Creating Your Own Custom Disciplines Through Classification

Solibri comes with a range of built-in disciplines that all have assigned colours. In this Tip we show you how to create your own Disciplines.

Solibri’s inbuilt Disciplines are shown below:

The discussion of disciplines arises during coordination when checking for intersections between systems. Namely, what discipline to set files to as they are added to the federated model and what disciplines to check against each other using the general intersection rule in SMC.  Classification within SMC makes it simple to automatically map your files using your own naming convention to any custom discipline you would like to create.

For example, you may have a different naming convention of disciplines and use the term “Mechanical” rather than “HVAC”.  Also, you may have a “Communications” model that is differentiated from the “Electrical” model(s), for which a discipline doesn’t exist within SMC.

For more information on classification see:

Creating Classifications in SMC

Using Advanced Classification in ITO

You can follow along as we create a “Discipline by File Name” classification for use in interference checking using the example model linked here:

disciplines_advanced_sample_project.smc

This example model was created by exporting the Architectural, MEP, and Structural versions of the advanced sample project that comes with Revit 2016.  For the MEP sample project, we also isolated components during each IFC export based on the discipline of Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing to further divide the entire federated model into 5 IFC files based on each discipline.

When you first open all 5 IFC files, the Ensure Model Disciplines window will open to allow you to set the short name and discipline from a set list in SMC.

Short names are always manually entered or left to their A-Z defaults. However, the discipline can be automatically mapped based on the application that created the file, or the file name.  The file was exported from Revit 2016, which is a building authoring tool that can contain components from any discipline, unlike other applications that specialize in a specific discipline, such as Tekla Structures, Revit Architecture, Revit Structure, etc.  As such, it simply defaults to the Architectural discipline. The out-of-the-box File Name mapping is left as *.* and to ignore the file name, as it is up to the user to define their own mappings based on their own file naming convention.

We’ll manually set the short name to the first letter of the discipline and set the discipline to one of the hard coded disciplines in SMC. For instance, we map the Mechanical file to HVAC and the Fire Protection model to Sprinkler. This will allow you to use the out of the out-of-the-box interference detection rules that come with SMC to check discipline against discipline.

For example, one such rule checks all Building Services components that intersect with beams and columns from Structural models.  Below, we see in the results view there are 207 intersections with beams and 30 with columns.  In the Checked Components view, these intersections occur in the electrical, mechanical, plumbing, and structural models.

Opening the rule parameters of this rule, in the component filter table for Component 1, only beams and columns from disciplines related to Structural components (Prefab Concrete, Steel Structure, Structural) are checked.  For Component 2, any component excluding Covering, Space, Cable from disciplines related to Building Services (Air Conditioning, Building Services, Cooling, Electrical, etc.) are checked.

Listing all the various disciplines that fall under the category of Structural vs Building Services models leaves flexibility for users for what they select as their disciplines when they first load their models.

You are able to isolate the results by discipline though selecting the file(s) of that discipline in the Checked Components view, setting the file(s) to the selection basket, and selecting Filter with Selection Basket (some) in the Results view.  Below, we see there are 169 intersections with beams and 16 intersections with columns between the HVAC model and the Structural model.

The intersections between just the electrical model and structural model can be viewed using this same method as seen below:

Depending on the number of files, disciplines, and naming conventions, you may find that you wish to fine tune your interference detection checks to individual disciplines and/or even disciplines, such as “Communications,” that are not included in the hard coded ones.  This can be achieved through the use of classification.

Open the Classification view by clicking Add View  > Classification .  You’ll find a “Discipline by File Name” classification is loaded.  If you expand the classification, you’ll find that components in the model are classified by their discipline:

Open the settings of the Classification by selecting the classification and clicking the Settings  button. In the Components filter parameters table, you see that all components are to be classified.  In the Default Classification Names, you see a listing of various disciplines.  You can add to or remove these depending on your own requirements.  Show Unclassified is marked to make it easy to see if any components in the model haven’t been classified to a discipline.

Click the Classification Rules tab to view how the file name is used to map to a specific discipline.  Every component has a Model parameter in the Identification property group, which is the short name and file name of the model that component resides in. For example, if “ELEC” appears anywhere in the file name, the components in the model are mapped to Electrical. This is achieved using “*ELEC*” to match the value of the Model parameter. If you specify the discipline in the file naming using a single character separated by underscores (_) or dashes (-), such as in the name “01_A_RME_Advanced_Sample_Project,” those components are classified as Architectural using “*_A_*” to match the value of the Model parameter. Lastly, you can specify the discipline in the file name using a single character at the beginning of the file name preceding a dash or underscore. However, since the short name of a file precedes the file name in the Model parameter, “(*) P-*” is used to match the value “(P) P-rme_advanced_sample_project” to Plumbing.

Depending on your own naming convention and disciplines, you can modify the values in the Model column to match your file names accordingly.

In the Checking view, if you select the rule STRUCT vs MECH, the same results are listed for Beams and Columns in the Results view as the out-of-the-box rule “Building Services and Beams and Column” when filtering by selection basket after selecting the HVAC model, seen in the prior screenshot.

Likewise, if you select the rule STRUCT VS ELEC, you’ll see the same results as previously seen in the “Building Services and Beams and Column” after selecting the Electrical model and filtering by the selection basket.

If you open the rule parameters of the STRUCT VS MECH rule, you’ll see that rather than using the Discipline parameter, the “Discipline by File Name” classification is used to filter what components to include.

Creating your own discipline classifications can make it easier when setting up your coordination rules based on disciplines if you have disciplines outside the ones available out of the box in SMC.  Using classification rules, you can automatically map your files based on their filename to those disciplines.

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