Materials List Revisited

[drafting edge]

Hi Ed, i am new user to this forum but we have been using chief architect for a number of years. As we have just upgraded to X5 we are now assessing if we should genuinely pursue costing the models via the materials list. To date we draw and manually cost every model and over time we have created very similar models that can be re-used and the costings are similar. We saw the chief video which has been talked about a lot on this forum and got excited about the prospect of creating a model that was accurate and fully inclusive to be able to run a detailed and accurate costing from. However the key part of that sentence is "accurate" as we want to use these models to reduce the manual costing department of the job and improve the overall accuracy in the quoting of projects, and we are not interested in pursuing something unless the outcome can be accurate and 100%, effectively a quote today and a purchase list tomorrow. I have used similar costing from 3d model programs in the past but all have fallen short of the mark in generating a "push of the button" result, and whilst you can create a costing it is not accurate or detailed enough to bank on. From experience the model is everything, but the time it takes to draw the model to the highest level of accuracy with as few work arounds as possible is extensive, possibly but extremely time consuming. If this time was rewarded with a fully accurate and detailed costing then it may be worthwhile, but i get the sense from the comments in this forum that even with a model drawn to a level well beyond what is needed for construction purposes you may not be able to 100% rely on the outcome, is that a fair comment?

i would be interested to hear from people that are using the materials list for costing and getting really good results, most of the comments are pointing out the flaws in the program but surely there must be people that have gone this route and get a good result?? are people using a 3rd party costing software that we can export the models into, or is the best method still the ruler and calculator? I am very interested in the thoughts of the users as i know software manufactures like to promise a lot in the brochures but the reality on the ground can be a different story.

Geoff Baker
Melbourne Australia