By Dana J. Vanier, Hitesh Doshi, Brian R. Kyle, Robert W. Marcellus INTRODUCTION HE BUILDING ENVELOPE Life Cycle Asset Management project (BELCAM) is a multi¬ year research activity spon¬ sored by the National Research Council Canada iNRCCi and Public Works and Government Services Canada d’WGSO The BELCAM project investigates life cycle asset management of the building envelope, but in this first phase of the project it is concentrating on roofing systems as a ‘proof ol concept” domain The BELCAM objectives are to assist asset managers in optimizing life cycle maintenance expenditures and to help them predict the remaining service life of roofing svstems. One of the deliverables of the BELCAM Project (www.nrc.ca/irc/belcam) is the evaluation of existing software used in roofing maintenance manage¬ ment and service life prediction. This is the first of many software evalua¬ tion reports. Subsequent versions will follow as more software programs are made available and as the existing packages are enhanced. This paper focuses on four roof inspection pack¬ ages available in North America and identifies their features and capabili¬ ties for approximately 50 pre-selected categories and criteria. It also provides background information on seven other roofing programs This report does not rate or rank the four pack¬ ages presented herein, but provides building owners, roofing contractors and roofing consultants with an objec¬ tive review of systems currently avail¬ able The information herein is pro¬ vided to assist users to locate software tools for decisions about roofing maintenance, to provide data about the general nature of the available software, and to help building owners, contractors and consultants make decisions about automating data col¬ lection, monitoring and retrieval. NRCC and PWGSC have consider¬ able experience with the use of soft¬ ware tools, as well as the formal evalu¬ ation of software products (Vanier, 1985). Unfortunately, there have been few evaluations or comparisons of software in the construction indus¬ try (Amistadi, 1995) and only one or two review’s in the roofing industry (Novitski, 1992). It is hoped that this report will encourage others to use software tools in the industry and will act as a catalyst for others to report their finding about capabilities, fea¬ tures and problems with roofing main¬ tenance management software. Parameters of the review A wide variety of software has been developed for the roof¬ ing industry. This includes software tools for design, estimat¬ ing, repair, sales support, evaluation and service life predic¬ tion It could also include any preventative maintenance, maintenance management or financial information manage¬ ment system that claims to have something to do with roof¬ ing, roofing activities, roofing supplies or roofing systems This type of software is beyond the scope of this report This report focuses only on packages dealing with roofing evaluation and service life prediction. Complete evaluations of four commercially available software packages are includ¬ ed, however, background data have been provided to identify points of contacts and general information about proprietary roofing inspection systems and well-known applications in other roofing domains, such as estimating and design. Limitations of the review The report is the first of a series dealing with the evalua¬ tion of roofing inspection software. It is not a comprehen¬ sive evaluation of ALL the technical and interface features of ALL available software packages, either commercial products or proprietary services. It is an overview of a number of commercial software packages that are well known to the industry, and that are currently available and supported. The report identifies only specific features and capabilities relat¬ ed to asset management and service life prediction, but does not rate or rank these products or their capabilities. 10 • Interface March 1998 I BAUI ROAD WA 2 BAYVIEW CERT 3 BIRD’S CREEK 4 PLACE VERDUR 5 RE ADVEIL PU 350.00 650.00 1S00.00 0.00 1500,00 3925.00 3150.00 9150.