Estimate Building Costs

[Brett Webster]

Greetings All,

I am an aspiring real estate developer.  I am job shadowing a local developer who estimates costs in his head based on years of experience.  But I don't have the experience to do this.  I was given access to a set of building plans including basic measurements.  I can guess at the costs based on (SQ FT X $200) or something like that.  But, is there a more exact way to estimate costs?  Perhaps a building software of some kind?

All advise welcome!  Thanks -