Today many complex systems are built starting from certain prior products. Traditional cost estimation methods assuming products are built from scratch and using simple methods such as linear regressions can lead to significant errors. This paper studies the switching costs, the costs of developing a new product that is built based upon a previously developed product. It presents a series of systematic study results including its concept, properties, an estimation method, and operation principles. Our approach is an automated method that is able to minimize manual efforts. It can leverage historical data, acquisition information, existing cost models, commercial costing tools, and Expert Judgments (EJ). An HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) system design example case was used to demonstrate our approach.