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About model and data exchange with 3rd party solutions: Revit, Solibri, dRofus, Bluebeam, structural analysis solutions, and IFC, BCF and DXF/DWG-based exchange, etc.

Something new and exciting sounding.. ArchiQuant

Rick Thompson
Expert
I just ran across ArchiQuant by Cigraph. It does quantity takeoffs and estimates. This could be a home run, and out of the park if it works as needed, which it must or why do it. I am going to play with it, and it looks great, but should take awhile to figure out.

If anyone has used it, or Cigraph is listening in, I have a little script I use to convert the objects (rafters etc) generated from the roof wizard that takes the unusable lengths Ac spits out, and converts them to standard lumber ordering lengths... 2x10x10, rather than 2x10-x9'-3.33333". This is essential for a usable bill of materials. How many 2x10x12's to order, versus a poop load of 2x10x of many different inches that translate into 2x10x12's.

The only way I know to do floor framing is to manually place (multiply/drag copies) for all the joist. I key and quantify these by the ID's (2x10x10, 2x10x14 etc) I assume ArchiQuant will organize all the lumber by ID's? If I could get the info on the screen shot to look like it does in the spread sheet, without having to use the spread sheet, I would be a happy camper.

This is very exciting. The first thing available to generate a bill of materials other than the failed GS's ancient built-in version.

I am also assuming this means AC has committed to not doing any development along this line.

Picture-1.jpg
Rick Thompson
Mac Sonoma AC 26
http://www.thompsonplans.com
Mac M2 studio w/ display
39 REPLIES 39
Rick Thompson
Expert
Wouldn't it be nice if GS would develop the interactive schedule to include composites/property objects. I think that would change the game completely. O'well:)
Rick Thompson
Mac Sonoma AC 26
http://www.thompsonplans.com
Mac M2 studio w/ display
Yes...
until then the only thing that i found usefull is ArchiQuant...
Mac OSX 13.6.4 | AC 26 INT 3001 FULL
Anonymous
Not applicable
Achille wrote:
hi Krippahl,
i have been using Archiquant in the past few days, and i have some questions. Unfortunatelly i havent found many infos around so i would to ask you if don't mind, some clarifications...
I use the demo version of ArchiQuant, so i have many limitations, but i have found it very user-friendly. Before buying though i would like to know a couple of things:
1) Is it possible to modify the Components List once it has been saved? I have tried to, and seems i can't. But i do not know if this is because of the demo version. On the manual this thing is pretty unclear.
2) Is it possible to do a "reverse check"? I mean to find where a component has been linked to an Archicad element. I also didn't find anything on the manual but it is very usefull because sometimes when you get a number that doesn't seems right you need a cross-check.

Thanks in advance for your help!
Hi there

1) Yes, easy.
2) There is a way to check if there are elements without components assigned, which is a help. I think there is no way to reverse check, but you should ask Fabrizio, from Cygraph, who is always very helpful.
Anonymous
Not applicable
I'm going to definitely check it out for my European work.
sounds like it's designed around European building methods more than framing.

I talked with a code-head here (computer programmer) and he told me that it wouldn't be too hard to write a low-level extracting plug-in for AC that can

1) import/export perfectly to excel spreadsheets or databases
2) fix the problems with the current AC scheduling and add flexibility.

I'm guessing without pay it will never get done (he's not an architect so only after looking it over and how AC deals with the data- but he's really good at this stuff), and that in the AC/Graphisoft camp the situation is the same: they CAN fix is, but lack the current resources to TASK someone on it for the few months of coding it would take to have it work for all the current AC users, mac and PC.

By the way, I've had more than one code-head look it over, and they all agree- it's not hard to make something that will run in the background (like a plugin) to make the scheduler and exporting and checking/cross referencing work better with AC, and suspect simply no one who knows HOW to do it has been paid TO do it, so it hasn't been done, and that's the only reason.


...so the real question is, do we start a wish list or slush fund donation basket? If so, let's head over to the wish list and add every detail in that we need. Maybe if we donate money for someone's time we can get someone to make it outside of AC, and perhaps AC will again pay them for the rights to add it in, and we'll all finally get that dream scheduling tool, yeah?
(even it could look like that little "sum total design cost" thing they said- and run as a tool-bar with a window that quantifies selected items that have definitions in the database, which could be edited in excel or the Mac equivalent...NICE!!! -I'll take TWO!

Anonymous
Not applicable
JP-Design wrote:
...so the real question is, do we start a wish list or slush fund donation basket?
I´m all for it. Either one.

Seriously though, there should be a way to really really really make GS realize this has to be a top priority.

Any ideas?
Anonymous
Not applicable
There are 2 sample add-ons that may interest you. The first one is the SQL addon. This exports the data (depending on the query you give it) to xml format. It's nice but the more complex the query the more trouble i have reading the schema correctly.

The add-on i ended up modifying was Plan-Dump. This loops through all elements and attributes in the database and spits out the info to a text file.

