Part #2 – Sets
Sets are a big part of clash detection in Navisworks, they can make the difference between a great clash report and one that is a waste of time. Simply clashing one model against another is not going to give you great results in most instances. Say for example you clash an architectural model against an electrical model, that’s all you need to do right? Wrong. Every electrical item that is recessed into either the wall or ceiling will be reported as a clash which this actually isn’t a clash, you end up with a time consuming administration overhead to manually approve clashes that shouldn’t have been reported on in the first place. This post will help you get your head around sets and how to make them work for you.
Selection sets are a group of objects selected either from the view window or from the selection tree window. You can manage sets from the sets window, if your sets window isn’t visible on screen, head to the View tab, and from the Windows button, select Set from the list.
Below is a description of each of the buttons in the Sets window.
When you run a search in the find items window, the search results will be highlighted in blue in the view window, as well as in the selection tree window.
When you select an object or a group of objects, they will be displayed in the Selection Inspector window along with their properties.
The Show Item button is used to view the selected object in the display window. The display will zoom in on the selected items when you click this button. | |
The Deselect button is used to remove objects from the selection inspector window. | |
The Export button will export the selected item to a *.CSV file. | |
Save Selection allows you to save the selected objects as a selection set. | |
Quick Properties Definitions allows you to add properties to the selected objects in the view window. |
Now that I have explained the functions of each of the window elements, I’ll show you how to put them to use.
Using the Find Items window, you can search for elements based on specific information. In this instance, I have searched for all air terminals located on level 1. The find items window will allow you to search for elements based on the element properties which includes user parameters.
Following the same method, I have created a selection set of all the lights on level 3. In the next installment, I’ll explain tolerances and how they affect your clash results.