Cost Impact

Cost Impact

The Cost Impact toolbar provides live rough-order-of-magnitude cost estimates as you create markups on PDFs or issues in the 3D viewer. It is designed for early-stage budgeting and design-option comparison — not for final contract pricing.

How It Works

Every time you draw a markup or create an issue, LocusBIM automatically:

1. Scans the issue or markup description for scope keywords (demo, replace, repair, install, paint)
2. Matches the linked BIM element's IFC type or Revit category to the best cost code in the library
3. Falls back to markup tool type when no element is linked
4. Generates composite rows for multi-scope work (e.g., "replace drywall" → demo + install + paint)
5. Multiplies quantity × unit cost × city region factor

Which Tools Trigger Cost Calculations

The cost engine only runs on tools that represent measurable physical work. Pure dimension annotations (calibration, single-segment linear measurements, radius/diameter/angle) do not trigger a calculation — they describe a length on paper but do not represent material to install or remove.

When Calculations Look Wrong or Missing

The cost engine is best-effort: it derives quantities from your geometry and matches them to the closest item in the library. The most common reasons a calculation looks wrong or doesn't appear:

Best-Practice Workflow for Accurate Costs

1. Calibrate the page first — Measure → Calibrate, then click two points with a known real-world distance. Required for any area/length-based cost calculation.
2. Pick the right tool for the quantity you want — Measure Area for square metres (drywall, flooring), Measure Polylength for linear metres (baseboard, duct runs), Measure Count for unit quantities (light fixtures, outlets).
3. Right-click → Set Element Type on generic PDFs so the engine doesn't have to guess. This single step promotes the calc to High confidence.
4. Add a scope keyword to the markup subject (demo, replace, repair, install, paint) so the engine knows the work type.
5. Review the breakdown panel — green/blue dots are trustworthy; amber and grey dots want a manual code via the pencil (✎) icon.
6. Pick your city's region factor in Costs → Cost Library so the unit costs reflect local labour/material indices.

Smart Scope Detection

The engine reads the issue title or markup description for action keywords and generates the appropriate rows automatically:

IFC Type Mapping

When a markup or issue is linked to a 3D element, the IFC class drives cost code selection. Examples:

Revit categories (Walls, Structural Framing, Roofs, Doors, Windows, Ducts, etc.) are used as a fallback when no IFC sidecar is linked. Markup tool type is the final fallback.

Mapping Your Own Categories

When a Revit model uses a custom category — or any category whose name LocusBIM doesn't recognise out of the box — those elements fall through to the generic MISC-001 fallback at "very-low" confidence. You can teach the engine to recognise them once and have every future markup priced correctly.

1. Open Cost Impact → ⋯ (overflow menu) → Category Mappings.
2. The dialog shows two lists: Unmapped categories the engine has seen across your active project (clickable chips that pre-fill the form) and Existing mappings you've already created.
3. Pick a CSI code from the library (the picker validates against the library so typos can't slip through), an optional demo code for the "remove" half of replace-scopes, and an optional unit override (for example, force lf instead of the library default sqm).
4. Save — every future markup with that category re-prices to the new code.

Setting Element Type on Generic PDFs

When working with generic (non-BIM) PDFs — architectural drawings, site plans, or any PDF not generated from a linked 3D model — markups have no element context for the cost engine. You can manually assign one via right-click.

1. Right-click any markup on the canvas
2. Click Set Element Type
3. Search or browse the grouped picker (Structural / Architectural / MEP / Site & Civil / General)
4. Select the element type that best matches what the markup covers, then click Apply

The selected type is stored on the markup and used as a tier-1 cost code lookup — the same priority as a linked 3D BIM element, and promoted to High confidence. Use Clear Override to remove it and let the engine fall back to keyword or tool-type matching.

Confidence Indicator

Each row in the breakdown panel shows a coloured dot indicating how certain the engine is:

Manual Override

Click the pencil icon (✎) on any row in the breakdown panel to override the auto-assigned cost code with one of your own choosing. A searchable picker lists all items in the cost library. Once overridden, the row is locked (shown with a purple ✎ badge) and will not be replaced by subsequent recalculations. Use Clear override in the picker to restore automatic assignment.

Per-Element Cost in 3D View

When you select an element in the 3D viewer, the selection overlay (bottom-left HUD) shows the estimated total cost impact for that element alongside its name and category.

Toolbar Controls

Region Factor (City Multipliers)

The region factor is a blended multiplier covering material, labour, and equipment cost indices for your location. Labour costs vary significantly by province and city — the composite factor accounts for this. Select your city from Costs → Cost Library.

Imperial vs Metric Units (Per-Project)

Each project has a unit system: Metric (m, sqm) or Imperial (ft, sqft). The toggle is in Projects → Project Settings → Unit System — and there's a quick segmented switch on the Cost Impact toolbar so you can flip the display while reviewing.

Unit costs convert the same way: a library item priced at $65/sqm displays as $6.04/sqft in imperial mode. Cost reports and CSV exports use whichever unit system was active when they were generated — the file's header notes which one.

Custom Cost Items

Open Costs → Cost Library, click + Custom Item, and enter the item code, description, unit, and material/labour/equipment costs. Custom items are saved to the local SQLite database and persist across sessions.

Import / Export

The library can be exported to RSMeans-style CSV for editing in Excel, then re-imported. Cost reports export as CSV or PDF from the toolbar or the Costs menu.

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