Step 6.6: Elevations > Materials

Materials

Purpose – to assign the desired materials (look types, color will come later in Finishing) to the building.

• Material lines indicate a change of material/look type on the facade.
  • When working with Materials lines, it is up to the estimator as to how detailed they want to get. Material breaks can get out of control if you have multiple (3,4, more) materials.
  • Keep in mind that this is Level 1 pricing, so if there are small areas of different materials, you can either add/increase your price per square foot or add a single contingency at the summary.
• Define Material lines
  • Horizontal - click the button to begin marking horizontal material transitions on the elevation/façade. Left-click to drop the line(s) and press Esc or click the Select button when finished.
  • Vertical  - click the button to start marking vertical material transitions on the elevation/façade. Left-click to drop the line(s) and press Esc or click the Select button when finished.
    • Note: When working in a tab, the changes are only saved locally until you click somewhere else. After that, they are sent to the server (for outlines, changes are sent after they are completed). If you stay in that tab and click "Calculate" or "Force update", the changes from your current tab will not be sent first. 
• Create Material – there is a default material and you can create additional materials as needed.
  • It is best practice to use the default material as the one with the most area on the building, it’ll save you time assigning additional materials.
  • Note: If your building has multiple colors of a finish, you will want to create the multiple finishes here (i.e. Brick 1 (dark), Brick 2 (light), etc.).
• Material choice ribbon:

• • Dropdown (1) – to select the material type. Options include plaster, brick, metal, wood, stone, ceramic, concrete, limestone, metal pattern, and backup. The pricing is based on the settings in Settings > Pricing.
  • Stamp (2) – click this button to “stamp” or “paint” areas of your facade. Areas are defined by the added material lines.
  • Edit (3) – allows you to change the name of the material(s). These names will appear on the summary page and in the exported data.
  • Delete (4) – deletes this material row.

• Note: Adjustment of material changes is to be done here in Elevations > Materials and can be done at any time.  
• Note: You do not need to worry about materials or lines in the air as they do not appear during projection.

Every time you leave a tab (such as materials), the server is updated with the information (see the loading circle rotating). As long as it is spinning, the update on the server is not yet complete. If you go back to the tab while it's spinning, you will still see the old work status. Only when it stops does it mean that the update has been completed. If you switch back and forth again, you will see the latest changes. With this in mind, quickly clicking out and back in (while the loading indicator is spinning) after changes can make it look like a bug with saving changes (material lines may appear/disappear). The time it takes for the update to transfer depends on your internet speed, of course.