Important
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Rules are available in Solibri Advanced and Premium, with full editing access.
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Rules can be viewed in read-only mode in Solibri Starter and Essential if they are already present in the SMC File.
This article describes how the Model Comparison rule works and how you can configure the rule.
The rule compares two models and reports their differences. It should be used to compare modifications between two version of the same model, for example, differences between an architectural model and its previous version. The best comparison results are gotten when the unique ids remain unchanged between the old and the new model. However, this is not necessary. When the unique id changes between versions, geometry is used as an alternative way of finding the modified components.
This article covers the following topics:
Model comparison is done to investigate the latest changes in design during the project lifecycle. It is necessary to do this to estimate the workload and resources needed for the revision related changes among normal design tasks. This is also good way to control if the previously required changes have been done. Normally all revisions are documented and delivered in some kind of a reports, but it is necessary to see the changes is models. Two versions of the same ifc model can be checked and specific details followed before next revisions are done.
The rule checks two different versions of the same IFC model. The comparison is checking data based on ID, geometry and properties of same kind of components, so you can't compare two different SMC or IFC files of different disciplines.
The best way to compare two model versions is to do the comparison based on component GUID identification. This way, you can follow the evolution of the design in each component and communicate the change to other stakeholders, for example by using the standard BCF format.
When GUIDs are used for component identification, the rule compares each component GUID and lists all the new and removed components based on that. The rule checks all the components which have the same GUID selected properties listed in the Compared properties table.
If you're not using the GUID identification, you can use component geometry as an alternative.
Note
The Model Comparison rule is not suited to be used in a Gatekeeper ruleset.
Old Model, New Model:
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Here you can specify the models that are compared. The rule checks two different versions of the same IFC file, based on their export date (ifcDatestamp), but you can also manually select the checked files.
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To separate the versions, you can define the visualization colors and transparency by double clicking the colored buttons. The default colors are red (first model) and cyan and (second model), and transparency is set to 60%.
Identify components only with GUID:
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If checked, only the GUID of the component is used when same components are searched for checking.
Checked components:
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You can filter the target components for comparison.
Compare:
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Geometries: If checked, the rule creates issues for all components whose geometry has changed. Add new row or edit existing row by double clicking it, and select the Property Group and property. You can remove unnecessary properties from the list as well.
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Compared properties: In this table, you can list all the component properties that you want to compare for the target component
Report:
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You can configure the options in the Report tool content using the tables.
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Reported Columns: In this table, you can define the report columns visibility with a check box selection and their order by moving them up/down with arrows above the table
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Reported Components: You can list component which you want to report. Adding a new row to the list opens a Component Selection dialog where you can select the components to be reported. Selecting the option: 'Any', reports all filtered component types in the model.
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Reported Property: The report lists differences in between the old and new model. The components that have not been modified are not listed. You can define the reported property from selection list. List of properties depends on the selected component. You can report multiple properties of the same component by adding a separate row for each property.
Severity:
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The default severity is Moderate. You can specify the custom severities in severity parameters.
Categorization:
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The checking results are shown in 3 main categories: Added, Removed and Modified.
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All "Added" and "Removed" components are organized according to Component type in alphabetical order. All components of the same construction type (e.g. walls of type IW-1) are collected in one issue.
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All Modified components are categorized according to the component type and modified property. There are subcategories for each construction type. Each modified component has an own issue, and the issue description tells what properties have been changed including the old and new value for the changed property.
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Each modified component has an own issue, and the issue description tells what properties have been changed including the old and new value for the changed property.