metric. Same results. 

[RobPhill33]

You need to change your data type from String to Number.