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Object Filters and Model Tree

Model filters allow you to exclude elements from models based on default basic filters, or by configuring advanced filters by using complex rules. You can use any property for basic and advanced filters and the remaining elements can be saved as a view. This assists model review, clash detection, and issue resolution using a refined data set. Use filters with object colors and the object table to help you focus in on specific design elements or areas of interest, and increase the efficiency of your review processes.

Access Filters and Model Tree

In the viewer, click the Model browser tab to view the filters and model tree.

Apply Basic Filters

A few basic filters are displayed by default. Click Show more to view all basic filters.

The basic filters available depend on the file types that you have open, and the properties that were defined in the model in the respective authoring tool. If you have a combination of file types open, some filters will only apply to certain models. The table below maps the default basic filters to the properties they derive from in RVT, IFC, and DWG.

Basic filter RVT IFC DWG
Disciplines Revit discipline (grouped by category) n/a n/a
System or Assembly Identity data, Assembly description Identity data, Assembly description Region 1 data or assembly
Category category or _RC (Revit category) Element, category, or IfcClass General or layer
Family category or _RFN (Revit family name) Item, type, other, or family n/a
Type category, _RFT (Revit family type) IFC type or IfcName [Type] n/a

  1. Select filters and choose the elements you want to include in the view.

    Tip: Select the Empty or undefined filter option to include all model elements that don't apply to the selected filters, or that have no value defined for the property.

    Clashes and issues related to the selected elements are available for review. Deselected elements are excluded from the view, and their associated clashes and issues aren't displayed.

Edit Basic Filters

If the default basic filters don't meet your needs, click Edit basic filters to reorder filters and create custom basic filters based on model properties.

  1. Use the search field to search for the required model property.
  2. Select the property to add it to the list of filters at the top of the dialog box.
  3. Drag the selected filters to control the order in which they appear on the Model browser panel. You can also deselect the default filters so they no longer appear.
  4. Click Update to save your selection to the Model browser panel.

Create and Apply Advanced Filters

You can create custom rule-based filters where each consists of a property, operator, and a value. Click the drop-downs below to see more details:

Property

Choose from the properties in your models. Property options in this drop-down will depend on the file types you have loaded into the viewer. Supported types of properties include text, number, and boolean properties. See the following table which maps common names for properties to the actual property names in RVT, IFC, and DWG files.

Common names for properties RVT property IFC property DWG property
Category Internal/Category Element/IfcClass General/Layer
Assembly Identity Data/Assembly Description N/A N/A
Family Internal/Family Name N/A N/A
Type Identity/Family Type Element/Ifc Name N/A

Operator

The operators you can choose depend on the selected property's type:

Property Operator Description
Text Is / is not Is is used to match a property to a specific value and is not where it doesn't match. Select values from the Value drop-down list. Selecting multiple values will filter for objects that meet any one of those values.
Contains / does not contain
 The entered value is checked against the parameter value
Starts with:
Determines whether a property starts with a specific text string. This operator is useful for filtering large sets of data where members want to focus on a specific subset of records
Is empty / is not empty: Check whether a property has a value or not. The is empty operator returns true if the property doesn't have a value, and the is not empty operator returns true if the property has a value. Sometimes, "space values" (for example, blank or null values) are considered values for these operators, so they would still be considered not empty.
Numeric Equals / not equals (= or ≠) Compare two values and determine if they are the same (equals) or different (not equals).
Greater than / less than (< or >) Compare two values and determine if the first value is larger (greater than) or smaller (less than) than the second value.
Greater than or equal to / less than or equal to (≤ or ≥) Determine if the first value is larger than or equal to (greater than or equal to) or smaller than or equal to (less than or equal to) the second value.
Is empty / is not empty Check whether a property has a value or not. Is empty returns true if the property does not have a value, and is not empty returns true if the property has a value. Sometimes, "space values" (for example, blank or null values) are considered values for these operators, so they would still be considered not empty.
Boolean Is true
 The Is true boolean filter operator is used to retrieve objects that have a true value in a boolean field. When this filter is applied, it will only include records where the boolean field is set to true.
Is false
 The Is false boolean filter operator is used to retrieve objects that have a false value in a boolean field. When this filter is applied, it will only include records where the boolean field is set to false.
Is null The Is null boolean filter operator is used to retrieve objects where a particular field does not have any value or is empty (null). This filter is helpful when you want to find objects that lack a value in a specific field.

Value

The value field is the part of the rule that specifies the criteria or parameter against which the filter will be applied. This field can contain various types of values, depending on the specific property being filtered. For numeric values, use the same units as the selected property units. Only 256 characters are allowed for fields without drop-down values..

  1. Click Add a rule under Advanced filters.

  2. Create your first rule part defining a property, operator, and value.

  3. You can extend the first rule part by clicking + and adding another rule part as required. Two or more rule parts added together create a filter rule.

  4. Add more rule parts as required to the filter rule by clicking +.

    Multiple filter rules can be built and joined by a logical operator (and/or). The logical operator will determine whether a model object must pass all rule part conditions or one set of filter conditions to be displayed.

  5. Click Add a rule to join your filter rule to another.

  6. Choose between and/or. This selection will be applied to all filter rules in this view.

    Once a logical operator is selected between the first and second filter rule, the same operator will be applied by default to subsequent filter rules. Keep this in mind as you build out your filter rules.

    Note: You can only create a maximum of 100 rule parts and filter rules for a single view.#

Example use for advanced filters

Suppose you want to create a view focused on the structural columns in a structural model.

  1. In the property field, search for Category and choose Internal/Category.

    Note: This property comes from the categories in Revit. IFor an IFC or other file format, see the table above for useful properties to filter by.

  2. Keep the operator Is and choose the value Revit Structural columns.

    Note: To avoid the Revit prefix on values, use the property Internal/Category Name instead.

    Suppose you also have structural columns in your architectural model, and you want to ensure we are filtering only to columns in the structural model.

  3. Extend the first rule part by clicking + directly under the rule.

  4. Use the property Internal/Model name, the operator Contains, and the value Struct.

    Note: Ensure that you use the correct capitalization entering the Contains value.

    You have now filtered the view to only the structural columns in the structural model.

    Suppose you want a view that contains structural columns and ducts, so that you can check for clashes between these two specific sets of objects.

  5. Click Select models and add the HVAC model into the viewer.

  6. Add a new rule to the advanced filters.

  7. Set the joining operator to Or so that the filter can find both structural columns and ducts.

  8. Use property Internal/Category again, with the operator Is and the value Revit Ducts.

    You now have a view of the structural columns and ducts in your models.

  9. Navigate to the Clashes tab and set the Primary model to one of the models of interest (for example, the structural model) to view clashes between the structural columns and the ducts.

Remove Filters

To remove all advanced filters and the value from basic filters, click the X icon at the top of the Model browser panel, or use the reset option in the viewer.

Delete any rule from the advanced filters by using the trash icon. If it is the only rule part in the filter rule, the rule part and its filter rule will both be removed.

Model Tree

While filters exclude objects from your model, you can choose to control the visibility of objects by using Show and Hide in the Model tree.

Note: Changes you make to the visibility of objects in the Model tree are not saved when you create a view.

  1. Click the handle under the filters and drag up to view the Model tree.

  2. Click the icon next to an object grouping to show or hide all objects in the grouping.

  3. Click > next to an object grouping to show all the subgrouping objects which you can also show and hide.

    Tip: You can all show all objects by right clicking in the viewer and selecting Show all objects.

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