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 39600.00 0.00 10000.00 0.00 4275.00 43400.00 10650.00 16000.00 1500.00 552.32 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Grand Total » 4000.00 16225.00 57600.00 77825.00 552.32 Sample Screen Captures from CAMP The Review Process Software Selection Selection of the software was made by the authors based on their extensive experience in the roofing industry, from information obtained from knowledgeable contacts in indus¬ try, and from data acquired from extensive searching of the Internet and other electronic databases. It was quickly dis¬ covered that there is precious little information available about roofing inspection software, and that the most reliable information came from knowledgeable individuals. Only commercially-available software was evaluated in this report, owing to time, personnel and administrative con¬ straints. It is hoped that some proprietary systems men¬ tioned in this report can be evaluated in subsequent reports. Four products were selected for a complete evaluation in this report: ▼ CAMP – Roofing Management program from CAMP. Inc. ▼ REVS – from Roofing EValuation System by Bruco Enterprises, Inc. ▼ ROOFER – from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Civil Engineering Research Laboratories ▼ ROOFWORKS – from Jim D. Koontz & Associates, Inc. Software Features and Capabilities All the software products evaluated in this report were obtained directly from the developer and represent the most current version of the software. The installations were car¬ ried out following the developers’ instructions, and the fea¬ tures and capabilities were reviewed based on the software provided, the instructions from the developers, and the user manuals provided by the developer. It must be emphatically noted that this review was initiat¬ ed and designed to meet the goals of the BELCAM project,- therefore, the evaluation, or even identification, of “interest¬ ing” features of specific products is omitted because these are outside the scope of this review. Reviewer Selection The reviewers (a.k.a. authors) are experienced construction engineers with considerable experience in the roofing indus¬ try. The reviewers all have extensive experience with soft¬ ware tools and considerable “hands-on” experience with at least one of the roofing packages evaluated in this report. As one goal of this review is to enumerate the features and capabilities of a limited number of software products, no attempt was made in this process to represent users from any specific sector of the industry, level of experience, or classi¬ fication of profession. In fact, the reviewers are all multi-dis¬ ciplinarians,- they have a collection of degrees in architec¬ ture, building engineering, or civil engineering,- they are practicing as either researchers, educators, asset managers or roofing consultants, and all have been up on a roof to per¬ form a roofing inspection. March 1998 Interface • 11 B Raimgt by Spate* and Aga |A> Piofects) Q ! Aga ef Roof (Y«an) ***»•* SO 37 ?0 4» 3/ Vahits shown »• Roof CoattiM Iratos faMp 1 Roof System | 0-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 21* Awrage ae to TO — 53 MaMi 100 4M TO -•* 45 PaiywalMn* 29 2S SMfiaPly 50 90 Sample Screen Captures from RoofWorks Background Software Information Evaluated Software Roof EValuation System (REVS) Contact: C. Bruce Cotton, Bruco Enterprises Inc. (491659), P.O. Box 2556, Spring, TX 77383-2556 Tel: (281) 353-9541 Fax: (281) 353-3845 E-mail: baico@flash.net Web Site: www.flash.net/-bruco CAMP — Roof Management Program Contact: Michael Reynolds, Computer Assisted Management Programs, Inc., 36 Elynhill Drive, North York, ON, M2R1C6 Tel/Fax: (416) 222-6105 ROOFER Developed by: U.S. Army Construction Engineering, Research Laboratories, CECER-FL-M, P.O. Box 9005, Champaign, IL 61826-9005 Supported by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Technical Support Center Contact: Lynn Brownfield, ROOFER Technical Support Center, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 302 E. John Street, Suite 202, Champaign, IL 61820 Tel: (217) 333-2882 Fax: (217) 333-9561 E-mail: padilla@ux 1 cso.uiuc.edu Web site: www.conted.ceps.uiuc.edu/support_center RoofWorks Contact: Jim D. Koontz, Jim D. Koontz & Associates, Inc., P.O. Box 1054, Hobbs, NM 88240 Tel: (505) 392-7676 Fax: (505) 392-7602 E-mail: in process of changing, please check web site Web Site: http://www.jdkoontz.com Software NOT evaluated In the authors’ quest for locating available software in the roofing domain, it was quickly discovered that good infor¬ mation about roofing software is hard to find and these leads are difficult to track down. In some cases, for example, off¬ shore products were tracked down but were found to be design or estimating applications. In order to save others from having to duplicate our investigative work, the authors provide background data