Support site for Simplebim® users
We often get requests from customers for functionality that solves some specific problem. The Prototypes add-on is a place where we can quickly and easily implement and publish such functionality without cluttering Simplebim. Prototypes, like the name implies, do not go through the same testing process as functionality in the standard product. Often functionality matures in the Prototypes add-on and is then later included in some way in the standard product.
The Prototypes add-on contains the following modules (version 9.0 / 1.4.2022)
Tool for renaming groups of a given type that have a name that matches a given pattern.
| Key |
TARGET Defines the target of the operation, i.e. the groups that might be renamed by the tool. For example TARGET=ZONE specifies that only groups mapped to IfcZone may be renamed. |
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| Value |
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| Key |
OLD_NAME The name of the group that should be renamed. The name comparison is case insensitive, i.e. ABC=abc |
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| Value | Any text | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Key |
NEW_NAME The new name of the group |
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| Value | Any text | ||||||||||||||||||||
Tool for trimming the name of groups. This tool is useful when you want to trim for example an unwanted prefix from the name of type objects (which are groups in Simplebim)
| Key |
TARGET Defines the target of the operation, i.e. the groups that might be deleted by the tool. For example TARGET=ZONE specifies that only groups mapped to IfcZone may be deleted. |
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| Value |
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| Key |
REGEX |
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| Value |
The regular expression that selects the part of the group name that you want to trim (remove). Examples
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Tool for deleting groups of a given type that have a name that matches a given pattern. This tool is useful for deleting groups that you don't need, which makes IFC file sizes smaller and speeds up operations inside Simplebim.
| Key | Type | Value | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| TARGET | Text |
Default = ALL |
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| PATTERN | Text | The pattern the name of the target group must match to be deleted. Default = * |
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Tool for merging several groups with a similar name into a new group. Creates a new group with a given name, copies all objects from all groups where the name matches a given pattern and finally deletes the original groups from which the objects were copied.
The new group is of the same type as the groups from which the objects were copied. For example when objects are copied from Zone -groups the new group will also be a Zone. If there is a mismatch in the group type, for example you try merge Zones and Systems the operation will fail and no new group is created and no existing groups are deleted.
| Key |
TARGET Defines the target of the operation, i.e. the groups that might be merged by the tool. For example TARGET=ZONE specifies that only groups mapped to IfcZone may be merged. |
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| Value |
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| Key |
NAME The name of the new group |
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| Value | Any text | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Key |
PATTERN The pattern the name of the target group must match to be merged |
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| Value |
The value may contain the wild cards * and ?. Examples
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Tool for calculating the value of a numeric property from up to 3 other numeric properties using a formula.
| Key |
OBJECTCLASS The name of the object class for which the property values are calculated |
| Value | Any valid object class name |
| Key |
A The name or key of the first property used in the formula |
| Value |
Name or key of a numeric property that exists for the specified object class |
| Key |
B The name or key of the second property used in the formula. This key does not have to be given if the formula only uses one property. |
| Value |
Name or key of a numeric property that exists for the specified object class. |
| Key |
C The name or key of the third property used in the formula. This key does not have to be given if the formula only uses two properties. |
| Value |
Name or key of a numeric property that exists for the specified object class |
| Key |
FORMULA The formula used for calculating the value of the target property |
| Value |
The formula supports all mathematical operator and parenthesis. The variables A, B and C may be used in the formula to represent the properties defined by the corresponding configuration keys. Examples
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| Key |
TARGETPROPERTY The name or key of the numeric property into which the result of the formula is written |
| Value |
Name or key of a numeric property that exists for the specified object class |
Tool for combining text values from up to 5 properties using a formula. The functionality is similar to what can be done with the Property Value Combiner palette.
| Key |
OBJECTCLASS The name of the object class for which the property values are calculated |
| Value | Any valid object class name |
| Key |
A The name or key of the first property used in the formula |
| Value |
Name or key of a text property that exists for the specified object class |
| Key |
B The name or key of the second property used in the formula. This key does not have to be given if the formula only uses one property. |
| Value |
Name or key of a text property that exists for the specified object class. |
| Key |
C The name or key of the third property used in the formula. This key does not have to be given if the formula only uses two properties. |
| Value |
Name or key of a text property that exists for the specified object class |
| Key |
D The name or key of the fourth property used in the formula. This key does not have to be given if the formula only uses three properties. |
| Value |
Name or key of a text property that exists for the specified object class |
| Key |
E The name or key of the fifth property used in the formula. This key does not have to be given if the formula only uses four properties. |
| Value |
Name or key of a text property that exists for the specified object class |
| Key |
FORMULA The formula used for calculating the value of the target property |
| Value |
The formula supports many of the text functions in Excel. The variables A, B and C may be used in the formula to represent the properties defined by the corresponding configuration keys. The variables must be enclosed in square brackets like in the example below. Please contact Datacubist support if you need more help on the formula. Examples
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| Key |
TARGETPROPERTY The name or key of the text property into which the result of the formula is written |
| Value |
Name or key of a numeric property that exists for the specified object class |
The example below combines the values of the Space Name and Space Number properties into t he Description property such that the space number follows the space name on brackets.
Tool for adding information about the geometric density of objects to the model. This helps you find objects that have complex geometries and thus bloat model and file sizes.
The tool adds two new properties to each object that has geometry
Using the Properties palette
Using the Appearance Editor workspace
Alias: Save GUIDs to File
Tool for writing the IFC GUIDs (Globally Unique IDs) of all selected objects into a text file. This allows you to move object selections, like included or excluded objects, between different versions of the same model.
