Estimating w/ Revit

[ChristinaB]

I am looking for a way to take off lineal feet of walls, fascia, soffit, ridge etc. Does anyone know if there is a way Revit can be used to automatically come up with these numbers?

[sfaust]

create a wall schedule, pick type and length, sort by type, and uncheck "itemize every instance" (under sorting and grouping). This will give you a schedule that will show you the total lineal feet of each type of wall in the project. You can even do this for walls by SF instead of LF and create a caculated parameter to multiply the area by the cost/SF and get the total cost of each type of wall in the project.

Use similar technique for the other items in the model.

[hand471037]

Then you can generate a new Calculated Parameter within your project that takes that LF/SQ and multiplies it verses a number from another Cost parameter and get a automatic cost generated live as you draw...

[papurajx]

You may have to employ additional 'user defined parameters' to filter the quantity take-off on floor by floor basis. These parameters are to be attached to the components by way of tag to identify them
(just in case).
Accuracy of the information is not assured beyond doubt. Sorry to say this, because I remember reading a couple of 'forum topics' on the 'room area issues' where it seems that the system seems to ignore the columns placed in the room for area calculation. Not tested for columns placed in the wall.
Bear in mind, Revit is not fully developed a tool for doing quantity take-off and cost estimates though there are couple of tools to extract simple quantites like area, volume, running length etc and to export the data into excel spread sheet and other ODBC database like MS Access etc.

[ChristinaB]

The schedule worked okay, but it did not take off the LF of all wall types only a select few. Does anyone know why this is?

[weeleng_02]

By any chances, there is a way to print out the work out for those quantity estimation. (even though, I doubt so in Revit have such a function)
I have some concerns about the automatic generated schedule and it would be nice to have some workout print out for manual-checking.

Anyway, really like to hear on some rules or advices in Revit drafting a case to get the exact schedule reporting reflected. (for i.e. should we have a wall type of plasters in order for it to reflect in volume? or just utilize the wall edit function to put in the layer of plaster and let it reflected in area?) I got some confusions on wall placement too whether to use wall joint? same dimension wall don't produce the same areas and whether to split the wall if there is a column or stiffener put in at the later stage.

Some tips are really appreciated! Thanks in advance

[Tom Dorner]

If you are looking to do any kind of advanced estimating with Revit, it would be best in my opinion to export the Revit model as an ODBC database. Once the Revit model is exported as an ODBC database then you have a ton of options to use third party estimating programs, write your own in a database such as MS Access or SQL Server or even just use Crystal Reports to link the Revit ODBC to your own cost database and get a nice estimate report.

Exporting the Revit database to ODBC is fairly straight forward if you have a basic understanding of PC databases. The most important step is to establish a system DSN for the export to happen and this is probably the most confusing step for most people as it is a Windows function.

The Revit help file is pretty good in this area. Just search on ODBC and the help topics will show up.

Hopefully in the near future Revit will allow for direct database connectivity with other databases allowing us to skip the ODBC export process.

Maybe at AU2005 there will be a class on this subject as I think more people really need help in this area.

Tom

[Scott D Davis]

Did you all see THIS THREAD (http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=13722) in the Revit R + D Lounge (http://forums.augi.com/forumdisplay.php?f=159)?

[Tom Dorner]

Scott,

I had not seen that thread, but I have since viewed the demo.

Exporting schedules as flat .txt files is not a solution that I would promote if I were a software developer. Especially since this is all information that can be exported in one fell swoop to a fully relational normalized ODBC database out of Revit.

The ultimate answer is in two way database connectivity between Revit and other software like Timberline, Oracle, SQL Server, MS Access and Crystal Reports. Until that time I am sticking to ODBC as my methodology .

Tom

[Scott D Davis]

The company at the link has developed the export solution for now, but are currently in development with the Revit API to do what you are asking. That's why it seems so promising. We'll have to watch their development.

[weeleng_02]

If you are looking to do any kind of advanced estimating with Revit, it would be best in my opinion to export the Revit model as an ODBC database. Once the Revit model is exported as an ODBC database then you have a ton of options to use third party estimating programs, write your own in a database such as MS Access or SQL Server or even just use Crystal Reports to link the Revit ODBC to your own cost database and get a nice estimate report.

Exporting the Revit database to ODBC is fairly straight forward if you have a basic understanding of PC databases. The most important step is to establish a system DSN for the export to happen and this is probably the most confusing step for most people as it is a Windows function.

The Revit help file is pretty good in this area. Just search on ODBC and the help topics will show up.

Hopefully in the near future Revit will allow for direct database connectivity with other databases allowing us to skip the ODBC export process.

Maybe at AU2005 there will be a class on this subject as I think more people really need help in this area.

Tom
Too bad AU is only happening in US..