Material catalogs

Material catalogs represent a link between the component geometry and quantity takeoff. Whether you use a catalog and which one is entirely up to you. By doing so, however, will standardize your projects. Material catalogs are an absolute must if you want to harness the advantages of integrated design by working with Allplan BCM.

Note: More information on transferring quantities to Allplan BCM, Nemetschek’s program for tendering, awarding and invoicing, can be found in the help for Allplan BCM.

Material catalogs serve as the basis for the selection of materials and qualities for architectural elements.

You can find the Catalog assignment button in the Properties dialog boxes of all architectural elements. You can define whether materials are entered using custom dialog boxes that you fill out with materials as you go along, or whether you want to use custom catalogs or predefined and imported ones.

Hierarchic structure of catalogs

Catalogs can have up to three levels:

Top level in hierarchy (master catalog):

0012	Masonry work

Next level in hierarchy (catalog branch):

001	Interior walls
002	Exterior walls

The reference number in this example would be:
0012001 for the interior walls and 0012002 for the exterior walls

Catalog entry:

46	Vertical coring brick
47	Perforated brick

The reference number associated with the entry for ‘Vertical coring brick’ in the 'Exterior walls' catalog branch would be: 001200246

Format properties and attributes

When entering or modifying catalogs using Catalog, you can use Attributes on the shortcut menu to assign additional parameters such as hatching, thickness, priority, trade and calculation mode to each catalog entry or material. When you select this material for a component, this setting is used automatically. You can also make or modify the assignment later.

Overview of predefined / importable catalogs

KUKAT1 to KUKAT5	"Customer catalogs". These can be defined by the user.
NEM_POS	Allplan BCM item catalog in Allplan catalog format.
NEM_ELE	Allplan BCM element schedule in Allplan catalog format.
Allplan_BCM	Direct access to Allplan BCM items; does not need to be imported. Requirements: Allplan BCM is installed on the network. Allplan BCM data drive is shared and connected to the CAD computer. The first time the catalog is activated, the Allplan BCM data path allright\daten has to be specified.
Nevaris	Direct access to Nevaris items; does not need to be imported. Requirements: Nevaris V2.0 or later is running. Nevaris has been entered in the registry.

Catalog system	Direct access to user-defined, general catalog system This requires an appropriate DLL, which needs to be selected in the Services application, DXF/DWG menu, Link general catalog system option.

Quantities cannot only be transferred across documents but also across projects: i.e., with the building lists you can transfer the building trade information of an entire project at the press of a button without first having to activate the individual drawing files manually. Based on a user-defined assignment table, the CAD-TAI interface automatically compiles all the required quantities and transfers them to the tendering, awarding and invoicing program.

Quantity updates are also easy to carry out after changes have been made to the design. Furthermore, you can create and edit your own catalogs. This way, additional parameters like hatching, thickness, priority, trade and calculation mode can be assigned. You can also make or modify the assignment later.