On Wed, Nov 5, 2014 at 12:26 AM,  <xxxxxx@comcast.net> wrote:

> The customer's total
> budget included the cost of my friend's plans and the
> cost of building the home.

Yes.  These are different line items.

> My understanding of the rules is that a budget is set
> prior to asking an architect to draw a set of plans for
> a new design.

That would be sensible.  Although in the real world we frequently see
huge cost over-runs and multiple design revisions.  (and the design
revisions are generally what drive the over-runs, but that's another
story...)

> The plan created by the architect includes the costs of
> the components. The total cost of the finished plan,
> hopefully within the original budget, is used to calculate
> the architect's fee. The fee is paid from the established
> budget.

Yup.  Design fees and build costs are separate items.

> If the hull is not built the only budget cost is the architect's fee.

Exactly.  Although that seems kind of silly, no?  Why would you buy a
design without budgeting money to build it?

> If the hull is built both the architect and shipyard are paid
> for the work done from the budget.

That's an aggregate cost again.  You pay the design fee regardless of
whether you build the ship or not.

>  A second hull is constructed by the same shipyard and
> receives the cost of the hull and components, which is
> taken from the budget.

If pay for the design work, you own the design.

If *you* order a second ship at the same shipyard, there would be no
additional design fees.  (which is silly, because if you order a
second ship, there WILL be design changes from the first one, tweaks
to improve performance, handling, ease of maintenance, etc.)

If someone else sees your ship, says "oooh, shiny, I want one" and
goes to the shipyard, AND YOU PAID FOR THE DESIGN, the shipyard will
direct them to you to buy a license.   Or direct them to a qualified
naval architect to design something similar.

If the shipyard did the design themselves, and sells it under license
as a "standard design", you pay their nominal license fee and they
start building.

Or to put in in housing terms, if you pay someone to design a house,
the cost is (design cost x1), regardless if you build it.

If you design and build a house, cost is (design cost x1) + (build cost x1).

If you decide you like it so much, you build two more copies for
vacation homes, cost is (design cost x1)+(build cost x3).

If you decide to go build a housing development with 30 cookie cutter
copies of that house, the cost is (30x build cost)+(1x design cost)
for the neighborhood.

Dan

--

"Any sufficiently advanced parody is indistinguishable from a genuine
kook." -Alan Morgan