What problem does it solve?
This Skill prevents common IFC cost-management mistakes by guiding you to implement IfcOpenShell cost schedules, cost items, cost values, and—most importantly—correct quantity-to-cost linkage for 5D BIM workflows.
Core Features & Use Cases
- Guided IfcCostSchedule setup: Create the right cost schedule type (e.g., COSTPLAN, ESTIMATE, PRICEDBILLOFQUANTITIES) to match your estimation stage.
- Safe IfcCostItem construction: Use the proper IfcOpenShell API calls to create cost items with correct nesting and relationships (no orphan entities).
- Correct cost value modeling: Support fixed lump sums, unit rates, formula-based values, and composite labor/material/equipment breakdowns.
- Reliable quantity-to-cost linking (5D BIM): Link cost items to product quantities using property-set quantities (prop_name) or count-based costing, avoiding the frequent “linked but resolves to nothing” failure mode.
- Error-proof operational patterns: Includes explicit guardrails such as not mixing manual quantities with parametric assignment and using safe applied-value reading utilities for IFC types.
Quick Start
Use the ifcos-impl-cost skill to generate an IFC4/IFC4X3 cost schedule that prices elements using IfcOpenShell cost APIs and links each cost item to the correct product quantity property (for example, NetVolume) so total costs calculate from real model quantities.