NEWSLETTER

Recent Enhancements to CostLink/CM

A number of enhancements have been made to CostLink/CM over the last few releases. We thought a review of these changes might prove helpful in keeping you abreast of current functionality. Note that details of these enhancements can be found in the latest online Help.

Print Your Project Structure

With the Winter 2004 release, you can now print the hierarchy of project estimate titles. To do this, open your project, click on the File menu and choose Reports Setup. In the top left part of the Select Reports tab, select the Report Hierarchy that you want to print. Click on the Preferences tab and then click on the box on the bottom right that says Print Project Hierarchy Structure Only. Your report will be printed to the screen. To print it to the printer, click on the printer icon on the top left corner of the report print preview window. To email the report to someone, click on the envelope icon on the top left of the report window, choose the Acrobat Format and click OK. Click OK for the Page Range and then navigate to the appropriate folder for the exported file. Name the file and then click on Save. The PDF file will be in the selected folder and may be used as an attachment in an email.

Always Open Last Project

If you add " /OLP" (as in Open Last Project) to the end of the target line on your shortcut, the software will always open the project that you opened most recently each time you start the software.

Print a Bill of Materials and Similar Reports

You can now print Bill of Sales and Bill of Materials reports. They look the same but the Bill of Sales report includes all costs while the Bill of Materials displays and adds only material costs. The reports both use the Project CSI hierarchy, and will total by level one folders in that hierarchy. The primary feature of the report is that tasks with the same Source Tag will be combined into one record, with the quantity being the total of all tasks with the same Source Tag. Both reports display the Cost to Prime, which includes the bare costs, plus Sales Tax, Overtime, Adjustments and Subcontractor Markups. It does not include the Prime Contractor and Owner cost markups.

For detailed instructions on printing the Bill of Materials, Bill of Sales, or Quote Sheet reports go to the Online Help Index tab, type "Bill of Materials", and choose the "bill of materials reports" topic.

Create a New Type of Assembly (Link Quantities)

You can now link the quantity of a task to the quantity of its parent. You can also link the quantity on a folder to the quantity of its parent. Linking several tasks to a parent folder in effect creates an assembly of items whose quantity is determined by the overall quantity of the parent folder. The parent quantity can be multiplied by any number (factor) to generate the quantity of the line item. To accommodate the new linking function, the item form was changed by adding a linking selection box. (See Figure A.)

Linking methods are described as follows:

• Use Quantity Entered - The default of Use Quantity Entered allows you to enter the quantity for the task or folder in the Item Form or in the Sheet Panel without linking.
• Use MS Excel Value times - If you have linked your quantities to an Excel spreadsheet, then this will be selected automatically. You can multiply the value from the Excel spreadsheet by a factor that is entered on this form. To create the links to Excel, you can use the previous method of Paste Link from Source, or you can click on the Use MS Excel Value Times choice, after having used Copy as CostLink Link Source in Excel.
• Use Parent Quantity times - Use this choice if you want to link the quantity for this item to the quantity of the parent folder. You can multiply the value of the parent quantity by a factor that is entered on this form.

Figure A - Item Form with Linking Box

Configure for Increased Productivity

The following configuration changes can speed up your work:

• BSD has modified the Server and Client installations to allow you to share an access key on the server and have all the other files installed on the local drive. This gives you the benefit of a shared access key with the same speed as a standalone installation. See the revised Installation Instructions as available from our download center or on the current BSD SoftLink CD.
• We have added a Default Projects folder, so that you can designate a location for all new projects.
• When you create a new project, the Summary Info dialog box now opens automatically.

Use Enhanced Reporting Features

The Portrait 2 and Landscape 1 reports now include an ability to print a unit cost row in addition to the standard line item total cost output. To include the unit cost row, first select the report orientation on the Select Reports Tab of the Reports Setup Dialog Box, and then click on the Preferences Tab. Click on Print Unit Cost Row in the Detail and Summary Report Options section of that tab. The unit cost is calculated by dividing the extended cost by the quantity, and will be rounded to the nearest penny.

We also added the Crew, Labor and Equipment Backup reports to the Landscape 1 set of reports. To select these reports, first select Landscape 1 as your orientation. Then click to select the Crew, Labor and/or Equipment Backup report in the Backup Reports section. Select the level to report in the spin box to the right. If you select anything other than 0, you will also receive a 0 level backup report. The 0 level includes the entire project in one list. A level 1 report will show the crews, laborers and equipment items under each level 1 folder.

Import from CostLink/AE

You can import a CostLink/AE project into CostLink/CM. This will allow you to take advantage of the RS Means Building Cost Models in CostLink/AE to create your budget estimates, and then convert the CostLink/AE project to CostLink/CM format to expand the estimate as the project continues. If you have a current year RS Means Assemblies database for CM, you will be able to see and use all the resources (Crews, Labor, Equipment, Materials, etc.) for your model in the CostLink/CM version of the project.

To convert a CostLink/AE project into a CostLink/CM project follow these steps:

• Complete the estimate in CostLink/AE.
• Start CostLink/CM and use File | Open to select the CostLink/AE project.
• Specify a directory and filename for the new CM version of the project.
• At the Select New Assemblies Reference Database dialog box, select whichever RS Means Assemblies or CostBook database you have. If you do not have any RS Means database available, or if your RS Means database is not the current year, change the file name to *.* and hit enter. This will allow you to choose any valid CostLink/CM Assemblies or CostBook database. If you click Cancel, you can import the project without referencing any database at all.

More details and explanation are provided in the online Help system. On the Index tab of the Help system, type “Import” and choose “Importing a CostLink/AE Estimate” for more information.

Let Us Know

BSD is always working to improve the quality and scope of its products. We hope these changes enhance your experience with our software. Please let us know how we can make your work easier while providing the highest quality product to your customers. We look forward to continuing to serve you and your staff.