about products or services that are currently available but do not fall into the scope of the eval¬ uation. If others are aware of additional roofing inspection prod¬ ucts or services, they are asked to contact Dana Vanier by email at dana.vanier@nrc.ca or by telephone at (613) 993- 9699 (Fax 954-5984). The following software tools were not evaluated in this report owing to time restraints, because of the proprietary nature of the product, or because the software was outside of the established scope of the report. The information provid¬ ed herein was received from the developers, web pages or printed literature. In the case of TRIM, a full evaluation was 12 • Interface March 1998 Section ID |R* Section Name | Occupancy [COLD STORAGE . “” Roof Arna [6523 | Inuanloiy Dale 103Z01ZT3S5~] Dale Constructed |01Z01Z1S8B | Dale Lail Replaced | z Z j Data: OCTD1/1997 RCI Report FW 1 tnitaltitlon: M9M- Fort XXX Butidlng ©/Name Category 6k ©/Slape/Membrane Insulation Type{t) Deck Type Sect Area (SqF() Lett Cone Year Last bsp Year MCNFCMC1 RCI 71 18 COLD STORAGE FACLITY Supply FicMi’i C 14 BUR Alphih WOOD FIBERBOARD CONCRETE STD CMLfc-PlKt A 1/4 BUR; AiphH NONE W000 BOARDS 8 14 BUR AipMN NONE CONCRETE STD Cmh^iKe 7861 K23 7979 1968 1941 1952 1992 1992 9640100 9543^- 96/91A— 71 87 92 TotUe 10 Year Program for Built-Up t. Single- Pty Roots (Costs in Thousands) Ifnoaoloe FmMM •<Mnp> I tactern j Tefal Ana EX) _ u» mi uss toes twi toet tm »m tees tact Total. ImaeAM* HepMt Mtp RetM Projects II 11 II 11 « Ro*I«cmmm«1 hejecti |41 134 (?) WtHttAMe MIR |1 |1 (1 (I |t (t |i |t |i 0 trnviatien UcMctkm VnMi Inpecamra H 11 U fl V (1 fl fl fl fl VO Teiah H) M M U V U P t? IV U tW | b* || ~| | c~i ~| I B* I Sample Screen Captures from ROOFER attempted, but the results are not presented owing to the proprietary nature of the software and the fact that only a demonstration version, and not a fully-operational applica¬ tion, was provided. It is hoped that in the publication of subsequent reports that a few of these software packages can be included in the evaluation. Proprietary Systems Bradford Management System Contact: Dane Bradford, Bradford Roofing Management, P.O. Box 20502, Billings, MT 59104 Tel: (406) 252-2278 Application: Proprietary software used for roofing manage¬ ment. The developer provides copies of the software to its roofing clients in order for them to maintain the data on their own roofs. Bradford’s clients include many large indus¬ trial and governmental agencies. Facefacts (RAMP) Contact: J. J. (Jim) Watson, Building Technology Associates, Inc., 21850 Greenfield Road, Oak Park, MI, 48237 Tel: (810) 967-4630 Fax: (810) 967-4640 Application: Economic evaluations of roof service life. The developer provides copies of the software to their roofing clients for them to maintain the data on their own roofs. Also does asset management for other applications. Facefacts is used by Building Technology Associates, Inc. to inspect roofs of industrial and governmental clients and to assist them in evaluating the service life of roofing systems, based on sophisticated economic and technical models. ROOFA – ROOFing Alberta Management System, Alberta Public Works Contact: Barrie Dennis, Alberta Public Works, 3rd Floor, 6950 100th Street, Edmonton, AB T6H 5V7 Tel: (403) 422-7420 Fax: (403) 422-7479 E-mail: barrie.dennis@gov.ab.ca Application: This is a DOS application written by Alberta Public Works (APW) that is based on the original ROOFER package from the Construction Engineering Research Laboratories. It is supported and updated by APW. RoofMAP Contact: Paul Mitchell, PSI, 6200 SOM Center Road, Suite C23, Solon, OH 44139 Tel: (440) 498-1234 Fax: 440 498-1236 E-mail: pmmitchell@compuserve.com Web site: http://www.psiusa.com/services/randp.htm Application: Proprietary software used for roofing manage¬ ment. The developer provides copies of the software to its roofing clients for them to maintain the data on their own roofs. Company is currently replacing the original DOS software with a completely redesigned Windows version. TRIM Contact: Joseph (Joe) H Dandele, Tremco, Roofing Division, 140 Graden Street, Gananoque, ON K7G 1H9 March 1998 Interface • 13 Sample Screen Captures from REVS Tel: (613) 769-3285 Fax: (613) 382-8357 Application: TRIM is a portfolio management tool provided by Tremco to do roofing inspection. The software received by the reviewers is a demonstration copy which does not allow the user to add or modify data TRIM is provided by Tremco as part of contracted inspection services (mem¬ brane, insulation, flashing, etc ). TRIM runs on FoxPRO under Windows 3. 