Configure Project Cost Estimator—ArcGIS Solutions

Project Cost Estimator can be used to create preliminary infrastructure project cost estimates and quickly update project costs as needs change.

Note:

If you have needs for more precise estimating, detailed design & engineering analysis, or compatible-unit based estimating we strongly encourage you to evaluate Esri partner solutions.

In this topic, you'll learn how to configure the Project Cost Estimator solution to meet specific needs of your organization.

Create a custom estimator

The solution provides configured project cost estimation workspaces for two common workflows: paving and water distribution. Each includes costing layers and tables with costs that enable the creation of project cost estimations. The Project Costing tools included with the solution help you create your own custom estimator workspace that can be used to create cost estimates for your projects.

Project estimations are created using a combination of configured costing layers and cost tables that use attribute rules to calculate item costs, create project areas surrounding the items, and sum the project costs. Costing layers require a project name attribute and have several optional inputs. The costing layer schema is described in the following table:


Field alias	Description
Project Name	Name of the project, used to group items by project.
Cost Method	Method used to calculate the cost: Cost Lookup—uses the values stored in the cost tables Self Defined—uses the provided cost
Cost	The calculated or user provided cost depending on the Cost Method.
Cost Type	The type of cost calculation performed: Each—flat rate for each feature Geometric—cost calculated by length or area units (price/foot, or price/square foot)
Item Cost	The calculated cost of the item by Cost Method, Cost, and Cost Type.
Item Multiplier	Multiplier factor that can be used to increase or decrease the cost of an item. If the item is discounted 20% for example the multiplier of 0.8 is used to lower the cost. Or if there are multiple items such as a pallet of 20 items the multiplier of 20 is used to indicate how many should be used for the calculation. The item multiplier is evaluated before additional cost.
Additional Cost	Any additional cost that may be added to the item.
Cost Multiplier	Similar to the Item Multiplier but evaluated after the Additional Cost.
Total Cost	The total cost calculated using all available information ((Item Cost * Item Multiplier) + Additional Cost) * Cost Multiplier.
Editable	If the item is editable or not.

The provided project schema is described in the following table:


Field alias	Description
Project Name	Name of the project, used to group items by project.
Item Cost	The calculated cost of the item by Cost Method, Cost, and Cost Type.
Item Multiplier	Multiplier factor that can be used to increase or decrease the cost of an item. If the item is discounted 20% for example the multiplier of 0.8 is used to lower the cost. Or if there are multiple items such as a pallet of 20 items the multiplier of 20 is used to indicate how many should be used for the calculation. The item multiplier is evaluated before additional cost.
Additional Cost	Any additional cost that may be added to the item.
Cost Multiplier	Similar to the Item Multiplier but evaluated after the Additional Cost.
Total Cost	The total cost calculated using all available information ((Item Cost * Item Multiplier) + Additional Cost) * Cost Multiplier.
Project Item Count	The count of the number of items in the project.
Editable	If the item is editable or not.
Group Name	Name of a group of projects that will sum all project costs with the same Group Name.

Generate costing workspace

A custom estimator is created by using the Project Costing toolbox provided in the solution to create estimations using your own source data. Review the example workspaces and workflows here to become more familiar with the solution.

In this workflow, you will assume the role of an technician who wants to create a custom estimator using your own dataset, cost factors, can cost values to create project cost estimations.