I created another app (i called this Archiquants without knowing about Archiquant!) that reads this txt file and loads to our Database. All up the process takes about a minute.

Hope that helps.
Krippahl wrote:
Achille wrote:
hi Krippahl,
i have been using Archiquant in the past few days, and i have some questions. Unfortunatelly i havent found many infos around so i would to ask you if don't mind, some clarifications...
I use the demo version of ArchiQuant, so i have many limitations, but i have found it very user-friendly. Before buying though i would like to know a couple of things:
1) Is it possible to modify the Components List once it has been saved? I have tried to, and seems i can't. But i do not know if this is because of the demo version. On the manual this thing is pretty unclear.
2) Is it possible to do a "reverse check"? I mean to find where a component has been linked to an Archicad element. I also didn't find anything on the manual but it is very usefull because sometimes when you get a number that doesn't seems right you need a cross-check.

Thanks in advance for your help!
Hi there

1) Yes, easy.
2) There is a way to check if there are elements without components assigned, which is a help. I think there is no way to reverse check, but you should ask Fabrizio, from Cygraph, who is always very helpful.
Hi, thank you very much!
1) OK. Seems to be a demo limitation then.
2) Hmmm... Yes i have seen the "Find and select" command but it is not very versatile unfortunatelly... The problem is i have some components that appear to have 0 quantity, so i must have an empty formulla, but ArchiQuant didn't find it. And it would be usefull to have the possibility to select archicad elements based on their linked components to check if a componenet has been assigned by mistake to the wrong element.

Anyway, its a pity that the Cigraph forum doesn't seem to be very active...
Mac OSX 13.6.4 | AC 26 INT 3001 FULL
Fabrizio Diodati
Graphisoft Alumni
Graphisoft Alumni
Dear Achille,

I just answered your request on our Forum...
ABout what you are looking for the Find & Select function of ArchiQuant lets you do just what you are looking for because the first radio button (see the attached image) lets you search for the elements linked to ArchiQuant but without a formula definition.

Friendly
Fabrizio
AQuant.jpg
Fabrizio Diodati
Graphisoft Italy Srl | Via Rossignago 2/A Spinea Venezia 30038 Italy
Fabrizio Diodati
Graphisoft Alumni
Graphisoft Alumni
Just because my answer could be useful also to the ArchiCAD-Talk users:

Is it possible to modify the Components List once it has been saved? I have tried to, and seems i can't. But i do not know if this is because of the demo version. On the manual this thing is pretty unclear.
1. Yes of course. The Demo doesn't let you modify the database

Is it possible to do a "reverse check"? I mean to find where a component has been linked to an Archicad element. I also didn't find anything on the manual but it is very usefull because sometimes when you get a number that doesn't seems right you need a cross-check.
2. You can look for the ArchiCAD elements without not link with ArchiQuant

of course if you have any good suggestion/advice about this we could include new procedures (in the next release) to add new find/select functions.

BTW, I can agree with the fact it's quite difficult to provide the user with a very exhaustive documentation (!) but when you start our Demo version a splash screen appears where there is a button for the Demo Limitation list.
If you use this button, under the ArchiQuant Limitation list you can read:

1. Fixed non-editable components database.
2. In the demo version, you can import or create new components databases, but they cannot be used as active components database.
3. The components database included can, however, be used to test all functions of the program.

Friendly
Fabrizio
Fabrizio Diodati
Graphisoft Italy Srl | Via Rossignago 2/A Spinea Venezia 30038 Italy
Fabrizio Diodati
Graphisoft Alumni
Graphisoft Alumni
Dear Achille (I'm answering you both privately and here because maybe it could be useful also for the other ArchiCAD_Talkers),

I got your file (please, next time avoid to send me the PLA file but just a PLN) and I immediately check it!
I found the guilty component is assigned to an ArchiCAD Library Part named “WC LT 12” (I don’t know on which story it is because the names of the story in your project are in Greek language so they appears with strange characters on my Computer).
So:

1. I selected the object
2. I double-click on the ArchiCAD Object Tool icon in order to display its settings
3. I displayed the ArchiQuant Panel
4. I select the “guilty” component (004.304 fine brick 24x11,5x7.1) that, BTW, I don’t think it was what you was looking for… because I don’t understand why you need to assign brick component to a WC… but maybe I’m wrong (of course you can assign any component you desire to any ArchiCAD elements)
5. I displayed its formula by clicking in the Formula Definition button
6. Here I found you based the calculated quantity on the value of one of the GDL object parameters (one of the most interesting features of ArchiQuant!). This is the parameter named iLocCode (once again, probably you didn’t want to do this!). This is an hidden parameter (for localization function I suppose) that is always zero so… the final result is correct!

Friendly
Fabrizio


AQuant_the_guilty_formula.jpg
Fabrizio Diodati
Graphisoft Italy Srl | Via Rossignago 2/A Spinea Venezia 30038 Italy