1, and has an interesting feature that com¬ bines a glossary of roofing and defect terms with graphics. Other Roofing Systems PROS, Personalized Roofing Operations System Contact: Gregg Steinbrenner, Texstar Computer Systems, Illi South Main Street, Suite A, Duncanville, TX 75137 Tel: (972) 298-9596 Fax: (972) 298-6166 Web Site: www.roofingnet.com/PROS.HTML Application: PROS is positioned as a sales support tool for roofing contractors and roofing product sales staff. It is also a roofing replacement estimating and quantity take-off pack¬ age. PROS also handles written estimates, work orders, pur¬ chase orders, accounts receivable, and has a report genera¬ tor. It runs on DOS, Win95 and WinNT. RoofMaster Contact: Rowan Morgan, Rowan Morgan Computer, New Zealand Tel: 64 (09) 268 2326 E-mail: rcl@ihug.co.nz Application: Estimating software, along with Buildmaster, which has been selling for about 12 years. It is also a quanti¬ ty calculation program. A residential quantity survey done manually would take most estimators about 3 to 4 hours, with Buildmaster software it should take only 30 to 40 min¬ utes and that includes the full pricing along with quantities. It is currently available as a DOS product but the developers hope to have a Windows version soon. 14 • Interface March 1998 Features and Capabilities of Selected Commercial Products VERSION Roof Management Program REVS System 2000 MicroRoofer RoofWorks 2nd Edition Tested Version 3.09c Version 7.0 Version 1.3 Version 2.02 USERS Inspection ♦ * * ♦ Maintenance * * * « Other Evaluation Evaluation Estimating, Costs HARDWARE MIN. (tested) RAM 400 KB (486) 8 Mb (40Mb) 8 Mb (32) 16 Mb (40) Platform IBM PC and up (486) 386+ (Pentium) 386DX-33Mhz (P200MMX) 486+ (Pentium) Operating system DOS or DOS box (DOS) 95, NT 16/32 (95) 3.1, NT, 95 (95) Win 3.1. 95 (95) Monitor 640×480 (VGA req’d for display of roof plans) 640×480 or 800×600 (800×600) 640×480 (800×600) Color 256 colors 256 colors 256 colors Mouse Mandatory Mandatory Mandatory Disk supplied 1 Floppy 5 Hoppies for base program (CD ROM in near future) 2 Floppies 6 Floppies Disk space (application-data) 1 Mb to 5 Mb 5 MB – 15 Mb 10 Mb 16 Mb – image-dependent Other Scanner SOFTWARE Type of software shell Flat file Relational database shell Relational database shell Relational database shell Shell (if applicable) Paradox 7 Runtime Access l.X Paradox 4.5 Runtime Software interface (Graphical User Interface) DOS Menus GUI GUI GUI Architecture (Client/server, mobile units) Networkable, multi-user, records in use locked (not tested) Networkable, multi-user, records in use locked (not tested) Networkable, mobile edition available separately Networkable, multi-user, only one user al a time (not tested) Installation Disk copying with installer Disk copying with installer Disk copying with installer Disk copying with installer Future Enhancements Will be migrating to Windows Program will be developed using Borland Delphi as stand-alone executable V3.0 in Apr. ’98, more reports, searching, NT Other Pen-based mobile PRICE Approx. $1000 CDN $500+ U.S. for base unit, $800 for full version $375 U.S. $500 U.S. custom programming TECHNICAL FEATURES Organizational structure Client has divisions, buildings, roofs Client has site, buildings, roofs, equipment, components Multi-facility with many roof areas/facility Client has properties, building, roofs Max. # of sections/bldgs. 999 Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Creating components Add, Modify. Delete Add, Modify. Delete Add, Modify, Delete Add, Modify, Delete Tracks roof leaks Repairs are linked to all roofs and components • * with charts Maint. /repair tracking ■ * Limited « Costing • Repair Input costs & tracking * * * with future projections Costing – Maintenance Input costs & tracking « • * financial analysis ADDITIONAL FEATURES Budgeting 5-year period « • * Library of components * * Defaults and Categories « Charts • * for most reports Roofing Condition Index (RCD Ratings 1-7 for membrane & insulation form the RCI in conjunction with user input of age and design life Elaborate – based on years of empirical data. RCl based on deduct values and related to age and service life RCI is based on user assigned 0- 100. A subjective rating can also be entered; also red. yellow, green coding or remaining life Condition assessment surveys For all roof components, flashings, membrane, insulation, parapets, etc. There