In many projects, you may not need to enter each room individually. For instance, a hotel may contain hundreds of identical guest rooms and it would be inefficient to create each individual room. In cases like this, you can create a room type (or "prototype") based on the room's multiple occurrences and assign a quantity to it. This makes the definition easy to understand: a "room type" is simply a room with a quantity (count) greater than 1.

Room quantities are entered on the record for the room involved (using Rooms> Add or Edit to enter the desired value). The system will multiply the contents of the room by that quantity to calculate the total FF&E required for the room type. Reports that show the room will also show its room count. If these reports show the room contents, the budget and cost for a single item will be shown, but any columns showing extended totals will include the room quantity in the calculation.

You can change the quantity of a prototype room at any time. Like other changes, the system will update the quantities and costs of all FF&E items affected by the change.

If you need a total of all the room counts (for instance to check total room keys in a hotel), use the "Include in room count total?" option on the room screen to flag each room. All rooms flagged with this option will be included in the totals that appear below the room list (and will also be subtotaled by area).

Prototype rooms can be cloned and modified just like any other room, but you may need to adjust the quantity of the copy as needed to satisfy the room mix. 

If it becomes necessary to separate a prototype room into individual rooms, this can be done by simply copying the prototype as many times as is necessary, giving the copies appropriate room numbers. Be sure to reduce the quantity of the prototype back to "1" before you make the copies of it, otherwise you will multiply the project cost of the rooms involved by the same room quantity in each.

Note: We recommend that you avoid separating a prototype room into separate rooms, and if you do, only do it when the design is finalized. Once you create the separate rooms, you lose the ability to change the design in a single prototype room and have the reports instantly updated with extended totals. Instead, each separate room will have to be changed individually (or deleted and copied again) to reflect the design changes. A better approach for installation management is to keep the prototype intact and use a reference plan to indicate the room type of each room (using the Room ID as a "type code" instead of the physical room number).