I'm going through this same process with curtain wall aluminum extrusions and aluminum ACM panel parts and pieces. My advice? Parameterize everything, start small, and test test test. I don't believe that there is any Easy Pill for this process, or if there is I'd like to know where it is because I'd pay for it. The biggest obstacle IMO is *options*. For every constant there are 42 options. Drives me nuts

Tell you what, go and hang out on the golf course, and pay me to do it for ya! lol

Seriously though, so it's like I thought? A ton of paramters and a huge schedule for everything?

basically yeah. I use the built in Type Comments parameter to sort parts into different schedules

Is there any way to get revit to read the value for "itemize every instance" in a schedule to apply to a formula?
I think that would be great in order to get a count for the actual number of elements (in case of lumber for example "total cost="itemize every intance number * $ XXX.XX )

Is there any way to have the cost part outside of the actual element?

For instance, if I have 20 types of brick walls, and the brick cost changes, I'd have to remember to change it in 20 different places. Any way to have it in just one place? Or is it not necessary since you can edit the schedule itself?

Yeah, You can just update the values in the schedule

I feel that a material take off should be done differently than a # of windows take off. You should be able to do a material schedule that only bases it on "Brick" and it does not care if you have brick on a 1' wall, a 1'6 wall, and a 2' wall. On the other side you do want to do a typical schedule that says you have X numbers of a type of Window/Door....

Pretty much, but you have to test, test, and test again... for example: assume that you want to calculate the number of 2' x 4' sheets of gypboard in a wall. 1 side or 2 sides? then, create a wall with equal dimensions, (2' x 4') and see if the results are correct for 1 side and 2 sides. Making the wall the same size as the sheet will give some easy numbers that will help you to detect if your formulas are working or not But, as Dave said, no easy pill here, just a lot of work and :banghead:

1. Remember that in the real world, there will be waste. That sounds broad and general, but people in Revit get obsessive and forget. 96SF of Sheathing is NOT always equal to three sheets. If theres a window in one of them, but then 10SF somewhere else, you cant always "reuse" that piece somewhere else. So all the tough math youre trying, make sure it has an overhead percentage.

2. Ask the people who need the quantities what they want: We are integrated, so i offered to front end all of that math in to our template, so the Precon gang could have amounts of studs and whatnot. They dont want them: Linear feet of wall assemblies, and wall types, is enough. Thats not everyone, thats just our group. But im saying, make sure you need the "actual stud count" before you do it.

3. What about openings? Itll be more than a material schedule. Maybe a ROUGH stud count can be something simple (Length/Spacing), but then you need to count the inserts in that wall, if the inserts mean Double studs. Boxed headers. Etc.

The math is the easy part. Making sure what you get MEANS something, thats the hard part.