Which areas did we send the agent?
A small residential development: eight flats and a commercial unit on the ground floor. The client's agent needs net sales areas for each flat. The planning application needs gross internal areas and a comparison with the space standards the council applies. The cost consultant wants gross internal area by floor. The design moves every week.
Each audience gets a spreadsheet exported from the model at a different date and adjusted by hand: a wall thickness deducted here, a store cupboard excluded there. By the time the planning application is submitted, the agent's figures and the planning figures come from different versions of the design, and nobody can say which is current.
Why area figures drift
Rooms and areas in the model are only as good as the room boundaries and settings, which vary between users. Measurement conventions differ by audience, and those adjustments are made in the spreadsheet, not the model. Each export is a snapshot, and there is no link back to the design once the numbers leave the model.
- Different audiences need different measurement conventions.
- Adjustments are made by hand in spreadsheets.
- Room boundaries are inconsistent between team members.
- Each export is a snapshot with no link to later changes.
- Checks against the brief or space standards are done by eye.
What drifting areas cost
Wrong areas in the hands of an agent or a cost consultant affect decisions made well beyond the practice, such as pricing or cost plans, and correcting them later is awkward. Units that fall below the space standards the council applies are discovered late. And technicians spend time rebuilding schedules rather than designing.
A live schedule from the model
- Rooms, units and floors are read from the model through the design software's API or data export.
- Room boundaries are checked for common problems, such as unbounded or overlapping rooms, and issues are listed for the team to fix in the model.
- Your measurement rules for each audience are written down once, such as what is included in net sales area or gross internal area, and applied consistently.
- Each unit or space is compared with the brief and any space standards you ask it to check, and shortfalls are highlighted for the design team.
- Schedules for each audience are produced from the same data, labelled with the model version and date.
- When the model changes, the schedule updates, and a comparison shows which units changed since the last issue to each audience.
Measurement rules are yours or your client's to set. Where formal measurement to a professional standard is required, that remains the job of whoever is appointed to do it.
One source, several audiences
| Audience | Measure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Planning | Gross internal area, space standards check | Model, your rules |
| Client's agent | Net sales area | Model, agreed rules |
| Cost consultant | Gross internal area by floor | Model, your rules |
| Design team | Brief comparison | Model and brief |
Areas everyone can trust
Every audience's schedule comes from the same model version, so the figures agree. Design changes that affect a unit's area or its compliance with the brief are visible as they happen. And the question 'which version did we send?' has an answer on the schedule itself.
Is your area schedule a spreadsheet?
- Area schedules are adjusted by hand after export.
- Different audiences hold figures from different design versions.
- Space standard shortfalls are found late.
- Nobody is sure which schedule is current.