When this tool is run from a template or script it writes the IFC GUIDs of all included objects that have a geometry. In this scenario the file name must be given with the FILE_NAME parameter because the tool is run silently and no file save dialog is shown.
Alias: Load GUIDs from File
Tool for loading the GUIDs (Globally Unique IDs) of objects from a text file and selecting the corresponding objects. The file can be created with the Save Selected GUIDs to File -tool or it can be created by any other method as long as the file is a simple text file containing valid IFC GUIDs.
When this tool is run from a template or script it can be configured to perform also other actions than selecting the objects with the GUIDs from the file. In this scenario the file name must be given with the FILE_NAME parameter because the tool is run silently and no file open dialog is shown. The action is given with the ACTION parameter.
| Key | Value | Description |
| FILE_NAME | The name of the file with path and extension | Specifies the text file to load |
| ACTION | INCLUDE | Includes objects with the GUIDs from the file |
| EXCLUDE | Excludes objects with the GUIDs from the file | |
| NDY | Sets the status of objects with the GUIDs from the file to Not Decided Yet |
Tool for removing all author and software identification information from the model. All information in the header, person. organization, application, actor role, postal address and telecom address objects that could be used for determining the author of the model, is replaced with random strings. Random strings are used to make it visible in the resulting IFC dataset that this information has been removed on purpose. The random strings do not contain any encrypted data, but are truly random.
The resulting dataset will still contain the information that it has been edited by Simplebim.
If the model contains identification information in other places, such a custom properties such information must be removed separately using the generic property editing tools in Simplebim.
This tool is useful when the model can't contain any information about the author, for example when models are submitted to a architectural competition.
Tool for querying information about the geometry of objects and adding this information to the objects as property data.
The type geometric representation of objects can be an important factor when importing IFC into various applications. Not all applications support all ways of representing geometry in IFC and it is good to know in advance if the import can work. The geometric representation can also contain useful information, like profile definitions, for quantity take-off and other analysis.
All properties added by this tool are post-fixed with '(geometry)'.
| Property | Description | ||||||||||||
| Geometry Type |
The basic type of the 3D geometry.
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| Identifier |
The Representation Identifier of the IfcRepresentation from which the information is collected. If the geometry is shared (mapped) the identifier is post-fixed with '(shared'). The typical value for the Identifier of 3D geometry is 'Body' |
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| Profile Name | The name of the profile from the ProfileName property of the IFC profile definition. For example for steel profiles this is typically the local standard name of the steel profile. | ||||||||||||
| Profile Type |
The type of the profile based on the class of the IFC profile definition. The value is one of the following,
Different profile types can have additional properties specific to that profile type, for example a 'Rectangle' profile has the 'X Dim' and 'Y Dim' properties and a 'Circle' profile has a 'Radius'. |
Tool for converting objects from one object class to another.Please note that currently this tool converts all objects of a given object class. The intention is to allow a more precise selection of the objects to be converted.
| Key | SOURCE |
| Value |
A name of a group or the key of the source object class, i.e. the object class from which you convert. Please note that for object classes this must currently be the key, not the name. If you want to convert only selected objects (not all objects of an object class), first create a group containing the objects you want to convert and use the name of the group as the source. You can get the of the object class from the Objects palette. Select the Object Class, right click and select Copy Key from the popup menu. Then paste the key into the tool configuration. |
| Key |
TARGET |
| Value |
The key of the target object class, i.e. the object class to which you convert. Please note that this must currently be the key, not the name. |
| Key |
TARGET_PREDEFINED_TYPE |
| Value |
The value of the Predefined Type property on the target object class. If you were for example converting a building element proxy to a furniture, you may want to specify that the Predefined Type of the resulting furniture is DESK. |
| Key |
TARGET_USER_DEFINED_TYPE |
| Value |
The value of the Object Type property on the target object class. If you were for example converting a building element proxy to a furniture, you may want to specify that the Object Type of the resulting furniture is DRESSER. In this case the Predefined Type is automatically set to USERDEFINED. |
| Key |
MAP |
| Value |
A pipe character i.e. | delimited list of property identity keys. The first value is the key of a property on the source object class and the second value the key of a property on the target object class. The values from the first property are copied to the values of the second property. The 3rd value is again the key of a property on the source object class, the fourth value the key of a property on the target object class and so on. NOTE: Providing the MAP is optional. By default all properties that exist both on the source and target tables are copied from source to target. The MAP provides a way to override this behavior for selected properties. |
| Key |
INCLUDE_CONVERTED |
| Value |
By default the converted objects are left in the Not Decided Yet state. By adding this key you can set all converted objects to the Included state. |
Tool for deleting all material information from the model.
Tool for querying information about the appearance of objects and adding this information to the objects as property data.
By adding the appearance information as property data it can be used for making selections and for automating operations in templates. The color could for example be used as a criterion in grouping objects for quantity take-off and transparency for determining the type of a facade element for energy analysis.
| Property | Description |
| Appearance Color |
The RGB value of the color. The format is: <red>;<green>;<blue> |
| Appearance Transparency | The transparency as a whole number ranging from 0 to 100, where 100 means completely transparent |
Tool for adding information to all objects about the text encoding used text properties. Adding this information is useful if using for example unicode characters is not allowed in some BIM requirements. In this scenario you would run this tool and set validation rules that reject the Unicode value.
The tool adds two properties to the objects:
Palette for selecting a branch of a HVAC system. You select one object from the system in the 3D window and the selection is expanded within the system either upstream or downstream from the object you selected,
