Information Management – Mass Property Value Import
Tips and Tricks • Campbell Yule • 15 June 2016
AEC - Tip of the Day, Archicad, Ci Tools
Producing Schedules may be one of the least interesting parts of the design and construction process. However, their importance can never be underestimated. Keeping with the them of “putting the I in BIM” the improvements outlined below help manage information that is not only derived from the Building Model.
In the design process, not all project stakeholders use CAD or BIM tools, yet they still contribute specific BIM data, such as the values of element properties, to the project. Thus, it is critical that ARCHICAD be able to access and edit element property data from an external source.
Import Property Values is an easy, semi‐automatic function to import data from an Excel worksheet to the corresponding ARCHICAD Property value fields. With this feature, ARCHICAD users can eliminate the tedious and error‐prone task of entering the consultant’s data manually.
To define the data to be exported from ARCHICAD, use a dedicated Schedule Scheme for each consultant, which contains the required properties. When the data is later sent back as an Excel spreadsheet, you can filter the incoming data by individual properties, using a dialog that not only reflects the data structure of the source Excel file, but also provides feedback on possible errors.
Retain the stored property values in Excel format as an archive of a particular stage of the project, with the option to revert to it at any time.
This new development complements the existing data export functionality, in which users save data to Excel format from any selected Interactive Schedule. The two workflows together complete the required data exchange circle: the foundation of any real BIM workflow.