5D Construction

Fuzor allows you to calculate costs with resources, import costs from other software or edit costs manually. Costs can be used to create graphs or be exported to a spreadsheet with other scheduling and BIM information to use in other software. Costs appear in the 5D Simulation columns and are associated with the particular set of dates that is loaded into either the primary or secondary simulation columns. By default, the costs displayed in the schedule are the Budgeted and Actual costs of the Project Schedule. It is important to remember that two sets of costs do not have common names with their associated schedules

The Budgeted Costs are associated and displayed with the Planned set of dates.

The At Completion Costs are associated and display with the Start and End set of dates.

Switching the simulation columns to another set of durations and dates will change the data in the cost columns. For more information see Task Table Columns.

The Equipment Cost is a sum of Equipment resources and Equipment Content Costs.

The Material Cost is a sum of material resource costs

The Labor Cost is a sum of Labor resources

The Expense Cost is a sum of expenses that are assigned to that task.

The Total Cost is the sum of all above cost fields.

Opens Task Resources Menu from where you can view and add resources to tasks

Opens the Expenses menu which can be used to create expenses. Expenses are an alternative to resources that allow the user to quickly add an expense to a given task.

Unlike a resource an expense cannot be reused on another task without entirely recreating it. However, expenses have an accrual parameter that determines how the costs are represented at different times in the task’s duration.

Additional Equipment costs can be tied to the vehicles assigned to tasks. The Hourly Rate text is used to calculate equipment resource costs.

The Resources Menu helps the user keep create and manage resources for your project. You can change the resource type with the associated icons in the Type column of the Resources List. Other columns in the Resources List determine what default values are used for calculations when resources are assigned to tasks. After a resource is assigned, these calculates can also be edited on a per task assignment basis and may deviate from the default settings.

The New button creates a new resource and adds it to the list.

The Export button exports the current Resource List as a CSV or PDF Resources Report

The Import button opens a file browser to import resources from a CSV Resources Report.

For the most part different resource types are calculated the same. However, they will populate different cost columns when Automatically Fill in Cost Fields is enabled.

Equipment Resource, used to calculate equipment costs

Material Resource, used to calculate Material Costs. Cannot have overtime costs.

Labor Resource, used to calculate Labor costs

Checkboxes in this menu control whether various automated cost calculations populate or restrict the data represented by resources.

The Edit Total Cost check box allows editing of the total cost in the 4D schedule. If the Total Cost is edited the task will be highlighted pink.

The Automatically Fill in Cost Fields check box toggles whether the cost columns in the 4D schedule are automatically populated with the data that is stored in the Resource Task menu.

The Automatic Category Resources check box populates the Resources List with resources in your 3D models by category. These resources are always material and their maximum units are calculated by volume.

Custom Units can be created and assigned to material resources in the Resources List. Use the Unit column in the Resources List to assign a unit to a material resource.

Assigning resources to tasks is a great way to populate cost data. Additionally when schedules are imported from authoring software resources assignments are interpreted into our system. As a result understanding how to manage the resource assignments is useful even when creating resource in authoring software and importing them into Fuzor.

When a resource is selected in the Resources List, tasks with that resource assigned appear in the Resource Tasks List.

Removes the associated resource assignment.

The Resources column in the gantt displays the primary resource assigned to the task. When selected the Task Resources menu is open. The task Resource menu allows the user to assign resources and control how much of each resource is added to the associated task.

Each of the columns in Task Resources are the same columns in the Resource Tasks List. These values can be edited from either menu. The default value for these columns is set in the Resources List but can also be viewed when adding a resource to a task.

The Add button opens a menu to list available resources to select from and add to the current task.

The Close button closes the window.

The Remove button removes the currently selected resource from the task.

Resources created using automatic Category resources are automatically assigned and displayed in both the Task Resources and the Resource Tasks Menus.

For each resource assignment there are variables that control how the cost of a resource is represented in the Gantt Chart. For each cost type there are 4 Different sets of costs for the schedule and for each baseline. The value of the costs in the Gantt Chart for each of the sets can be controlled by the columns in the Task Resources and Resource Tasks menu. Baseline Costs are not automatically calculated even when automatically fill in cost fields is enabled.

For each resource Assignments there is a Cost and a Unit for 4 different types of calculations. The associated Unit represents the amount of resource that is used during a particular set of dates. For example, a Budgeted Unit describes the amount of a resource which is planned to be used in a specific task and will populate the Planned Cost column that is associated with that resource’s Type.

Values change in response to changes made in other calculations. For example, when Actual Units is increased it is likely that Remaining Units is decreased to simulate that these resources have been spent. These automatic changes depend on many different variables including but not limited to the emulation mode (Microsoft Project or Primavera P6) and the Progress Status of the task ( Not Started, In Progress, Finished).

Unit Price is the Cost that a single unit represents.

Overtime Price is the Cost a single overtime unit represents

Per Use Price is the additional cost of a resource per task assigned

Budgeted Units / Cost can be used to automatically calculate the Planned Costs.

