beegee
2004-02-20, 12:45 AM
I came across this in Cadalyst's Newsletter # 114...
( sounds interesting for certain types of practices )
Affinity is billed as a knowledge-base manager. Basically, it helps gather
and track all the information and requirements about a proposed house or
commercial structure, making sure that no pieces of information fall
through the cracks as a project progresses. The building information
that's recorded and tracked can be as generalized or as detailed as you
desire. It can be edited and added to as a project progresses.
Affinity appears to have been initially developed for homebuilders and
subdivision developers to allow customers to specify requirements and
features for proposed homes. The program is probably most useful to the
semicustom homebuilder, but it can be customized to handle other project
types and situations. Basically, the program is organized into a
three-step process: Questionnaire, Space Planner, and Reporting and
Export.
The Questionnaire walks through a series of questions and
fill-in-the-blank forms to capture the customer's requirements. Number of
rooms and their sizes, relationships of a room to other rooms and site
features, room colors and finishes, and other items can be specified. The
program calculates the building cost as the building is specified. The
cost updates to reflect changes as you go, and you quickly see the results
of various option and cost choices.
Cost is primarily based on rough cost per square foot, which you can
adjust on a room-by-room basis: $100/sf for overall building cost, $200/sf
for kitchens and baths, etc. As the rooms are specified, plugging in fixed
costs for individual appliances, fixtures, and equipment elements can
further refine costs.
The Space Planner translates the Questionnaire input about building
requirements and relationships into rectangular graphic shapes of the
correct size. You can then drag these into a window and arrange them to
create a rough space plan. As you add rooms, the program flags any
violations of requirements such as room relationships to other rooms,
costs, and so forth. The Space Planner does not attempt to provide
suggested graphic solutions or layout options, but simply flags violations
in tabular form and leaves it up to the space planner/designer to resolve
them. You can insert a preexisting home layout as an overlay to provide
guidance for building a layout of a semicustom home.
Information and requirements about individual rooms and the overall
structure are shown in tabular form so you can review and modify items
over time and resolve conflicts. When changes are made, you can track
information such as who initiated the change, how the request was
received, who was involved and made decisions, etc. You can also track
approval status on individual items and the overall project.
Affinity generates numerous tabular reports that you can view on screen or
export in Microsoft Excel or tab-delimited format for printing or use in
other applications. Reports are customizable and flexible to accommodate a
number of uses.
The graphic space plan you generate can be exported to a CAD program using
a DXF file. The DXF can use layers to separate information, and you can
specify the names of layers as required.
The information-gathering functionality of the program emulates the
traditional architectural process of the Programming project requirements
that architects go through as a matter of course. Trelligence has designed
the questionnaire so that prospective homeowners can go through it on
their own or with the help of a designer/builder. But accurately filling
out the questionnaire really requires some experience and judgment,
especially when filling in cost parameters, in order to arrive at a
meaningful and accurate result. Affinity does standardize the process to
bring the information into a single database and easily track it over
time, but the old adage "garbage in, garbage out" applies. You eventually
must enter each item of information completely and accurately, along with
any constraints and detailed specification data, for the program to track
it.
( sounds interesting for certain types of practices )
Affinity is billed as a knowledge-base manager. Basically, it helps gather
and track all the information and requirements about a proposed house or
commercial structure, making sure that no pieces of information fall
through the cracks as a project progresses. The building information
that's recorded and tracked can be as generalized or as detailed as you
desire. It can be edited and added to as a project progresses.
Affinity appears to have been initially developed for homebuilders and
subdivision developers to allow customers to specify requirements and
features for proposed homes. The program is probably most useful to the
semicustom homebuilder, but it can be customized to handle other project
types and situations. Basically, the program is organized into a
three-step process: Questionnaire, Space Planner, and Reporting and
Export.
The Questionnaire walks through a series of questions and
fill-in-the-blank forms to capture the customer's requirements. Number of
rooms and their sizes, relationships of a room to other rooms and site
features, room colors and finishes, and other items can be specified. The
program calculates the building cost as the building is specified. The
cost updates to reflect changes as you go, and you quickly see the results
of various option and cost choices.
Cost is primarily based on rough cost per square foot, which you can
adjust on a room-by-room basis: $100/sf for overall building cost, $200/sf
for kitchens and baths, etc. As the rooms are specified, plugging in fixed
costs for individual appliances, fixtures, and equipment elements can
further refine costs.
The Space Planner translates the Questionnaire input about building
requirements and relationships into rectangular graphic shapes of the
correct size. You can then drag these into a window and arrange them to
create a rough space plan. As you add rooms, the program flags any
violations of requirements such as room relationships to other rooms,
costs, and so forth. The Space Planner does not attempt to provide
suggested graphic solutions or layout options, but simply flags violations
in tabular form and leaves it up to the space planner/designer to resolve
them. You can insert a preexisting home layout as an overlay to provide
guidance for building a layout of a semicustom home.
Information and requirements about individual rooms and the overall
structure are shown in tabular form so you can review and modify items
over time and resolve conflicts. When changes are made, you can track
information such as who initiated the change, how the request was
received, who was involved and made decisions, etc. You can also track
approval status on individual items and the overall project.
Affinity generates numerous tabular reports that you can view on screen or
export in Microsoft Excel or tab-delimited format for printing or use in
other applications. Reports are customizable and flexible to accommodate a
number of uses.
The graphic space plan you generate can be exported to a CAD program using
a DXF file. The DXF can use layers to separate information, and you can
specify the names of layers as required.
The information-gathering functionality of the program emulates the
traditional architectural process of the Programming project requirements
that architects go through as a matter of course. Trelligence has designed
the questionnaire so that prospective homeowners can go through it on
their own or with the help of a designer/builder. But accurately filling
out the questionnaire really requires some experience and judgment,
especially when filling in cost parameters, in order to arrive at a
meaningful and accurate result. Affinity does standardize the process to
bring the information into a single database and easily track it over
time, but the old adage "garbage in, garbage out" applies. You eventually
must enter each item of information completely and accurately, along with
any constraints and detailed specification data, for the program to track
it.