Properties Palette

Overview

Property dialogs can be quite boring, but in Simplebim you have a turbo-charged-state-of-the-art properties palette that will blow you away! Right from the beginning we thought about this issue differently and have added masses of new functionality in the years since. Here are the main highlights and some hidden features of our properties palette.

Show any selection of objects

In order to use the Properties palette you need to populate it first. By default the Properties palette ‘listens’ to other palettes and you can populate it by selecting one or more object classes, type objects, groups or classifications in the Objects palette, or you can select objects in the 3D, Containment or any other palette.

When the Properties palette is configured not to listen to selections from other palettes objects can still be dragged&dropped from other palettes. In this case the options are to set the selection, add to the selection, remove from the selection or intersect with the selection. Intersecting means leaving only the objects that are both in the current selection and in the dropped objects.

Usually property dialogs show  the properties of one object. In Simplebim you can show the properties of any number of objects at the same time. Each property value is essentially a group representing all objects that have that value for that property. Selecting the value selects all those objects.

The palette by default shows the properties that are common to all the object classes shown in the palette, which highlights the benefits of normalizing properties across object classes. However, you can also configure the palette to show all properties, which gives you literally all the data of the objects. Even put all the objects of the model into the properties palette and show all the properties  - and you have all the data from all elements at your fingertips.

Trimmer Mode

When the application is in Trimmer Mode the Properties palette shows the names of all excluded properties as strikethrough. If all objects with a given property value are excluded the property value is also shown as strikethrough.

When the application is not in Trimmer Mode both excluded properties and values for excluded objects are hidden.

Toolbar

Filter

You can easily filter the contents of the properties palette. The background colour of the filter box changes when a filter is active and the filter can be cleared from the x-icon in the filter box.

Here are some examples:

The full list of filter options is shown below:

You can combine several filters by separating them with the pipe character. For example:

name|description

The example above shows only properties that have either 'name' or 'description' in their name.

Group

You can choose to display the properties as a flat list and you don’t have to worry about property sets. But if you want to see property sets, then group by property set, or group by value type (text, length, yes/no…) or value distribution (single value, different values, all different values, no values…).

Isolate

First select one or more property values and click Isolate. This will filter the Properties palette to show only the objects in your selection.

For example selecting one building storey name and clicking Isolate will filter the original contents of the Properties palette to only the objects on that building storey.

Hide

Hide works in the same way as Isolate but removes the objects with the selected values from the original contents of the Properties palette.

Set Content

You can set the content of the properties palette to all objects in the model. Here you have two choices:

1. Show the assemblies, e.g. curtain walls
2. Show the components e.g. the mullions and panels of curtain walls

Options

Behind the gear icon you find a host of other options.

Auto Expand All will automatically also show the property values. Use with caution because showing all the property values for all properties can be slow.

Highlight Related Values, when this turned on, looks at the selected property value(s) and finds the objects that use those values. Then it highlights all other property values that are used by those objects. 

Show Only Common Properties, when turned on, shows only properties that are common to all object classes represented by the objects currently shown in the palette. When it is off all  the properties are shown. In this case the special <not applicable> value is shown as the property value for objects that don't have a property. For example if walls and spaces are selected, then the property 'Space Name' is shown in the palette, but the value for the 'Space Name' property for walls is '<not applicable>'

Show Only Property Sets hides all other properties than those that originate from IFC property sets and quantity sets. This is a convenient way to clean up the palette from ‘clutter’

Isolate Property Sets is similar to “Show Only Property Sets” but you can pick the property sets you want to show.

Clear Property Set Isolation resets the property set isolation

Show IFC Property Names, when turned on, shows the original IFC property names for properties. This affects only the Properties palette. If you want to use the original IFC names also in other palettes and when exporting to Excel turn on the IFC import setting 'Use IFC Names for Properties' before importing. 

Round Measure Values shows measure values rounded. When turned off, shows measure values with full precision

Show Sum for Measure Values, when turned on shows the sum of each measure value on the level of the property name.

Use Case Sensitive Text Comparison shows  the properties “Abc” and “abc” separately. When this turned off they are shown as one property

Listen, when turned on, the Properties palette reacts to selections made in other palettes, for example in the 3D window. When turned off the Properties palette does not react automatically, but you can still drag&drop objects to the Properties palette to see their properties.

Listen Action defines how the Properties palette reacts to selections made in other palettes. Set Content (the default) sets the objects shown in the Properties palette. Highlight Related Values keeps the current content and highlights the properties values used by the objects selected in the other palette.

Speak, when turned on, allows other palettes can react to selections made in the Properties palette, e.g. highlight the selected objects in the 3D window. The action takes by the other palettes is decided in those palettes, for example the 3D window can select, isolate or reveal.

