Autodesk Navisworks

[#1]

I have a table with 600+ values, each corresponding to one unique object in my NW-model. I need to have each object in a separate set. Is there a way to create my searchsets-xml outside of NW and not have to enter each value into NW? Apart from the Value, all other search critieria are the same (i.e Category; Property; Condition)

[#2]

Thats what XML is designed for - creation, consumption, and modifications by different sources without knowing what they are.  If you know what the structure is you can create the XML equivalent, or start with a template and mofify it as necessary.

Automatically bringing those into Navisworks... that will probably require a plug-in to be built.

[#3]

I do know what it should look like - but I don't know how to create the xml-file. I figure, as long as the finished result looks like the file that Navisworks itself creates, there should be no problem importing it.

Also what confuses me, is that a GUID gets written into my xml-export... I've done some of the searches manually to have a template to look at. I don't know if this is the object's GUID, or if the search set gets a GUID, but I suspect it will be difficult to write a correct xml-code either way? See exctract below.

<selectionset name="G95_0281PUA_138-W22-25" guid="b42b0dd9-211c-4da6-a261-e295b3686af7">
          <findspec mode="all" disjoint="0">
            <conditions>
              <condition test="contains" flags="10">
                <category>
                  <name internal="lcldrvm_props">PDMS</name>
                </category>
                <property>
                  <name internal="lcldrvm_prop_pipe_no">Pipe_No</name>
                </property>
                <value>
                  <data type="wstring">G95_0281PUA_138-W22-25</data>
                </value>
              </condition>
            </conditions>
            <locator>/</locator>
          </findspec>
        </selectionset>

[#4]

The GUID is the unique ID of the selection set. However you can omit the GUID entry and Navisworks will generate a new one.

Hope that helps,

Jeff

[#5]

It does for me, I was thinking about generating a GUID since the XML would be generated programmatically anyways.  Generating the GUID would also have the benefit of being able to uniquely identify the selection sets outside of Navisworks as well as inside, avoiding the classic problem of "Why do I have 3 search sets all named XXXXX?".