are Hashing, membrane, insulation condition indexes General roofing data can be entered Other Unlimited amount of detail can be provided Pictures, warranty information Data on manufacturer, consultant, contractor, etc. 16 • Interface March 1998 Features and Capabilities of Selected Commercial Products (cont.) VERSION Roof Management Program REVS System 2000 MicroRoofer RoofWorks 2nd Edition LINKS TO OTHER APPLICATIONS Stand-alone Stand-alone Stand-alone Stand-alone Financial information Internal budgeting Internal budgeting Internal Internal – projections Preventative maintenance Internal Internal Internal Maintenance management Internal Internal Limited Internal Internal Work orders Internal Limited Internal Reports Geographical Information Systems (GIS) Prototypes have been developed Photos * • CADD import Import of Autocad files for display only (not tested) Slick! (AutoCad reader).dwg, .gif or any scanned image Can draw sketches Roof drawings are integral to data entry. Photos tied to drawing location. AutoCAD, scanned images possible CADD export Redline printing Printing, faxing Other Roof plans – PCX format EXPORT FEATURES Custom work Export io mobile Roofer Custom work Tab delimited Paradox export * Paradox export Other formats Paradox export Paradox export SECURITY Passwords * * a Backup Detailed instructions Other • Data export to spreadsheets REPORTS (Not available for evaluation) Internal format Printouts of screen output forms & reports Printout of forms and reports Printouts of screen output forms and reports Data output in tab del. form Standard & ad-hoc formats Paradox engine Paradox engine Other On-the-fly user comments may be added Roofing warranty can be scanned for reports HELP (On-line, off-line, balloon help, manuals) Manual – 43 pages, includes screen captures Manual • 50 pages, includes screen captures 4 manual Manual- 120 pages, includes screen captures Contents * On-line for Paradox On-line for RoofWorks How to use help rudimentary For Paradox • Context-sensitive help For Paradox For RoofWorks Other Phone support Phone support & training through RjEI, UIUC. Price includes 1 yr. support. Renewal of sub. is 5300 US & includes all upgrades 1-800 service, one hour free for subscribers NOTES (restrictions) Only U S. stales No extensions, yet Recording a roof replacement. ROOFER deletes historical data 12 numeric characters for phones, etc. Imperial or SI (no conversion) Only Imperial Units Only Imperia] Units Only Imperial Units Software Evaluation The sample “screen captures” shown herein were selected by the authors to represent the software and demonstrate the graphical and technical capabilities of the product. They should be examined for content and presentation style, as they provide additional insight into the software capabilities. The tables on pages 16 and 17 detail the features and capabilities of commercial products. These criteria were established prior to the evaluation process and were only slightly modified during the evaluation process. Whenever possible, explanations are provided by the reviewers. An asterisk (*) in the table indicates that the software provides this functionality. Because some of the review categories are quite general, it may be difficult for the reader to determine the meaning of an asterisk in ‘Tracks Roof Leaks,” for exam¬ ple. To the reviewers it means that the software has some way of recording when and where leaks occurred; the aster¬ isk does not indicate that the product did it effectively or is able to locate that information easily. Conclusion It is encouraging to see such a fine selection of software products for roofing inspection. In general, the products are professionally designed, marketed, supplied and supported. All of the products were easy to install and stable in opera- March 1998 Interface • 17 Dr. Dana Vanier’s current nctii’ities at National Research C ouncil C anada are related to service life and asset management. He is the project manager for the Building Envelope Life Cycle Asset Management (BELCAM) project, and is researching tools and technigues to help asset managers predict the service life of roofing compo¬ nents and better manage their assets (www.nrc.ca/irc/belcam). Dr Vanier has been actively engaged in research of electronic technical information for construction applications. He has also been an associate editor of the Electronic Journal of Information Technology in Construction (tvww.ilcon.org) since 1979. Hitesh Doshi teaches