Actual Units / Cost can be used to automatically calculate the Actual Costs.

Remaining Units / Cost can be used to automatically calculate the Remaining Costs.

At Completion Units / Cost can be used to automatically calculate the Start and End Costs.

Overtime Units the number of actual units that are calculated with overtime costs.

Automatically populated resources are generated based on the different categories in your Revit Navisworks or ArchiCAD project. The Amount of these resources will automatically be generated either with a Volume Measurement or Quantity Measurement. Resources that have been automatically generated will also automatically be added to a task with that resource attached.

To open the 5D graph select the Graph button in the 4D Scheduling toolbox. this will change the 4D Task Table and the Gantt Chart into a graph that displays the total cost of your project over time. You can change what information is displayed in this graph by changing the settings. The Graph Settings are in the Graph Tab of the 4D Settings Menu. You can use the 5D checkbox column in the Task Table to enable and disable task costs from affecting the data in the graph.

The Graph Mode radio buttons change between Line Graph and Bar Graph displays.

Opens the Date Picker to select a Start or End date in the schedule. The graph displays information pertaining to costs that exist within the duration of these dates.

The Line Graph displays the value of various cost metrics with lines over the duration of the selected dates. Use the Line Graph Settings to select which metrics should appear in the graph.

The Show Planned checkbox toggles whether the graph displays the planned line, which describes project baseline planned costs spread over the project baseline planned dates.

The Show Actual checkbox toggles whether the graph displays the actual line, which describes active schedule actual costs spread over the actual dates.

The Show at Completion value toggles whether the graph displays an additional line describing actual values, except it also includes the remaining costs spread over remaining dates.

The Show Earned Value checkbox toggles whether the graph displays project baseline planned costs multiplied by % complete spread over the active schedule actual dates.

The Accumulate Cost checkbox toggles whether costs preceding the start date of the graph are included.

The Bar Graph displays the value of data sources in a given period as individual bars. Groups of bars are displayed for each period that exists within the duration of the selected dates. Data Sources are directly related to specific columns in your schedule that are associated with 5D analysis.

The Data Sources list displays each data source that appears in the bar graph for each period. All Custom Columns and the following native columns can be added as a data source from your schedule:

The Add Data Set button menu opens the Data Sources Menu to select appropriate columns from the schedule to be added to the bar graph as a data source. Selecting a Data Source in the list will also open the Bar Graph Data Settings to adjust that data type.

There are 4 different kinds of data sets that can be added. Use the Data Type Radio buttons to change the type of data to populate the graph.

The Object Count Data Type is the total amount of individual objects assigned to tasks occurring in a given period with respect to the selected Date Type.

The Task Cost Data Type is the sum of the selected Cost Type accumulated in a given period with respect to the selected Date Type

The Resource Usage Data Type is the sum of the selected resource in its associated units used in a given period with repsect to the selected Date Type.

The Custom Column Data Type is the sum of numeric values in the selected custom column associated with tasks occuring in a given period with respect to the selected Date Type.

The Drop Down Menus are used to select from different Data Sources, Date Types, Cost Types Custom Columns and Resources. Available choices will change when selecting different Data Types.

Opens the Color Picker to select a Color to fill the bar that represents the associated Data Source

Removes the associated data source from the data sources list.

The Time Period controls the amount of time each group of bars in the graph represents. Values of each data source during the time period are displayed as individual bars. A group of bars is displayed for each time period that exists within the duration of the selected dates.

The Minimum Period textbox specifies the minimum amount of time a time period elapses. The actual time period is displayed below this setting

The Use Currency Unit checkbox toggles whether values are displayed in the Units specified in the settings menu or a Custom Unit.

The Unit is Prefix forces the Unit to appear in front of the value.

The Custom Unit textbox specifies a Custom Unit to use.

The Multi Activity Chart allows you create exportable schedules based on labor resources in your schedule. Use this tool to select from specific dates and resources to make schedules that can be distributed to different teams on site.

The Resources list displays all resources in the project. Select which resources to be included in your project with the associated checkboxes. Additional resources appear as new columns in the chart. Tasks will populate the schedule based on your selections in this list. Additional tasks appear as new rows in the chart.

The Start Date calendar selector allows you to specify a start date for your chart.

The End Date calendar selector allows you to specify an end date for your chart.

The Duration is automatically filled when your dates are selected but can be changed as well.

The Include Nonworking Days checkbox adds Nonworking Days to the chart

The Fill Nonworking Hours checkbox

The Label Times without Tasks checkbox displays all empty time blocks with the tag No Tasks.

Columns per Page specifies the maximum number of columns that appear on each page.

Minimum Rows per Page ensures that at least 3 rows appear on each page.

Use Planned or Actual Dates options dictate whether your chart reflects the actual or planned duration of tasks.

You can export your Multi Activity Chart as either a PDF or a CSV. Exporting to PDF retains the same format as the chart displayed in the Create Multi Activity Chart Window. Exporting to CSV creates a spreadsheet containing the same data.