I am keen to learn if you have a version available or in the pipeline for the UK market. I run a design and build service for mainly residential house extensions, conversion and alterations. All projects vary in build and design requirements but mainly the following apply
Brick & block insulated cavity walls of varying sizes
Brick & timber frame walls
Strip foundations of varying depths and thickness’s
Insulated, Suspended concrete ground floors or block & beam
Insulated Timber floors & roof structures
Concrete or clay roof tiles of varying profile and sizes
Flat roofs
internal block walls or timber stud walls
Opening Casement and sliding sash windows upvc, aluminium or timber
Plaster finishes - dot & dab plasterboard and tape & joint or plaster finish
All timber structures to have option of insulating various materials and thickness’s.
We currently use cad and have started to use sketchup but so far it lacks the detail. Therefore we are keen to look at your product for the following requirements
Fast approach to designing a detailed model
Detailed section drawings, floorplans & elevations
Full Estimating including materials, labour and equipment ( I think adding labour rates to the BIM output would be a massive time saver for estimating projects)
Flexible exporting and filtering/summarising of data ie. to Excel
I may be asking a lot here. I think all of our requirements would be useful to most users in the UK. I would be more than happy to work on a beta programme. Please ask if I can be of any help
Many thanks
Mike
Hi Mike, thanks for asking and no you have not asked for too much as most of it is already available. In short we will be releasing once beta testing has run its course in Australia. I understand that many are getting anxious about the release of our software ( you may have noticed Igor’s comments) and we are doing our best to get it to you as soon as possible. There will be several people that will be included in the beta and a lot of them will be people that are commenting here.
The selection process has not been finalised yet I think that anyone in the design or construction industry that uses Sketchup will be prime candidates.
feel free to add an image of what you are doing…
Igor if you are reading you will be in the beta for Russia
Regarding PLUS-SPEC release date & country wide specific versions, I assumed, until I read these posts, that “one-hat” would sort of fit all, (language aside of course) is this not the case… H’mmmm… I’m now not too sure what to do as I was going to make a pre-release order to take advantage of the discount. Being a self employed Architectural Consultant in the UK & currently using SU Pro 2014 together with my CAD software DataCAD 16 & SPIRIT 2012 for my work, I would definitely see myself using PLUS-SPEC asap once it’s been officially released, however I just want a clear answer to the country wide specific versions, else I may not have an immediate use for it if not the “one-hat” fit all approach.
I’m hoping users can just add in their own country info such as currency for the estimating side of things & personal specific info regarding specifications & certain details such as door/window types, framing details, single wall & multi-leaf walls (cavity walls) sizes, roofing & so on & develop these for ones own progressive library, just like we all do now with are CAD software.
O.k. that said & I’m sure this is the case, can PLUS-SPEC HQ provide a first anticipated release date or conversely provide a date when the pre-release date ends for my deadline order calendar, thanks.
Just letting you know that PlusSpec is now available to Purchase and Download.
The software currency & country information cannot be changed at the moment but it will be in the near future.
As for everything else you’re asking, “info regarding specifications & certain details such as door/window types, framing details, single wall & multi-leaf walls (cavity walls) sizes, roofing & so on & develop these for ones own progressive library”, these are features existing in the software in it’s current format. This being said, there may be wall types or structural components that may be relevant to UK and Europe that haven’t been included at this point, but we do want feedback and information about other countries products, so we can add them to the software going forward.
Thanks for that Andrew, it looks like I’ll be buying PLUS-SPEC quite soon, as you’ve just confirmed my query that the construction elements can be all altered & saved to a user custom library & therefore the software will be flexible for any country or construction type. The currency is not too important for me at this point, but may find a use for it when it comes along,…free upgrade…
One last thing before I get my wallet out & bearing in mind I’ve not really looked at PLUS-SPEC in too great at detail with regards to creating your own construction elements, rather than just picking one that’s provided that is. Are there some movie tutorials you can link me to that shows just how to create a custom item & save it out to your own library. I just want to be sure it’s all very easy to do, as I will need to use my own created items as your standard details I’m sure won’t be of use to me for the UK market. Hope to see something soon on this as keen to buy.
