Archicad and CYPE connected: quantities and cost estimates from the BIM model

The third and final session in the series devoted to the connection between Archicad and the CYPE applications. The thread is quantities and cost estimates: what has to be looked after in the model so that it can be measured, how that information leaves Archicad and what two different ways of working do with it. The speakers are Joana Alsasua, of SIMBIM, and Pablo Gilabert and Antonio González, of CYPE Ingenieros. The first part takes place in Archicad and starts from a simple idea: the way you model conditions the quantity take-off. The example of a column modelled from slab face to slab face, or continuous through its full height, shows that the volume changes according to the criterion adopted. From there, three workflows are distinguished: the program's own schedules and interactive schedules, with output to and input from Excel; the add-ons and APIs that exchange BC3 files; and the open workflows based on IFC. On the example model, a view is filtered, an IFC translator is duplicated, and the IFC base quantities and the parameters for components, elements and building materials are enabled. CYPE demonstrates the classic route with Arquímedes. After installing the connection with Archicad and creating a menu of its own in the work environment, the elements are linked to items in an Arquímedes cost estimate in two ways: one by one or by criteria, filtering, for example, the walls of a given thickness. The project is exported to BC3 and the take-off then appears in Arquímedes, which draws on the price generator to bring to each work item its breakdown, its specification, its waste and its environmental indicators. The second route goes through BIMserver.center. The IFC generated in Archicad is uploaded with IFC Uploader, the project is created, a collaborator is invited with a role, and the glTF is generated for the viewer. From there, Open BIM Quantities reads that IFC, or several from different sources, and displays the tree of entities with their properties and their quantities. A price database is loaded in BC3 and measurement criteria are built: a selection filter says what to measure, by IFC class and by element type, and the associated work item says how to measure it, by choosing the quantity parameter. The criterion is saved and reused, so that reimporting the model updates the take-off. The closing questions deal with the lesser control offered by the BC3 workflow compared with the detail of gross and net areas that travels in the IFC, exporting the cost estimate back to BC3, the deduction of openings and the measurement of stairs.