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I think most CAD systems nowadays have some kind of estimating facility, though it is one avenue I haven't gone down.
SketchUp definitely has plugins to aid with estimating/material take-off etc. and you could Google for these. In fact if you produced a drawing in AutoCAD (dwg/dxf), imported this into SketchUp and use the "make faces" plugin, then any blocks you created in AutoCAD become components and all the layers are copied over too, which is a good start. This conversion takes seconds.
I used to work as a full-time Landscape Estimator and introduced LibeRATE to the office. I used it 24/7 and it was a great aid to estimating. It is however a standalone estimating package and not compatible with CAD (to the best of my knowledge). It's ten years since I used it and it was good then, so I have no doubt Sam has developed it further. Sam Hassel, used to help write the SPONS landscape book by the way!
as i was curious to see if anyone had justfied a software quoting package and what they felt about it.
I had a trial of LibeRate a long time ago from Sam (as he's based in my home town). I was impressed but could not justify the cost.
Times have changed and I am looking again to see what is out there - hence my question about Quotes.
Liberate does not link into CAD, just industry price books (ie Spons), which I use manually.
I know there are some software solutions aimed at builders that do take plans and create BOM, takes off, progress invoices etc, but everyone says they are not suitable for landscaping....?
I think the difficulty here is the custom elements in a garden. Estimating programs are only good for common elements in gardens such as fencing, turfing and simple areas of paving/walls. Hence why they are tailored to builders as within four walls there is a lot less variables than a garden with changing levels, custom features and varying boundary's.
Few years ago I tried using HBXL's Estimator Express. Admittedly not a CAD system but essentially a series of spreed sheets. It looked like it would save us a lot of time. The bits I really like was the fact it would automatically update prices for all the materials if you had an account with Jewsons, which we did, and you could pull out elements from cad drawings for it to work out.
But we quickly found out that it only had a few landscaping elements (fencing, turfing and walls) and many of our projects required bespoke items/features which we had to work out individually in Excel anyway. We already had a simpler system we had setup ourselves in excel were we could plug in the meters squared/surface area and it would do the rest. So we ended up reverting back an doing it all in Excel.
Has anyone used a Quantity surveyor on a landscape project before?
Vectorworks has tools built in which will keep track of areas in the design, areas of walls, plants used (in fact pretty much anything if you want it to!). You can edit the schedules it produces to add costs into the calculation.
Some of our clients use these worksheets as the basic data (spreadsheet style) for feeding into a dedicated estimating package such as Benchmark or Liberate.
The beauty with Vectorworks schedules is that they can keep track of the drawing as the design changes.
In addition, Vectorworks Landmark understands the landscape design industry and has tools built specifically for it, including hardscape, steps, planting, site modelling (for cut and fill calculations), as well as a full set of free-form modelling tools and a fabulous render engine called Renderworks (based on CINEMA 4D).
If you need any further information, or would like to have an online demonstration, please feel free to give us a call on 01488 658580.
Kind regards
Tamsin Slatter
Robert We are specialist quantity surveyers for landscape and the designers of the LiberRATE estimating system. Most of our users origially said exactly as you did that every landscape job is differnt and estimating systems wont work in our industry. I am atrained landscape professional and have worked most of my career in landscape - and that is exactly why I developed LiberRATE. I would like to invite you to try a fully supported 90 day trial and see if it it works for you. You can download it from www.landpro.co.uk - Sam Hassall
Robert Park said:
I am very impressed with this thread, interesting topic useful and informative responses.
Hi,
With the mention of APL, does that imply members get a special deal on LiberRate then ?
Stuart Marler said:
I haven't specifically spoken to the APL about this but - Yes - in principle. yes. I have have previously offered this to APL members via the pricing seminars which I gave to the APL in conjunction with Neville Stein. I will look into this and notify you if this is a possibility. Start youir trials anyway
Gary RK said:
It would be great if you could apply your discount scheme to LJN members too Sam.
Sam Hassall said:
So do ljn members get a discount?