Thursday, February 23, 2012

Ready Made Selection Sets for Navisworks

Want to save time in Navisworks when it comes to selection sets? Try exporting select views of the model to establish ready made "selection sets". We've already got natural organization with categories, worksets and filters doing some heavy lifting in our project. If we export several NWC files with just things like all the plumbing, HVAC, furniture, fin tube radiation, medical equipment, and so on, we'll have separate ready-made selection sets. Further finer grain selections can then be made by focusing on the separate files within Navisworks, if it's even necessary.

Sure that's what Navisworks is good at, selecting and searching for criteria but things are already pretty organized in a Revit model. Seems a waste of time to export a big pile only to want to break it down into smaller piles inside Navisworks? Want to run slash detection on pipes and ducts, just pick the two separate files as soon as they are loaded. If information doesn't get sent to us like this, we can just ask. If it still doesn't then we've still got Navisworks search ans selection sets in our back pocket.

4 comments:

Taylor Osborn said...

I agree with that exporting process and actually use that same techniques myself here in the office. The only thing I do differently is use a DWG vs an NWC. The reason for this is you cannot overwrite an NWC when it is open in Navisworks. By using a DWG you're able to overwrite it therefore it enables you work in a more circular fashion. Just my two cents for what it's worth.

Anonymous said...

There's a setting in navisworks to close nwc's after opening

Taylor Osborn said...

Thanks for the tip! I just tested it and it works perfectly. I always thought it was odd that a DWG worked better than NWC file. Now I can use NWC from now on! Thanks again!

Anonymous said...

No prob, you're welcome. The hardest thing I find with going from revit to navisworks is the choice between nwc's and DWFx. Shared coordinates to work with the civil guys or reasonably well structured data, colours from filters retained, correct units and values for duct flow rates etc.