Exactal’s CostX

I was lucky enough to see a demonstration on the construction cost estimation software “CostX” by Exactal. This software really allows Quantity Surveyors (QS) to enter the BIM age with little to no effort. It is very good at handling dwg files but DWF files are it's forte. It grabs all the meta-data from the DWF file and organises it. Because it understands the ID data of elements is able to relate a plan element to the same element in elevation or section. It really is an amazing tool.

It has some little futures for calculating areas that Autodesk could learn some lessons from. What is so good about CostX is that a large amount of the QS firms in Australia use CostX.

For us (Revit Users) the only important thing to do is to give your QS 2d DWF files over PDF or DWG. Ensure you tick the options box for export object data for model elements. CostX does not recognise rooms yet. It is another great reason to start using DWF files.