The cost database, also known as a base or price table, has all the concepts organised into work sections.

These contain the simple prices for labour, materials and machinery, and the broken down prices such as items and auxiliary prices.

They may come from public, private, or manufacturing entities and usually include complementary data such as specifications, regulations, or graphical information.

Regular updates are essential to ensure their validity.

In addition, they may have search keys associated with concepts to make it easy to locate them.

They can be classified into three categories according to their structure and level of parameterisation:

• Conventional (or standard): contain a closed list of items with fixed prices defined manually. They include simple and itemised prices.
• Parametric: generate prices from predefined combinations of parameters. They can be implemented directly in Arquímedes or compiled in DLL.
• Multiparametric: allow prices to be adjusted automatically based on multiple project variables (type, location, surface area, etc.).