The challenges in development of automatic CAD for government and aerospace construction cost estimating systems. Challenges developing CAD/ACE. Challenges developing mini-computer CAD/estimating for government aerospace construction

摘要

The purpose of this presentation is to summarize the many years of effort in development of Computer Aided Design/Automatic Cost Estimating (CAD/ACE) using a VAX minicomputer by explaining the reasons, the purpose, goals, possible productivity improvements, problems, challenges and some solutions, thereby helping those computer professionals in industry and government to learn from our accomplishments and difficulties. This will help the construction industry to understand why and how to use this futuristic cost estimating system. By listing the 24 problems, difficulties and challenges, the next generation of CAD/estimating will be better, faster and cheaper. Computerization of ACE will benefit the Government, aerospace and construction industries, and our society. Our main purpose is to improve estimating accuracy, save time in estimating by making it faster and more automatic, thereby saving money. It will also provide time for more cost engineering and ultimately more cost effective and efficient construction. The present manual and computer estimating methods require time consuming quantity takeoffs, looking up, pricing out and marking up of cost estimates. A CAD/computer system can do this faster and be more accurate, using the CAD drawing file for quantities extraction. Three of our goals, to keep it simple, easy to use, and do as much as possible automatically, are probably our biggest challenges. An operational analysis and efficiency analysis of manual versus computer estimating will be shown with projection for CAD/ACE, with the impact of customization of CAD estimating software for Government and aerospace. Flow charts, graphics and estimating steps necessary for the CAD Estimating System being tested will be shown along with a sample computer estimate, bids, CAD estimate and menu. By explaining some of these problems and solutions, it is hoped that with many other engineering computer professionals involved in the development of different concepts, productivity improvements may move successfully to overcome problems faster and more effectively.