What Software do Quantity Surveyors Need?

Summary

Civil Engineering is the most important field that is widely used in our day to day life. As long as mankind needs a shelter to live, civil engineering does not cease to exist. It has many subfields within. Subdivisions in this engineering are geotechnical, environmental, transportation, structural, and project management. This field ensures to build from ordinary roads to the largest infrastructure such as dams and bridges in the cities. One such vital role in the field of civil engineering is the Quantity Surveyor.

Note:

Have you checked out our projects on Civil Engineering yet?
Civil Engineering Kit will be shipped to you and you can build using tutorials. You can start with a free demo today!

1. GIS

2. Structural & Foundation Analysis

3. CPM & BIM

4. Tall Building Design

5. Construction Technology (Career Building Course)

6. Foundation Design

7. Construction Project Management

8. Building Information Modelling

9. Seismic Design

10. Quantity Surveying

11. ETABS Software

12. Project Management with Primavera

Quantity Surveying demands the fusion of quite different fields such as engineering, construction and economics. Albeit there are many tasks that are performed by quantity surveyors, the profound knowledge in the economics field is also required. Let's be clear about the common mistaken terms first. A Quantity Surveyor is also sometimes called as Construction Cost Estimator, Cost Manager and Cost Consultant. In countries like the US and, Canada the term Construction Cost Estimator is widely used. But the term Quantity Surveyor is used in countries like the UK and Australia. Though their roles are different the work is quite the same. This article is gonna cover up the work of a Quantity Surveyor and the software used by them.

Discover more about quantity surveying

What software do quantity surveyors use?

Before getting into the details, first, let me answer your question "What does a Quantity Surveyor actually do?" Well, a quantity surveyor manages all the costs of the building the projects that are associated with civil engineering. They work both on the site and in the office. They work more or less to limit the expenses within the estimated budget of construction without compromising the quality of the materials, building, health and safety regulations. Quantity Surveyors use various software for different purposes.

MS Excel: Microsoft Excel is the most used software and an alternative to UQTO add-on toolbar. Almost 80 per cent of the work is done using the MS Excel software by a Quantity Surveyor. They use Excel for various purposes like preparing budgets, BOQs, comparison statements or cashflows. Other important, yet general usages are to draw a Pivot table, create Charts, Data validation and Conditional formatting.

PRISM: It is used to do the project cost estimation for the organizations that demand consistency in estimating the data. With PRISM Estimating software, users can create conceptual estimates to make the work done and develop a fair budget. This software benefits to working on collaborations and align the estimated costs and budget to nullify the project risks. All the estimated classes can be covered up by one system.

Vector Snape: This software is used not only by professional Quantity Surveyors but also used by Building Estimating Professionals. Quantity Surveyors use this for Direct Entry measuring, as a digitiser and CAD measure. Also, it is used in making cost plans, detailed building estimates along with the resource analysis, approximate estimates and financial statements. The output can be taken into a paper, Excel and C.I.T.E.

Now let us hop into learning about the other two major software that is used in Quantity Surveying.

Learn more about quantity surveying software

Did you know

Skyfi Labs helps students develop skills in a hands-on manner through Civil Engineering Online Courses where you learn by building real-world projects.

You can enrol with friends and receive kits at your doorstep.

You can learn from experts, build working projects, showcase skills to the world and grab the best jobs.
Start Learning Civil Engineering today!

Is ArchiCAD easy to learn?

ArchiCAD, developed by Graphisoft is a BIM software used as a powerful model-based process to plan every aspect of a building from the design through construction to management. However, ArchiCAD tends to be a complex toll in the beginning. But when you get the hang of using it naturally, the benefits are beyond the sky! Apparently, when you learn the best practices for using ArchiCAD, this software would become like your trusted assistant or moreover like your friend. An expert of ArchiCAD- Eric Bobrow states seven principles to understand ArchiCAD completely and to work efficiently and effectively. They are:

1. Get organized;
2. Do it once;
3. Save your settings;
4. Work from the General to the Specific;
5. Use ArchiCAD's structure;
6. Model Well
7. Draw less and Keep it safe.

ArchiCAD is definitely an easy platform for quickly creating a concept unlike the complexities of Revit. This software possesses extensive and robust rendering capabilities. It has a large suite of tools like CineReader to allow alterations to shadow, brightness, texture, retraction, diffusion and light. Apart from all the features and tools of ArchiCAD, its interface is really appreciated by the designers. The user interface is sleek and clean with the feature of user customization. Overall, this BIM software is capable of a lot which costs less and comes with an easy intuitive user interface.

Explore more about quantity surveying

What is Primavera used for?

Primavera P6 is an amazing software which is used mostly by planners. Also, engineers, schedulers, managers, and anyone who is in a position to plan, manage and report a project. This has benefitted many types of industries from electronics to IT, aerospace to manufacturing, Telecom to Civil and many more. The usage of Primavera are as follows:

• It provides crystal-clear visibility of what is actually going on in a project.
• It helps to reduce the risk of overrun in the schedule and cost
• It easily gives access for the forecasting of WBS's and projects.
• Obviously, it helps to plan and manage the activities of a project.
• It extends to optimize all the management of all the resources.
• It is great in making collaborations with other companies and allows good communication with each other.
• For reporting purposes, one can view the past project performances and keep track of the progress of the current project too.

Since the usage of Primavera has been on a full swing, the experts who know this particular software are in demand in several companies.

Learn more about quantity surveying

2 Software every Quantity Surveyor should learn

Quantity Surveying is one of the important things to be considered during the construction of any building. We, at Skyfi Labs, offer you an exquisite course to become an expert in Quantity Surveying.

Our Quantity Surveying course will offer you to learn the concepts of civil engineering from basics to advanced. This usually makes you understand the basic CAD drawings. Then, according to codebooks, it lets you estimate the quantity of several works manually. Eventually, you will learn how to prepare the costing and budget documents. This will also help you in estimating various construction projects like 2 BHK and single-room buildings with powerful software tools like Primavera and ArchiCAD which allows you to check the manual calculations. These are the two must learn software for the persons who want to become Quantity Surveyors in any kind of construction projects.

View more about this course

As long as the buildings are built and managed, the role of a Quantity Surveyor continues to exist. The profound knowledge of the above-mentioned software and techniques could get you in the long run in the place of construction. Check out our exclusive Quantity Surveying software courses to become an expert in the field. If you have any queries regarding Quantity Surveying or any clarifications upon the course, please do not hesitate to leave as a comment below.

What Software do Quantity Surveyors Need?