If you are new to 3D Repo and not aware of the feature called Smart Groups, have a read through our What is a Smart Group? article. However, if you are familiar with the concept, let's take a look at how to use Smart groups where we'll cover the following:
Create a Smart Group
Click on the Groups features (left of the screen) then on the green Plus button to create a new smart group.
Provide the following information:
Group title
Group type. Select 'Smart' from the drop-down menu
Description (optional text)
Define a rule by setting a:
- Field (this will be the parameter name as seen in the BIM Card)
- Operation (see table below)
- Value (this will be the value of a parameter as seen in the BIM Card)
In some cases, you can add multiple values for a single field search.
(example Parameter field is Category and Value is Floors, Doors, Walls)Click on Add to save your search filter. Every new filter appears under Filters
Change colour and transparency overrides as described here
Click on the Save icon
If needed, click on the bin icon to Delete the smart group
List of rules contained in the Operation field:
Field | Text | Number |
exists | is | equals |
does not exist | is not | does not equal |
| contains | greater than |
| does not contain | greater or equal to |
| regex | less than |
|
| less or equal to |
|
| in range |
|
| not in range |
Unlike Normal groups, Smart Groups do not require you to manually select model elements, but instead, they query element's metadata and group them based on your rules.
Tip: Use the BIM Card to look for specific parameter fields and their values.
You'll notice that the number of objects is updated after every Save and for every mesh selection added to that smart group.
Example New Smart Group
For more information, check our video on Data Validation with Smart Groups.
Smart Group Filters
When defining one or many rules for your Smart Group, any logged Value is retained in the Filters bar. Here you have the option to:
Remove filters. Click on the X button next to the filter you wish to remove
Edit filters. Click on each filter to enable rule editor (Field, Operation and Value)
From the options menu you can choose to:
- Copy filters
- Paste filters
- Deselect
- Clear all
Tip: Copy & Pasting filters to another/new group accelerates the process of smart groups creation.Click on Update when the button turns green to save filter changes
Click on the green Save button to save changes to the smart group
Smart Group Hierarchy
In order to make the organisation of Groups more intuitive for your collaborators, you are able to structure your Groups into a hierarchy.
In order to do this simply use "::" as a delimiter in the Group name during creation/editing. the example below shows 4 groups with the following names:
Certification Status::QA FAIL
Certification Status::QA PASS
Delivery::Awaiting Install
Delivery::Production QA Check
Link to Smart Groups via APIs
Additionally to 3D Repo, API link can be used to pull live model data to other applications such as Power BI or Tableau. As such, you can set up custom dashboards to visualise model data and smart group results.
Power BI
Learn how to extract information from 3D Repo to Power BI for project reporting. You can download our sample Power BI templates from the Downloads Page.