Other

Expand All expands the tree structure of the Properties palette one level. Use with caution because showing all the property values for all properties can be slow.

Collapse All collapses the tree structure of the Properties palette one level. 

Clear clears the current selection from the Properties palette.

Right-Click-Menu

Property Group

Copy Name copies the name of the group to the clipboard.

Include all Properties from: makes all properties in the group included. This item is only visible if the application is in trimmer mode and all objects shown in the Properties palette are from the same object class.

Exclude all Properties from: makes all properties in the group excluded. This item is only visible if the application is in trimmer mode and all objects shown in the Properties palette are from the same object class.

Property

This menu is shown at right-click when one or more properties are selected.

Copy Value(s) copies the values of the property on the clipboard.

Copy Special has the options to copy the name of the property, the name and values, the key or the identity to the clipboard. The identity contains the name and all metadata of the property.

Colorize colorizes the objects based on the values of the property.

Exclude Property: makes the property excluded. This item is only visible if the application is in trimmer mode and all objects shown in the Properties palette are from the same object class.

Include Property: makes the property included. This item is only visible if the application is in trimmer mode and all objects shown in the Properties palette are from the same object class.

Set as Default Property sets the property as the default property for the object class. The default property is shown in bold in the Properties palette and it is the property that is shown in the 3D palette tooltip, Containment palette and in other places when applicable. 

Sort By... sorts the property values based on the selected other property for analysis purposes. For details see the Analysis section below.

Property Value

This menu is shown at right-click when one or more values are selected.

Select First/Next Object is used for selecting one object with the value at a time. This is especially useful when used together with the 3D palette settings 'Auto Zoom' and 'Isolate' to locate and examine individual objects in large models.

Copy Value(s) copies the values of the property on the clipboard.

Copy Special has the options to copy the name of the property, the name and values, the key or the identity to the clipboard. The identity contains the name and all metadata of the property.

Exclude Property: makes the property of the value excluded. This item is only visible if the application is in trimmer mode and all objects shown in the Properties palette are from the same object class.

Include Property: makes the property of the value included. This item is only visible if the application is in trimmer mode and all objects shown in the Properties palette are from the same object class.

Set as Default Property sets the property of the value as the default property for the object class. The default property is shown in bold in the Properties palette and it is the property that is shown in the 3D palette tooltip, Containment palette and in other places when applicable. 

Sort By... sorts the values of the property based on the selected other property for analysis purposes. For details see the Analysis section below.

Isolate Selected filters the Properties palette to show only the objects that have the selected value(s)

Hide Selected removes the objects with the selected values from the original contents of the Properties palette.

Pop Out Selected opens a new Properties palette with the objects that have the selected value(s)

Editing values

You can edit values by first clicking on a property value, waiting a short while and then clicking on the same property value again. This is the same as when you edit a file name in Windows Explorer. A dropdown list will show the other values that already exist in the model and if you have defined lists of allowed values in the validation the dropdown shows those values as well.

Because the properties palette can show any group of objects you easily edit the values of multiple objects at the same time. For example if 3 objects have the same wrong value for a property, simply show the 3 objects in the properties palette and edit the value. This will edit the value for all 3 objects.

Drag and Drop

From the Properties palette

• Property Group drags the name of the group. Possible targets include:
  • Dataflow step configuration
• Property drags the identity of the property. Possible targets include:
  • Quick Select in the 3D palette
  • Dataflow step configuration
  • Generating child groups in the Objects palette from text properties
• Property Value drags all objects currently shown in the Properties palette that have the dragged value(s). Possible targets include:
  • Dataflow step configuration, especially a Target selection.

Into the Properties palette

Dragging objects into the Properties palette gives the following options: set the selection, add to the selection, remove from the selection or intersect with the selection.

Analysis

When you want to find out what is important you can use the Sort functionality.

In the example above the space names are sorted by the “Net Floor Area” property. This sorts the names by the area and shows the total area of each space name and an informative graph about the distribution. In the context of BIM the graph most often shows a ‘long tail’ distribution, which helps you locate the few values that are typically responsible for the majority of the ‘mass’.

In the example above, by selecting names you can see how much of the total area the selected values account for. Office, Corridor and Meeting are the 3 names with the most area and account together for around 79% of the total area of the spaces currently shown in the properties palette. Because you can show any group of objects in the properties palette you can do this kind of analysis for the whole model and for any selection of objects.

In the example above you can see how the furniture alone accounts for around 78% of the geometry in this model. As you can see this is a very handy tool for analysing both the structure of the model and the design. You may for example set up validation that finds a lot of issues in a model, but which issues are the most important ones and which ones can be neglected? The Properties palette can give you the answer!!