Understanding Navisworks Search Sets

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Search Set vs Selection Set

In short, a Selection Set relies on selections made from the Selection Tree, Find Items (left window), or manually selecting items in the model. Once a selection of items has been made, it can be saved as a Set. The problem I have had with Selection sets is that they are fairly static and typically only work with the specific selections being made. Which makes it more difficult to use the same sets on multiple projects with different models.

A Search Set is basically the same thing as a View Filter in Revit. You're just doing it in Navisworks. Using the Properties and Find Items window, content can be filtered by category, item type and/or other parameters available. The resulting selection can then be saved as a Set. Since the set is based on element properties and parameters, it can be saved and applied to other projects regardless of the models appended.

Creating a Search Set

Start by opening the properties window. This will help identify items and their properties to Search for or by. Select an item in the appended model and look at the Properties window. All the information you need to make a search set is right there. For search Sets to be used in Clash Detective, I like to keep them basic. Most clash tests are against basic things like Air Terminals vs Light Fixtures or Duct vs Pipe, etc… Start by selecting an item in the model. For this example, I’ll select a Light Fixture.

• With the item selected, open the Properties and Find Items windows.

In the Properties window, there are a handful of Tabs that will provide all the information you’ll need to filter this item. For making Search Sets, I find most of what I need in the Elements tabs.

In the Find Items window: Select the Category dropdown option Select a parameter from the Element tab to filter by For most Search Sets, I find Element, Item, or Type are good starts for this example, I’ll select Element

Under the Property column, select the element Property to filter. For this example, I’ll select Category

Under the Condition column, there will be different condition options to filter by. For this example, I’ll select equals (=) Now we need to set the Value to equal For this example, I’ll select Lighting Fixtures.

At this point, we are selecting all Elements that Category, Equals, Lighting Fixture. To test this, select the Find All button in the lower left corner of the window. You should see all the light fixtures in the model highlight.

To save the Set for future use, open the Sets window.

• In the Sets window, select the Binoculars icon to save the search.
• Name it according to what the search is for, in this case, Lighting Fixtures.
• You can now pick Select None and use that Named Set to select all the lighting fixtures in the model.

Now comes the fun part. Repeat these steps for EVERY category option and variant you need to run clashes against. In my standard setup, I have 85+/- Search Sets that I used to create around 200 Clash Tests. 

Search sets can be as simple or complicated as you like, depending on what you're looking for. Let's say you want to find all your Supply Duct connected to the VAV01 unit. Do the same steps as above, but this time pick  Element, System Class, Contains, Supply Air. This will select all the supply duct in the project.

However, what I want is a specific Duct System and all its components in that specific system. So, let's try this again… We’re going to keep the same first line in the search. But we are going to add another line to filter the selection even more. Think of it as an AND option in a Revit filter.

In the same Find Items window, start a second line. Under category, select Element Under Property, select System Name Under Condition select Contains In the Value, in this instance, I’m going to enter VAV01

The first line selects all the elements with a system class that have Supply in the name. The second line is narrowing down the selection by specifying that the System Name must contain VAV01.

Now that you have some experience making a Search Set, create a list of all the items you would want to clash against. Create and save separate search sets for each item type. With a library of Search Sets, you can now use them to create Tests to run in the Clash Detective. 

Next we’ll look at how to create Tests and export them for use on different projects.