building performance related topics in the Dept of Architectural Science and Landscape Architecture at Ryerson Polytechnic Llniversity in Toronto. Ontario. Prior to joining Ryerson he was with Troiv Consulting Engineers Ltd He has published widely in technical journals and is a member of the Education Services and Code Committees of RCL Doshi has served els chairman of the Committee on Cold Region Corrosion with the National Association of Brian Kyle, of Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) Research, Development and Demonstration Directorate, has been involved with construction, maintenance and asset management issues for the past 15 years. As a senior research engineer specializing in reliability and risk analysis, Brian has been investigating solutions to the construction industry’s problems related to service life prediction and product reliability— specifically, the development of analytical tools and databases for performance modeling of building components and systems. R.W. (Bob) Marcellus, P.Eng., President of C.M.E.L Enterprises Ltd., is a consulting engineer with international experience which includes risk and reliability analysis, technical audits, project management, experience with higher end computational methods, data¬ base design, data analysis and interpretation, engineering and research and development projects. He is the senior author of over too engineer¬ ing reports and public papers and has been the head of C.M.E.L. Enterprises. tion. Although most of the products have some very minor flaws (bugs), none of these prevented the reviewers (or users in general) from using the products as designed and repre¬ sented. In addition, on a personal note, all of the product developers were friendly, helpful, informative and knowl¬ edgeable (of both their product and the roofing industry). As stated earlier, it is not the intention of this report to rate or rank the products. However, the authors can state that none of the developers is misrepresenting his products in literature, and that the evaluations provided in this report are a fair representation of the listed software features and capabilities. Of course, there are features and capabilities of products that are not discussed or identified here, much to the disappointment of the developers,- this is because these features are outside of the scope of the review. It must be remembered that all of these products are mov¬ ing targets, as they are all constantly being updated to enhance their capabilities and to meet ever-changing hard¬ ware and software requirements and opportunities. This review, therefore, is a snapshot of features and capabilities of these products as of January 1998. All of the software products have a niche market. As can be gleaned from Appendix A, CAMP is an entry level system with minimal hardware requirements, REVS is a comprehen¬ sive roofing assessment, recording and reporting database,- ROOFER is a sophisticated service life prediction tool, and RoofWork’s strengths are in its data collection, financial mod¬ eling and portfolio analysis. This does not mean that the above products do not possess any other functions, nor does it mean that the above products do not possess functionality attributed to their competitors,- it simply means that, if poten¬ tial users fall into one of these identified niches they should seriously investigate and evaluate that niche product. They should also obtain information about the others. Acknowledgments The authors acknowledge the support of the BELCAM project and the members of the BELCAM consortium. We also wish to thank the developers of the products for their evaluation software, their information and technical support, and for their cooperation in participating in this evaluation. Thank you to the staff at the other companies identified in this report for their time and information, and to Bruce Holman for contact names and information provided. is Amastidi, H., CAD-Building Load Software Review, Engineered Systems, June 1995, pp 50-67. Novitski, BJ., Roofing Systems Software, Architecture, Feb. 1992, pp 101-104. Vanier, DJ., “Benchmark Procedure to Evaluate Computer- Aided Design and Drafting Systems for Building Industry Applications,” Building Practice Note 58, NRCC, Ottawa, 1985, p. 58. About the Authors Corrosion Engineers, as a director and secretary of the Ontario Building Envelope Council (OBEC), and as chairman of the Conference on Building Science and Technology. 18 • Interface March 1998
