Revit Architecture Extension now available

If you have not seen it yet, log into your Autodesk subscription site and there is a new extension available for Revit Architecture - "The Roombook Extension".

The Roombook Extension for Autodesk® Revit® Architecture 2011 software helps calculate the surface area of walls, floors and ceiling elements, room circumferences and the total number of furnishing elements within a project.

In addition to the automated detection of room areas and surfaces, this extension helps users configure these elements manually to local requirements, as well as achieve more accurate model take-offs. Quantified results can be exported to Microsoft® Excel® software and Autodesk® Quantity Takeoff (QTO) 2010 software.

Currently it is available in English and German, and includes the International Project Standard and the German VOB Standard measurement systems. There's a pretty good ReadMe PDF available - let us know if your subscription is up to date and you can't seem to find the extension.

Tips for a perfect estimation

Always just before to start a project some questions crawling in the minds of every member of the Architects, Engineers and Construction industry. How much will it cost? How many days will it take to finish? What will be the profit margin of the project? To get answers of all these questions you should seek the help of project estimation.

Any construction projects typically involve many dynamic aspects, yet they're often constrained by finite conditions. These contradictory forces make it very difficult to determine with pinpoint accuracy the time and effort required. By using a set of proactive estimating techniques to scope, plan, and constrain your project conditions, you can dramatically improve your estimating practices, reduce and mitigate risks, and increase your project success rate.

Do you excel at predicting the time, funding, and resources your projects will require? Whether your company aims to develop a new product or service, update an existing system, or launch a new Web site, these undertakings will require people, schedules, funding, resources, requirements, testing, revising, implementation, evaluation, and many other elements. Sometimes we forget the hidden or unknown variables that are difficult or impossible to anticipate and sometime even more difficult to resolve.

That’s why you need to be more careful when estimating for a construction project. Here we are discussing about some important tips for perfect project estimation.

1. Maintain an ongoing "actual hours" database of the recorded time spent on each aspect of your construction projects. Use the data to help estimate future projects and identify the historically accurate buffer time needed to realistically perform the work.

2. Create and use planning documents, such as specifications and project plans.

3. Perform a detailed task analysis of the work to be performed.

4. Use a "complexity factor" as a multiplier to determine whether a pending project is more or less complex than a previous one.

5. Use more than one method to arrive at an estimate, and look for a midpoint among all of them.

6. Identify a set of caveats, constraints, and assumptions to accompany your calculations, which would bind the conditions under which your estimates would be meaningful. (Anything that occurs outside of those constraints would be considered out of scope).

7. If the proposed budget or schedule seems inadequate to do the work, propose adjusting upward or downward one or more of the four project scoping criteria: cost, schedule, quality, and features.

8. Consider simpler or more efficient ways to organize and perform the work.

9. Plan and estimate the project rollout from the very beginning so that the rollout won't become a chaotic scramble at the end. For instance, you could propose using a minimally disruptive approach, such as a pilot program or a phased implementation.

10. In really nebulous situations, consider a phase-based approach, where the first phase focuses primarily on requirements gathering and estimating.

11. Develop contingency plans by prioritizing the deliverables right from the start into "must-have" and "nice-to-have" categories.

12. Refer to your lessons-learned database for "20:20 foresight" on new projects, and incorporate your best practices into future estimates.

In conclusion, by using a set of proactive estimating techniques to scope, plan, and constrain your project conditions, you can dramatically improve your estimating practices, reduce and mitigate risks, and greatly increase your project success rate!

free electrical estimating softwares

Electrical Calculations
Electrical Calculations is one of the best free electrical estimating software mostly suitable for Electrical Engineers and tradesmen. It makes calculations for busbar and cable ratings, static and bulk power factor correction, motor starting currents and curves, enclosure ventiation, transformer calculations and many metric / imperial conversions and constants.
ELECTRIST 1.18
It is also free electrical estimating software. It is considered as a calculator software for the Palm OS, the Top-Rated Electrical and Electronic Engineering Calculator for PDAs today. There are various formulas & variations using which can be applied under a most advanced user interface. Well matched with any Palm OS device from system 3 to 6 whether color or monochrome. It comes with a high resolution feature that generates a high advance high resolution PDAs.
EstiMaker PalmOS 1.1a
This free electrical estimating software provides assistance to electrical professionals with the estimating/bidding process. By using this free electrical estimating software an estimator get the ability to perform a take-off estimate in at least a third of the usual time. The software contains database of over 4600 electrical parts along with pricing and labor data for each part. In order to compute all the factors and create a job estimate, just choose the parts needed for a job. Then point out the quantity of each part and enter amount for extras like special equipment and rentals. The software can create limitless number of jobs to be kept for future reference.
Electrc 2005
This free electrical estimating software is ideal for electrical contractors, engineers, inspectors, estimators, and electrical maintenance personnel. The software execute wire sizing, conduit fill, motor, lighting, panel schedule, transformer, voltage drop, box fill, fault current, and power factor correction calculations. The free electrical estimating software also has built-in reference table from the NEC. Many NEC parameters are supported as well as parallel conductors per phase, ambient temperature derating, terminal temperature derating, quantity of current carrying conductors derating, circuit type, voltage drop percentage, and more. All files are saved to disk and reloaded for future application.
Resistor Values
This free electrical estimating software can work out the value of a 4 band resistor based on the color bands or the reverse. It can demonstrate the color bands of a resistance value entered by the user. The trial version is limited to resistance values of 1000 Ohms (1 KOhm) or less whereas the registered version shows resistor values up to 99000000 Ohms or 99 MOhms.
Electrical Mechanics and Maths 9.2
This free electrical estimating software is an educational software package ideal for MEP sectors including Electrical Installations and Automotive Engineering. With this software the high quality graphics can be redrawn to reproduce every user change.
LadderWorks Electrical Designer 5.0
With this free electrical estimating software one is able to make horizontal prints as well as vertical prints. Printouts of electrical schematics and various different connectors including a couple of special interest printouts of Grids, and notebook sheets, and a checkbook registry. Electricians can create electrical drawings which can be saved or printed out on paper for personal use. This free electrical estimating software comes up with a heats page along with a thermocouple page. There is a three phase page including a single phase page. Anybody can create his own electrical symbol. Just open one of the gif files in Windows Paint. Then wipe out the fuse part of the picture and include your own device according to your choice.
Design Master Electrical 7
This free electrical estimating software is considered as an incorporated electrical building design and drafting program for AutoCAD. The software contains features like panel schedule, circuiting, feeder sizing, fault current calculations, voltage drop calculations, photometrics, light fixture layouts, one line riser diagrams, fully customizable graphics, circuit looping, automatic tick marks switching etc.
Best Estimate Pro
This free electrical estimating software facilitates contractors to perform accurate electrical estimates faster and easier even in 30 minutes. By applying this software purchase orders is generated directly from an estimate. One is able to modify the parts and quantities as per choice and print/fax the purchase order to the wholesaler. In order to make a change order, just modify the electrical estimate according to customer’s requirement. Print out the Estimate Comparison report with the changes for your customer. The software can track the changes you made.
This free electrical estimating software comes up with features like Labor Report which produces the estimated labor hours for each room by project phase. This helps to figure out the total time required for an employee to complete a job.