The information in this article applies to:
Where do the materials on the Materials List come from in Home Designer Pro?
This article describes how quantity and cost estimate materials lists are generated. You will learn some of the places where materials are configured, and how to create a materials list for quantity and cost estimation. Finally, you will learn how to configure a materials list and save it.
The materials list will only be as accurate as the model you have created. The more accurate and detailed your model, the more accurate your cost estimation. Remember that in addition to price, different methods of construction may result in different material requirements.
The Materials List is based on certain assumptions which may or may not match your building style. Chief Architect Inc. makes no representation as to the accuracy or reliability of the Materials List generated by Chief Architect or Home Designer.
Always compare the Materials List with a manual take-off before providing a quote or ordering material for a job.
In the example below, you will see how a simple material cost estimation in a basic Home Designer design, a single four-walled room with 20-foot walls on each side. This simple plan is used to generate a basic quantity estimation.
If you have any questions about the options or values that you see listed in these dialogs, click on the Help button located near the lower right of the dialog to launch the software's context sensitive Help on these features.
Now it's time to look more closely at framing.
After you have examined the wall materials and wall framing settings, take a look at Room Materials.
In most designs these are only some of the important materials. Other designs will include roofing, windows, doors and different wall styles. For your simple example design, however, you've seen where the materials can be set, so now do a quantity estimation.
For your cost estimation, suppose that you did not want to display the General category. In the Materials List, you have the ability to choose which categories display.
Using saved materials lists, you can create quantity and cost estimations for various stages of your project, or you can create estimates for small subsections of the design for remodeling purposes. For now, choose Save, name the Materials list and close the materials list.
Every saved materials list is a saved snapshot of the current state of the design. If you save the materials list and make changes to the design, you will need to regenerate a new materials list; the previously saved materials list will not update.
Home Designer Pro maintains a Master List of materials that can be used with all of your plans. Here, you can store pricing, suppliers, manufacturers, descriptions and other useful information for use with materials lists you create in any plan.
The Master List can be accessed by selecting Tools> Materials List> Master List .
Like the materials list, you can double-click on any material description to change it or change pricing for any material.
You can add a material from a materials list to the Master List by closing the Master List and reopening your Materials list. To reopen the materials list go to Tools>Materials List Management and select Edit. Click on the left most numbered column for that material, then selecting Tools> Update to Master.
You can update the information of a material in a materials list to use the information from your Master list by clicking on the left most numbered column for that material, then selecting Tools> Update from Master.
For additional information on the Master List, with your software open, click on the Help menu and click on Launch Help, or Contents and Index if you have an older version, and in the space provided on the Index tab, type in the keyword of Master List.
Many architectural objects in the program, from walls to cabinets to images, have components and accessories associated with them that are calculated in the Materials List.
In addition to editing and adding information for objects and their accessories in the Materials and Master Lists, you can edit and add information directly to these objects in the Components dialog.