qCloud™ parametric costing is a productivity tool for smart AEC professionals. While qCloudCosting™ focuses on costing from the first principles, this milestone feature focuses on extreme productivity. Following are the features of this milestone:
1.Basic parameters to detailed quantification - For selected Payment items, qCloud™ computes (order of magnitude) detailed quantification and costing data from basic and few building parameters such as
total floor area,
external girth,
internal girth,
roof type & tilt angle,
etc.
2.Cost analytics & procedure driven paramerization - Parametric costing computes quantities and costs for certain building component based on regression models for given building types. While it allows such intelligent quantity/cost interpolation, it does not force it on cost engineers. In the interest precision, at the right point during this machine-driven costing procedure, the system prompts user to suply component specific parameters or opt for automatic model based values.
Concluding this milestone delivers the qCloud™ Bidding and Tendering (or qCloud™ Hub & Jobs) platform service. A service that allows clients to publish procurement notices or bidding opportunities. In addition to supporting such notices from public sector clients and the corporate world, it also provides opportunities for contractors and owner-project managers to advertise subcontracts and trade contracts. It equally provides opportunity for professionals and contractors to get notifies about jobs of interest.
At the end of this milestone, you have the Procedure Builder. It is made of three other software submodules that allow users to transform their construction specific knowledge into digital machines (procedures) for generating desirable outputs
1.Procedure Builder (RPB) - Create automated procedures to build Unit Price for your payment items. Your Rate Procedures are reusable and available at the tap of a button! You can group your Rate Procedures into packs, optionally link them to BESMM Library, publish them to the Asset Store and monitize.
2.Measurement Formula Builder (RPB) - Author Generic Formulas & Shape-Based Formulas for 1-D,
2-D & 3-D BoQ items.
With Formula Builder, you enter shape based or other formulas/equations and map parts of your formula to
the respective dimensions of your BoQ items.
You can use your formulas in your own work or group them into a named Measurement Formula Pack, publish
them to the Asset Store and monitize.
3.Procedure Builder (RPB) - Build a calculator to automate compuational tasks!
With Calculator Builder, you can easily turn your formulas and equations into reusable automated procedures.
You can group procedures that solve related computional tasks into a named calculator, publish them to the
Asset Store and monitize.
Milestone 4 (#qC-400) delivers the qCloud™ MartConnect - a is a digital construction marketplace that allows users to interact with and engage AEC service providers.All categories of service providers - construction professionals, contractors, material suppliers, equipment providers, craftsmen and technicians - are listed.
The construction marketplace supports real time chatting and features voice and video communication with the service providers. As users engage service providers, they can initiate voice call and video talk. Users are enabled and can rate these service providers using performance based metrics like quality of service, speed of delivery, cost of services and trustworthiness
At the end of milestone 5 (#qC-500), qCloud™ online and ofline services come to life on the mobile starting with Android.
This promotes mobile usability of the qCloud™ services particularly the communication services amoung professionals and contractors
We also plan to release a mobile lite version primarily targeted at owner-project managers. We expect this will make more jobs available as it will increase advertisement of subcontracts and trade contracts from the private sector.
To be completed at the end of milestone 6 (#qC-600), the qCloud™ Asset Store is a digital store service that allows creators of information-based products used in the industry to upload, sell or even freely share their products. Such information-based products include architectural drawings and models, BIM/IFC based assets, city-based market survey reports of materials, labour and equipment prices, built-up rates of payment items, standard measurement libraries, measurement formula packs and qCloud™ project templates.
These digital assets will be authored based on open standards published by CostInfomatics™. They will be publishable and protected on the qCloud™ platform.
qCloud™ On-screen will be ready as milestone 7 (#qC-700) deliverable. Given the practice (by architects and engineers) of providing digital 2D drawings to cost managers, the qCloud™ infrastructure supports on-screen measurement from drawings in pdf and jpeg format
qCloud™ On-screen features support for design sketching, parametric costing, budget-design optimization through budget constrained design iteration.
As the final milestone, qCloud™ BIM will conclude major development efforts on the qCloud™ platform.
The focus of this milestone is on creating an auto-QTO/auto-cost module that seamlessly generate quanties and costs given BIM based document with right level of details (LOD) in IFC exchange .
Since BIM authoring tools like Revit Architecture, Archicad and Bricscad are compatible with industry foundation classes (IFC), the qCloud™ approach to riding on the BIM adoption waves that will soon engulf our AEC sector is the development of the qCloud™ BIM module into which an IFC-compatible BIM model can imported for automatic quantification and seamless costing.
At CostInfomatics, we put a high value on your thought as a member of our community. Feel free to share your thinking or request a consultation session!