Sign in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the Project Cost Estimator item.
From the item page, click Download.
Unzip the downloaded folder, and then from the unzipped folder, open the ArcGIS Pro project.
In the Catalog View, double-click Toolboxes > ProjectCosting.atbx > Generate Costing Workspace to open the tool.
Note:
If you do not see the Catalog View, click the View tab on the ribbon and in the Windows group, click Catalog View.
On the Parameters tab, provide one or more Costing Classes.
1. Input a Source Class from your operational dataset that you want to use in your costing projects. For example, a water estimator input source classes can be fire hydrants, system valves, or water mains.
2. Choose an existing attribute from the Cost Field drop-down or type your own field to create to create a cost domain that is not stored in the operational dataset. Specify fields that result in a difference of cost. For example, the water main source can be cost fields can be material and diameter.
If necessary, click Add another, and repeat the previous step to add more Costing Classes.
Optionally, specify an Output Location by browsing the an existing geodatabase or accept the default.
Optionally, change the Output Name of the project costing geodatabase.
Optionally, specify a Project Template that has fields that you would like added to the output project polygon.
Optionally, check the Populate Cost Matrix check box, if you would like the cost tables to be populated with all possible cost field domain combinations.
If the cost field domains need to be modified this step can be performed afterward using the Populate Cost Matrix tool.
On the Environments tab, choose the Output Coordinate System from either the current map or a layer from the drop-down menu. Or you can also click the Select coordinate system button to select a different coordinate system.
Click Run .

Review and update costing field domains

The costing fields' domain combinations create the rows in the cost table for each costing layer. If the domains are incomplete or need to be modified review and update complete the following steps:

On the ribbon, click the Insert tab. In the Project group, click the New Map drop-down arrow.
Choose New Map.
In the Catalog pane, expand Maps.
Note:
If you do not see the Catalog pane, from the View tab, in the Windows group, click Catalog Pane.
Double-click on the new map.
On the Map tab, in the Layer group, click the Add Data drop-down menu and click Browse .
On the Add Data dialog box, browse to the project costing layer.
Click OK.
In the Contents pane, expand the Costing Layers group and select the first costing layer.
On the ribbon, click the Data tab, in the Data Design group, click Domains.
Select each domain to review and optionally modify the values in the grid on the right of the Domains view.
User defined cost fields create an empty domain with the prefix Costing_Domain_ followed by the field name that needs to be populated.
On the ribbon, click the Domains tab, in the Manage Edits group, click Save to save changes.

Populate cost matrix

If the cost field domains were modified, add all cost field domain combinations using the populate cost matrix tool using the following steps:

In the Catalog pane, expand Toolboxes > PorjectCosting.atbx, and double-click Populate Cost Matrix to open the tool.
For the Input Table, click the drop-down arrow and choose a cost table.
For the Fields, click the drop-down arrow and choose a field for each of the costing fields.
Optionally, check the Insert Only New Rows check box or check the Truncate check box prior to generating the new cost attribute combinations, and click Run .
The selected cost table is updated with all possible cost attribute combinations.

Add organizational cost values

The cost matrix contains the cost field value combinations but require your organization's cost values to provide cost estimates. To add organizational cost values, complete the following steps:

In the Contents pane, expand the Costing Tables group, and select the cost table.
On the ribbon, click the Standalone Table tab, in the Table group, click Open.
The cost field combinations are shown in the table.
Add the cost values to reflect the costs used in your organization to improve the accuracy of the project cost estimations.
On the ribbon, click the Edit tab, in the Manage Edits group, click Save to save changes.
If the Save Edits dialog box appears, click Yes to save your edits.

Add cost edit templates

The cost edit templates can be automatically generated for cost layers that have a cost table entry with a cost value. Rather than remove cost table entries that are not currently needed for projects, only provide costs for combinations that are needed. These combinations are used to create the edit templates to simplify the project estimation workflow. To generate the cost edit templates, complete the following steps:

In the Catalog pane, expand Toolboxes > ProjectCosting.atbx, and double-click Add Cost Edit Templates to open the tool.
For Costing Layers, click the drop-down arrow and choose the first costing layer from the Costing Layers group.
If necessary, repeat the previous step to add more layers from the Costing Layers group, and click Run .

Edit templates for all cost table entries that have a cost value are created.

Update the map

In the Contents pane, expand the Costing Layers group, and select the first costing layer.
On the ribbon, click the Feature Layer tab, in the Drawing group, click Symbology.
In the Symbology pane, modify the symbology as needed.
Click Apply.
Repeat these steps for the remaining costing layers, if required.

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