The BaseQuantities suggested by buildingSMART are a good starting point and probably the obvious place to supplement more quantity data with (if of course it needs supplementing at all!). What we really need is to understand what exactly is required from others? I’m sure Cost Consultants / Contractors don’t want to drown in more quantity data (and other data) than they need.
#Archicad cost full#
My knowledge of quantity surveying is not in-depth enough to work out a full list of requirements.Ĭlearly we could export absolutely everything but this probably creates as many problems as it solves. Our difficulty as Architects is knowing exactly what is required to use for costing purposes. Whilst there is a lot of obvious information that is required, I also know that cost consultants derive other data from the information provided. I’d suggest much of this won’t be needed for most projects. As far as I can tell there is no published guidance from the RICS (Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors) or others about exactly what data is required for different IFC Element types.ĪRCHICAD has lots of quantity data that it can export. However they are less forthcoming when asked what they actually want. I often hear Cost Consultants / Contractors say that there is insufficient information to price using IFC models. Like all of our approaches we are aiming to share our models using IFC (currently IFC2x3). In order to satisfy different tools it is necessary to share data in a consistent and open manner. We have seen cost consultants and contractors use different tools to produce quantities and whilst we could schedule information directly within our authoring tool it is better if we can produce a model for others to use as they need. If we build our models correctly then we should be able to use our approach to produce the required quantities that can then be used for quantification and in turn costing. In order to produce these cost plans we need to be able to provide a well built model from both a geometry and data point of view. The models produced by project teams are now progressing to a point where cost consultants and main contractors are seeing the opportunity to use our models to assist them to produce a detailed cost breakdown of a project. As is, it's a severely bloated Sketchup pretending to be a BIM package.Over the past few years we have slowly been finessing our approach to data for our architectural models. It's sad because if they spent a few years cleaning up the beast that they've created, it could be a match for Revit.
#Archicad cost software#
This is sloppy software development at its finest. Instead of giving users what they need, modify the GUI and give them a bunch of useless crap to try to get them to buy the newest version. Instead of fixing problems and consolidating settings, Graphisoft has decided that their mantra is "addition." If something doesn't work right, just add features so that no one notices what they're missing. There are 20 ways to access every objects setting and it will confuse you to no end for the first year. The inability to create "blocks" is utterly ridiculous and maddening. You'll curse Archicad's lack of ortho snaps. Archicad will force you to be inaccurate unless you fight it to your last breath. You will fudge things with solid element operations that will keep you up at night. You will be piecing together your model using slabs to represent everything under the sun. They function exactly the way they should. It's easy to create what you want and to get it to look the way it should. Sometimes I like that archicad is less rigid than Revit. Powerful piece of software that could rival Revit if Graphisoft could shift their approach What I like the least of this software after 7 years of using it is the making of the ramps, it's not as customizable as the stairs. The integration with other apps is amazing, from my experience this is a really important factor for a good 3d modeling software,
#Archicad cost download#
The other thing that is a really awsome feature in this program is the costumisation of every single thing, you dont have to download almost any object to compleate the 3d, even the simplification of objects is excelent, you can for example place a door with a lot of details or just a realy minimalistic door from the same object. I Love that in first place is a really intuitive software, the first time that you use this program you can see how easy is to find every tool.
#Archicad cost free#
And last but not least, like every program that can be used for professionals as for students it's amazing that they have a student free version. You can model really big proyects and it doesnt have any problem. The best program for modeling in architectureįor my experience its a program that can run smothly in an ordinary PC, also has an amazing backup, the times that I expirience this programg crashing I didnt lose anything.