I’m quite keen to trial the software but there doesn’t seem to be a trial version without purchasing. Do you have a download we can try. I’m also concerned the product is very Australian based and may not be suitable or flexible enough to use in the UK
I think for it to full fill our requirements we would need the following
Cost database ( you videos show take offs without any costs)
Can we create our own cost/material database?
Add Labour costs to take off
Take off summaries ie. Brick qty & cost totalling rather than multiple lines of the same item
Take off export options ie xls
BIM models all seem to be based on Australian brands. Do you have any progress with UK version
After watching the video tutorials (particularly scenes) The framing scene shows the wall framing. Is it possible to show the roof frame as well?or separately? and will the roof timber structure be added to the take off?
Also how do you manage various connecting roof styles? ie. connecting a gable roof to a hipped roof or lower level pitched top level flat, cat slide, dormer roofs etc. etc. We do a lot of house extensions, which sometimes create complex roof additions. Maybe you could produce a video explaining various scenarios
The takeoff tool is undergoing some major changes as we speak. at the moment you can take the data into excel and add cost there and some items like windows and doors you can add cost via the actual software.
You can add labor cost into BIM dialog but again it is yet to be implemented into everything else (couple of weeks away)
Yet we don’t have any UK materials or products yet, check out the section we’ve built on the forum for specific countries. You can go there and suggest materials and we can add them into the software for you.
We are also working on a drag & drop system (2 months away) which allows you to import any material that you want.
Again sorry about the late reply.
Note that if you purchase the software now we will extend your license accordingly when materials in your country become available and you won’t be losing any time.
With roof, at the moment there are no structures available for the roof. but all the various roof types will be available in 2 or 3 days (Yes it will be in the trial that I will be giving you) the structure for the roof is being worked on and will be available shortly (1 month away)
Prior to purchasing, I did mention on the forum about the need to be able to customise all the elements i.e. Roof, Walls, Floors, Door & Windows, Stairs & Floors etc. for country location. Although there are various settings for the building elements, I was given the impression one could make your own wall types along with all the other building elements if not contained within detail pull down menus for each building element. Therefore can you point me in the right direction for this…??
Specifically, I want to create a typical UK cavity wall construction of:-
Outer leaf 100mm wide solid aggregate Block work.
Inner leaf the same.
110mm wide cavity with partial fill insulation between, say 60mm wide CELOTEX.
Outer leaf wall rendered.
Inner leaf dry-lined with 12.5mm th’k plasterboard on dot & dab adhesive.
Note: the sizes for aggregated blocks & Aircrete blocks are typically: 440mmLx215mmHx100/115/125/130/140/150/190/200/215mmW
The above wall construction will also have variations for other projects such as:-
Insulated laminated plasterboard various thicknesses to inner leaf.
Various inner leaf block work thicknesses & types.
Various cavity widths.
Various partial fill cavity wall insulation thicknesses with full fill insulation.
Various outer leaf wall types such as face brickwork.
Various outer leaf wall finishes, i.e. weatherboarding.
I wont go into the other building elements, but needless to say, there are many variations that are required & hope customised building elements can be easily achieved.
I’m not too sure how the software nuts & bolts of the program works, but I can see a vast market for custom Building elements if it was a simple case of just downloading custom building elements & installing, either by users or direct from you.
We currently have in progress an update that will full fill your needs, I cant give to much away but a PlusSpec customer will have the ability to create their own wall types and other building elements and add them to there drop down list.
I believe this update will benefit you and people who aren’t from Australia or America.
For your wall type you are asking for, you will be able to create the wall for yourself and use it in PlusSpec with this update (we don’t have a release date as of yet). Are you familiar with SketchUp or are you a regular user?
Thankyou for your post and activity on the forum Clayton and we hope to hear more from you, hopefully I was able to give you an answer that you were after.
H’mmmm… I’m now not too sure what to do as I was going to make a pre-release order to take advantage of the discount. Being a self employed Architectural Consultant in the UK & currently using SU Pro 2014 together with my CAD software DataCAD 16 & SPIRIT 2012 for my work, I would definitely see myself using PLUS-SPEC asap once it’s been officially released, however I just want a clear answer to the country wide specific versions, else I may not have an immediate use for it if not the “one-hat” fit all approach.