Specification & Quantities

[mjcturner]

I have completed a drawing of a building on AutoCAD Architecture 2014 (student edition). I now have the task of specifying the materials incorporated in the structure as well as quantities; is there a tool that will essentially do this for me? Any help would be appreciated.

[dbroad]

All objects have properties.  You can also add property set data to objects.  AA reports these properties through schedules.  You can define a schedule style to collect and report the information you need.  It will generally use the length of walls as defined on the justification line (or baseline).  So actual finish quantities might vary slightly from reported quantities.  But that is generally to be expected. After waste factors are applied though, the quantities should be appropriate for estimating purposes.

Use the schedule command and the styles option.  Use the propertysetdefine and propertydata commands (my spelling and memory may be slightly off).

[mjcturner]

Thanks for your reply, it's putting me in the right direction as far as where to source the information I'm looking for (properties). 

I was told that on Revit there is a tool that will automatically generate all the info I'm looking for and thought there might be a similar funtion on Autodesk Architecture.

[dbroad]

Revit and ACA have similar capabilities.  Since Revit generally has a single file per project, it simplifies the process.  In ACA, you should create a view that has all the levels and divisions that you want to schedule.  Then create the schedule definition in that view file.  

The process of setting up the schedules also seems a bit easier in Revit (less demanding technical skill on the part of the user).

In Revit, schedules stay up-to-date.  In ACA, that depends on a conscientious and technically aware user. (Is schedule set to auto-update?   Have all the drawings been saved and reloaded?)

But in the end, they do the same thing.