existing/new/demolish in bim

Lukas Fertig

Hi,

does anyone have a good approach on how to handle the aforementioned states that building elements can have? I have several thoughts, but nothing really works satisfyingly..

• I used to just put geometry on the according layers and have them display in different colors on the plan views. looking at all different kinds of bim comonents, this would mean creating multiple duplicates of the whole bim library (and creating layers like DOOR_LEAF/DOOR_LEAF_NEW/DOOR_LEAF_DEMO etc..).
• I tried to get it working using compositions, but again, bim components break the deal (can't assign a "window_new" composition to the whole window from outside the block).
• Putting everything inside the component definition on layer 0 and set colors to byblock, but that doesn't work as soon as you want to make use of the BIM_2D/+ layers

would be interesting to see how other people handle this, or also to hear from bricsys what they have in mind...

best,
Lukas

Michael Mayer

I think that would be a feature wish for a kind of
data visualization.
Where you include your state information just in
your BIM Tags and information but Bricscad allows
a temporary color overlay in visualization mode.

At least that is what others offer.

I am also not sure how I should organize my Versioning,
where I have to visualize and switch between different
geometry options for a building.

Lukas Fertig

that'd be nice indeed, a bim property and then the sections pick it up and display everything according to a specified color...

tslewis71

Have you tried filtering using a search field property in the structure browser? I’m sure you could add a user defined Property say Status and assign values of new existing and as built and then filter by these values in the structure browser

Michael Mayer

Ah, not about just displaying states but filtering.
Yes, I also think you could configure the structure panel to
filter and set visibilities.
(Which are unfortunately temporary and lost after closing a file)

Then we are near to my problem though.
If you have defined properties to allow selections - how to separate
them reliably ?

1.
If you do all attributes by object instead of by layer, you have layers
free to switch states. But is that a good idea in general ?

2.
My other idea was to put all my special state elements into external
reference files.
I saw that it is easy to pull elements out of the reference into your file
pretty easy, but AFAIK that does not work they other way.
Like when certain elements become member of a special state,
that you can add that to the Reference File - from and while working
in your main file.
(Just by cut + paste ?)

3.
Any other idea ?

tslewis71

You can use and or not operands for filtering with parameter values - pretty much unlimited, I would imagine layer name is also a parameter value you can filter by. After filtering being able to assign a named selection set that is saved would be powerful

Michael Mayer

I see some potential with filtering while in model space.

But how does @Lukas Fertig get his separation for his
generated 2D Plans in paper space ?
Especially using Blocks and Components.
Like showing demolish parts in one plan while hiding in another.
Isn't the only visibility control in paper space by Layer ?

I'm not experienced with 2D CAD and plans.
And in my case I would also need a "physical" separation as I need
to bring it over in 3D Exports.
(By Layers, by referencing Files or whatever)

Coming from Vectorworks or Allplan,
beside Layers, there is always Layers+Classes.
Basically 2 equal systems beside each other. And in combination
of both you can multiply the possibilities of visibility control.
So for example there is no need to duplicate Layers like :
(DOOR_LEAF/DOOR_LEAF_NEW/DOOR_LEAF_DEMO etc..)
As you have your standard DOOR_LEAF Layer and separate
EXISTING/NEW/DEMO by another system.

BIM Structure Panel offers the same or endless more and is
even dynamic - but it is temorary and gone after closing the App.

ScottS

As this thread was recently mentioned but not active in a while, I'd like to catch up on this topic. The introduction of Drawing Customizations has allowed what @Michael Mayer described some other CAD packages have:

Coming from Vectorworks or Allplan,
beside Layers, there is always Layers+Classes.
Basically 2 equal systems beside each other. And in combination
of both you can multiply the possibilities of visibility control.
So for example there is no need to duplicate Layers like :
(DOOR_LEAF/DOOR_LEAF_NEW/DOOR_LEAF_DEMO etc..)
As you have your standard DOOR_LEAF Layer and separate
EXISTING/NEW/DEMO by another system.

I am very eager to see the next evolution of Drawing Customization, which currently involve a lot of setting up and adjustment. And there is no quick way to preview the output from changes that have to be made in multiple tiers of customization style definitions, rules, filters, and settings files. However, in combination with custom BIM properties, you can have not just 2 equal systems beside each other, but countless combinations.

I have a custom BIM property now to classify all objects in the model as NEW, EXISTING, DEMO, or FUTURE. With the Drawing Customization functionality, I define an entity customization, i.e., the output layers with linetypes and lineweights that I want to get created in the generated 2D dwg view, for each case. For the example of doors: Doors-new, Doors-existing, and doors to be removed can go on a catch-all Demo layer. So I still end up having multiple layers in the output dwg, as necessary for architectural plans, to control lineweights and to manage visibility of various categories of plan information. Different graphic rules apply to elevations, building sections, and details; more on that another time...

To assign colors, linetypes, and lineweights to layers, the customization Settings.dwg can be prepopulated with desired layer standards, but all those layer names need to be listed correspondingly in the style definitions section of the customization.json file. Otherwise, output layers or "styles" need to be defined one at a time via the Drawing Customization panel gui. (Fleur at Bricsys was tremendously helpful guiding me through this process.)

Once it's set up and fine tuned, the customized output is a huge leap forward. It's still a work in progress, though, and I have only partially translated all our layer standards into customizations. It's not clear the best way to apply parallel systems of classification. For example, filtering by EXIST/NEW/DEMO as the top level rule, and then subfiltering by type, e.g., walls, doors, casework... or vice versa. Sometimes the output I expect does not get generated, and I don't know whether I missed part of a filter or style definition, or if it matters where a rule falls in the stack, and it's easy to get confused with so many dials to turn and no visual feedback until executing BimSectionUpdate.