Is Estmating a Viable Career Path?

In the January 2013 issue of ASPE National, this article was published which discusses estimating as a viable career choice. Below is a direct quote from the article that you might find interesting.  

"I believe with new technologies and changing client needs, the additional skills required can make estimating anexciting career choice for those entering the industry today. In 2010, the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed estimating as a top 10 career in regards to growth (25%) through 2020, while Money and PayScale.com say construction estimating is a top 100 "best jobs". Impressive when you think of all the careers that are out there."



BIM will continue to grow and change the industry!

For those of you who are currently students and are debating on pursuing Estimating v.s. the more traditional Project Management career path, I'd encourage you to read this article and see for yourself the benefits of an estimating career. It is encouraging for me to see the current changes within the industry and the amount of value an estimator can add to a specific firm. BIM (Building Information Modeling) along with IPD & LEED have made the Estimating roll far more prominent then ever before and with the continued growth of these different softwares and systems, the roll of the Estimator will continue to grow as well. The Estimator will also become a unique creature in the construction world because they will be required to have the tech savvy nature to operate these systems while maintaining a continued relationship oriented demeanor in order to best meet the changing needs of designers and clients.

Follow this link to see the complete article:
http://www.aspenational.org/7E20EC08-F002-4659-B0B0-DD6C3DEE3C52/FinalDownload/DownloadId-6CF783678521784DE707A6FD8C6874E9/7E20EC08-F002-4659-B0B0-DD6C3DEE3C52/userfiles/file/ET%20PDFs/2013/2013-ET-Jan-Final-web.pdf

Print Your Own House in 20 Hours

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdbJP8Gxqog&noredirect=1

Finding the Code You've Been Searching For!

CODE HEADACHE!

Have you ever had trouble finding the construction building code that you are looking for. I know that it can be a headache digging through all of those Mechanical, Fire, Plumbing, Electrical (the list goes on and on) codes and not being able to find the specific one you need.

I was recently shown the following website and felt that, for free, it was a great resource that could save someone lots and lots of time and wasted effort. I've attache a link to the site below and if you feel this site has been beneficial to you, let me know.

http://publicecodes.cyberregs.com/icod/index.htm

Effective, Efficient, Productive Construction

I recently found this article (see the link below) addressing efficiency in the construction industry. I strongly believe that most firms within the construction industry do not exercise efficiency to the extent needed. So often we hear of jobs that are drowning in change orders, reckless spending or quality issues. How can these be avoided and what kind of effects, on the nation as a whole, would more efficient construction produce.

http://www.modular.org/marketing/documents/Whitepaper_ImprovingConstructionEfficiency.pdf

Your opinion or response is encouraged!

D4Cost Features & Tech Support

As I stated in my last post, I've recently begun to work in D4Cost. I am primarily focusing on the Advanced Cost Modeling, Average Wizard, Folio Manager, and entering and storing my own data, drawings and pictures. I was happy with the capabilities of D4 and am excited to get more into the Advanced Cost Modeling.

I was having a lot of trouble with being able to see images, drawings, etc. which I had uploaded. I did some research and found that if the Alternate Image Path has not been set then photos and documents will not appear. I am needing to dig more into this in order to figure out exactly what that means.

I also realized that D4 only accepts JPEG(.jpg), Bitmap (.bmp), and "some" TIFF(.tif) - all other formats will show as a blank screen.

The third reason that the Image might not be showing itself would be based off of the location of the document. If the image is not located correctly or has been removed/deleted from the image directory it will not be visible.

If you are working in D4 and would like some trouble shooting tips or Tech Support this can be found at the following link: http://www.d4cost.com/

Estimating

Estimating, or approximating, has been used in construction for thousands of years. It is the process of establishing a value or worth, on a defined project or item, which is usable for a specific purpose even if the input data may be incomplete or undefined.  The information provided is usable because it is calculated from the best information accessible to the estimator at that time.

 

This blog has been established as a location where estimators and construction professionals can gather and ask questions, become informed, and help advance each other to become better Construction Managers, Estimators, Engineers, and Architects through great discussion.

 

Any construction related topic is encouraged but the primary focus of this blog is estimating. I have recently been introduced to the software D4COSTS and will discuss the advantages or disadvantages of this software, in the esimating world, over my next few posts. Please feel free to jump right in!!

Any comments following MC Squared, Sage, Revit, OST vs Planswift or any BIM software usage are strongly encouraged.