
In this tutorial, you'll learn how to extract space information from a model. A list of spaces is required to:
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see the space usage
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investigate if the required services exist in the building
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see how effectively the spaces are used
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ensure that the required access and ligthing has been taken into consideration.
The article covers the following topics:
To complete the tutorial, you need:
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Access to Solibri Site or Solibri Office.
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An architectural IFC model with spaces/zones. See also that the the model meets the requirements. You can use the Solibri Building file. You can open it from the following locations:
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In Windows: Windows (C:) > Users > Public > Solibri > SOLIBRI > Samples > IFC
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In MacOS: Applications > Solibri > Samples > IFC
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The Spaces.ito template
To start the tutorial:
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Open the IFC model and set the discipline to be Architectural.
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The Spaces.ito template is included in the resources of the Architectural Checking role, so we're going to use that role in this tutorial. For more information on roles in Solibri, see here. To select the role, click File > Roles > Open:
Select the Architectural Checking.xml role:
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Go to the Information Takeoff layout.
Next, we're going to extract the space information in the model by using the Spaces.ito template.
Each room is modeled as a space, located between slabs and bounded by walls, windows, doors or other spaces. You can use the Spaces.ito template to collect data on the designed areas within the building and ensure that the designed areas have been modeled according to the space program. You can also create lists of wall, floor and room areas or perimeters. This information is useful in, for example, calculating the materials that are needed for finishing and furnishing. Spaces are also required when you are checking accessibility and safety in the building.
The Spaces.ito example is set to list some general data of the spaces, such as location, usage defined by classification, total and average area and number of similar spaces. The color is set to visualize same type of spaces according to the classification.
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A dialog asking you to select the ITO definitions you want to use. Select Spaces and click OK:
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The Spaces ITO definition is now opened in the ITO view:
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To populate the table with information from the model, click Takeoff All in the ITO view toolbar. This option updates the current ITO table (i.e. Spaces) with all components of the model which pass the definition filter. A notification of an incomplete task pops up, but you can ignore this in this tutorial and click Takeoff Anyway:
This task notification is to ensure that you have analyzed and recorded all the issues which may effect the ITO calculation.
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Solibri reads the information in the model and the table in the ITO view is populated:
The Spaces.ito template focuses on floor areas. The default table shows basic information, such as:
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The name of the floor where the space is located.
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The classification name for each space, based on the Space usage.classification. This classification shows us the designed usage for the space.
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It shows the total floor area of each space, the average floor area of similar spaces, and the sum of the floor areas for similar spaces.
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The Count column shows how many space objects with similar classification name have been found.
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The colors of the Color column visualize the location of each space in 3D view.
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Now, you can analyze the data listed in the table: is any required information missing? Is there unnecessary information?
If you want to do changes, you can edit the ITO table. However, we advise to save the ITO with a new name, especially if someone else is using the same ITO. You can do this by clicking
in the ITO view toolbar.
You can collect more data into this table by adding more columns. To add a new column, right click the table and select Add New Column in the context menu. Then define the required data.
You can relocate the existing columns in the table by dragging and dropping them. You can also edit the headings and the data format.
Important
The order of the columns is significant and affects how data is extracted. The table is always read from left to right:
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To extract information from selected components or parts in the model, you can use the Takeoff Selected option. For example, if you only need the information from the spaces on the first floor:
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Go to the Model Tree view and click
to see the floors:
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Select the first floor and click
to set it to the Selection Basket. In the Selection Basket view, you can see that the floor is now set there:
The 3D image is also updated:
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Now, you need to also update the information in the ITO table. In the ITO view toolbar, select Takeoff Selected from the drop-down menu (again, ignore the task and click Takeoff Anyway).
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Now that you have used the selection basket, the ITO table is now populated with data from the first floor spaces only:
You can still add more columns and collect more data into this table by editing the content, as described in step 5.
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When you've edited the ITO table to include the data you wish to extract from the model, you can create a spreadsheet report.
To create the report:
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In the Information Takeoff view, click Report.
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A dialog opens:
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The report title suggested by Solibri is always the name of the current ITO, in this case Spaces. You can edit the name to your preferences.
Important
Ensure that the name of the report or template you're saving is different from any existing one, because a file with the same name will overwrite the existing report or template. No notification of this is displayed.
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You can select from two report types:
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Plain Excel report: the report is a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) report which includes all columns and rows from ITO view with no formatting:
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Template Excel report: ITO report templates already exist for the out-of-the-box ITO definitions that reside in the Information Takeoff folder of Solibri. The report can contain header rows, such as company colours, fonts and logos. The Color column is removed. The report can include have formulas and other Excel functions. ITO has a limit to the type of formulas one can have in the template. The limit depends on the type of information in the column.
Note that if you have edited the table in the Information Takeoff view, for example by adding new columns or changing the order, it no longer matches the Spaces.xlsx template. In this case, you need to edit the template before creating the report:
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Select the Spaces.xlsx template from the list and click Edit:
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The spreadsheet template opens:
Edit it to match the columns you have in the ITO view. If you need to insert a new column, add the name of the column between <_>, for example <Type>. The order of the columns must match the order in the ITO view. Save the template with a new name.
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Use the edited template to create the report.
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Select the report you wish to create and select Current ITO. Click Save Report. Specify the folder location and file name. Click Save As.