RSMeans Data Online Reviews - Page 5

I like that I am able to use it for the government work.

The government does not know how to read the reports that are generated.

Easy to navigate, a lot of options, connect from anywhere in the planet

- I always want, that when you click any item you have a pop up photo of what the item is. - If you are looking for an item not only the description that you type, you also select the type of unit: sample: Ceramic tile and Unit Square Feet

At my figure tips, don't need a stack of pricing guides on my desk.

Tricky to learn and sometimes hard to search for things.

The web based data and ability to use anywhere I have connection

Creating estimates from all the materiel takes time. I would be good to have some pre-made templates with typical items for building spaces.

The software provides a logic means to address common construction practice and pricing to generate preliminary construction cost estimates and a consistent format that can be presented to clients in detail or summary formats

Certain fields appear to be missing logical data, such as industrial piping, or plumbing, that one would expect to be included in the data base. Additionally, the report formats can be difficult. It is often easiest to export directly to excel and then edit everything in Microsoft than to try and customize within RS Means.

It's fairly easy to use. The search feature can help narrow down where to look.

Costs doesn't always seem accurate for given locations. It also lacks the ability to modify by building type (high rise roofing costs far more than low rise).

Quarterly pricing updates automatically apply

difficult to search for specific items. You need to have perfect spelling for anything to show up. An algorithm that allows for misspelled works would be recommended

- Easy to create new projects and save on data base. -Easy to find material -Real time updates - You can access it anywhere on-line

-Unable to fully delete users (student) on RSMeans. They show up every-time we add new students, even-though they are marked as "not active." - Have to look up the crew on a PDF file. It would be great if there was a function that would allow to hoover over the crew number, in the estimates page, and have a pop-up box show you a quick look at the actual crew.

I like the SF cost estimating for new or renovated construction.

Building data is limited. I am in healthcare and was told I would be able to estimate any of my facilities. Most of my Medical office buildings are 3-5 stories, your buildings allow only 1-2 stories for MOBs. Makes no sense not to have more options under the medical area when purchasing a medical oriented software. Same is true for equipment, there are no boilers or heating options in an MOB.

Ease of export to Excel, Search feature is pretty good

Square Foot Estimator - Not enough options for wall/framing types Search Data - Difficult to resize columns

updated costs by region - you have quarterly updates

Does not have a substantial SF cost database that would be helpful in ROM estimates Does not have all the items we encounter on federal construction jobs

decent list of typical items that are often used in cost estimating

While they do ask for your location and adjust the various unit rates, there were many that were not close to the actual costs seen. Cost in Hawaii is very high and hard to predict, but I would have expected more accurate pricing.

Amount of information is extensive, cover all areas regarding construction fees. Easy to navigate throw all menus.

Some prices are not easy to understand, detail cost is not available to now which items are clearly included.

Gives another perspective/tool for checking building cost. Seems to be more driven from a contractor's perspective v. an insurance driven software like Xactimate

Can be difficult to navigate. Need to go thought multiple steps to get cost for specific task.

Comprehensive list of activities listed Good breakdown of labor vs equipment vs material Good information related to location Make sure that the version also includes the templates and guidelines they're are found in the excellent printed editions!

The data is great but some of the references (PDF) are somewhat disconnected In some cases it's not easy to relate the data (single entries) to the assemblies, especially those involving partial labor (e.g. 20 min of labor) The PDF format currently in use for crew breakdown doesn't work. A dynamic list should be used that also allows a user to adjust rates on the fly based on location

That it has a lot of items to chose from.

It has to many line items to chose from and need to be more user friendly. It also to pick up more words in the search window and not say none shown or found that is really frustrating

Provides a fairly quick method of creating a cost estimate. The software allows you to export your estimate in to Excel for final processing.

What started off a a cost effective alternative to the printed book has grown into a over priced piece of software that small companies simply cannot afford. The material costs and labor hours never agree with the cost estimates provided to us by electrical contractors. They always complain about our use of RS Means as a check on the value of their work.

Able to work with different types and different quotes for reference

The software lags when working through it. Not sure if possible or not but would like be able to share estimates between users (company employees).

Everything is in one place. Nice additional options. After you learn the structure of data, it gets quite easy.

Not easy for a completely new user. Search index is sometimes tricky.

Very comprehensive cost database. Good coverage of locations across the US and Canada and useful index tables.

Although it contains a very comprehensive database of items, there are still some items I can't find but usually those are specialty items.

Using the online version helps us track our estimating and save different versions that can be quickly updated. It saves us a lot of time.

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

Convenience - much easier than lugging around books + quicker searching. Much easier to take advantage of location adjustments.

Viewing reference items during a search, sends you back to square one when you leave the reference docs.

I like the ease of being able to look up multiple items without having to check several pages in a physical book. The online data allows me to look up things quite quickly.

In the search feature if you don't get the wording of the item you are looking for as an exact match to the data, the response comes back as item not found. Without an index of some type, it sometimes makes it hard to find the work item you are looking for. Many tasks are known by multiple similar names, so if you enter the wrong one, Means will not return any data items.