Find Items - "not contains" condition

[j.rodeschini]

Hi,

I would like to use "Find Items" and then save search for the clash detection.

I would like selected all the objectfs of a model except those who are called "Alimentation" because I don't want to use them in the clash detection. In the Find Items window, I can use the contains condition, but there is not "not contains" condition.

Any idea?

Thanks 

[L.Maas · Accepted solution]

 

If you right click on that line you get a contextual menu. Then there is an option that say "Negate Condition". That should help

[j.rodeschini]

Thank you Louis. If I use the negative condition, the elements I don't want are not selected in the list (thats OK) but they are still selected in the 3D window and they don't disappear when I use the "hide the non selected elements".

[lumbera_darwin]

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@j.rodeschini wrote:

Thank you Louis. If I use the negative condition, the elements I don't want are not selected in the list (thats OK) but they are still selected in the 3D window and they don't disappear when I use the "hide the non selected elements".

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Hi @j.rodeschini ,

Looking at your Selection Tree it seems that you want to find items with the Collection Icon "".

Try this in your find items:

It means that Find Items will match the objects that are collections and does not contain ALIM.

If you do not include the first condition, "find items" will look for the objects regardless of what icon it is (group, composite object, geometry, etc.).

See the link below for the Reference for Selection Tree:

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/navisworks-products/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/20...

In case your model is exported from Revit, I normally used "Element" category to find items same as this.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Dar

[j.rodeschini]

Hi lumbera.darwin,

Thank you for your response. I work with ifc models and I don't think that the problem comes from the property in "Find items". You can see below all the windows:

- find items: I use only one condition with Element and I want to select all items with a name which not contains "Attente"

- selection tree: collection/objects with "Attente" are not selected = it seems to work

- 3D window: objects are still selected and I don't know why...

[lumbera_darwin]

Hi @j.rodeschini ,

I would appreciate it if you could give me an NWD file (you can set a password and expiration) for me to check the problem. If this is okay with you.

Regards,

Dar

[lumbera_darwin]

Hi @j.rodeschini ,

It seems that I found the problem now. In your selection tree, can you check if the IFC file "2976-DVL-017-MAQ-0001.ifc" is highlighted? If it is also highlighted then it means that all elements under the model will also be selected.

From the condition you put in the "Find Items", if you negate the condition, it will look for the objects regardless if it has an Element Name property or not.

Try to add the condition "Element > Name > Defined" (but don't negate this) after your first condition, so your Find Items will look only for the objects that have an Element category and Name property defined and filter-out those that don't have. 

Regards,

Dar

[j.rodeschini]

Hi lumbera.darwin,
I appreciate your quick responses.

[It seems that I found the problem now. In your selection tree, can you check if the IFC file "2976-DVL-017-MAQ-0001.ifc" is highlighted? If it is also highlighted then it means that all elements under the model will also be selected.]
Yes the file is only highlighted when I use the negative condition, but all the elements are not highlighted in the selection tree, only in the 3d window (you can see my last picture above). That is what I don't understand.


[From the condition you put in the "Find Items", if you negate the condition, it will look for the objects regardless if it has an Element Name property or not.]
Ok, no problem. I just want to not selected several objects.

[lumbera_darwin]

[It seems that I found the problem now. In your selection tree, can you check if the IFC file "2976-DVL-017-MAQ-0001.ifc" is highlighted? If it is also highlighted then it means that all elements under the model will also be selected.]
Yes the file is only highlighted when I use the negative condition, but all the elements are not highlighted in the selection tree, only in the 3d window (you can see my last picture above). That is what I don't understand.

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Since you negate the condition. Navisworks will look for objects that passed the condition. So the IFC file itself (is also an object that does not have Element Name = Attente) passed that condition.

The logic in the selection tree, if you select the file itself, all the objects inside will be selected. So even if you find that the objects are not highlighted in the selection but the parent file (IFC) is still highlighted, all objects under that file are selected.

[From the condition you put in the "Find Items", if you negate the condition, it will look for the objects regardless if it has an Element Name property or not.]
Ok, no problem. I just want to not selected several objects.

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Adding the condition Element > Name > Defined, you are not selecting several objects but filtering the objects.

Any objects that do not have an "Element" category with "Name" property will be filtered out in your find items or not be selected. Since the IFC does not have this, then it will be excluded from the selection. That's why it is very important to add this condition.

Whenever you're using the negate condition, it should always be done like this.

If you negate a condition that looks for an element name that contains a particular text, then you should always add a condition to look only for the objects that have the element name defined.

Hope I made it clear to you.

Regards,

Dar

[j.rodeschini]

Since you negate the condition. Navisworks will look for objects that passed the condition. So the IFC file itself (is also an object that does not have Element Name = Attente) passed that condition.

The logic in the selection tree, if you select the file itself, all the objects inside will be selected. So even if you find that the objects are not highlighted in the selection but the parent file (IFC) is still highlighted, all objects under that file are selected

Ok I understand now this point 

Adding the condition Element > Name > Defined, you are not selecting several objects but filtering the objects.

Any objects that do not have an "Element" category with "Name" property will be filtered out in your find items or not be selected. Since the IFC does not have this, then it will be excluded from the selection. That's why it is very important to add this condition.

Ok but the ifc file has a lot of property which are the same than objects in the model (Element / name for example). It's very difficult to find a property which are not in the ifc file.

I try to use the same research that you want me to try:

When using "collection" property, the ifc file is not selected. Objects are not selected in the selection tree but still selected in the model because "2976", "default", ... are still highlighted.

The way to do research with the entire file is not useful at all when we want to research some proporties in the objects only...

Which property can I use to be sure that I can find it only in the objects? I can't find anything. 

[lumbera_darwin]

Hi @j.rodeschini ,

Can you forward an NWD if it's okay with you? I'll give it a try.

One IFC should be enough for me to look into it.

Regards,

Dar

[lumbera_darwin · Accepted solution]

@j.rodeschini ,

Looking at the image you've provided, you could go deeper instead of using "Collection"

Since the object pointed by the arrow in the image below has also the name Attente, you can change the Icon would be equals to "Geometry" instead of Collection.

You can go deep down on the objects layers from Collection to Geometry so could filter out unnecessary objects.

[j.rodeschini]

Thank you lumbera.darwin, I was sending you the ifc model but it works with your last response 🙂

I think I will use only geometry when I will want to select objects before clash detection by example. Do you see any problems with this method?

[lumbera_darwin]

I think it should not have any problem as Clash Detective will look for objects that are clashing will each other.

The "Search Sets" is a collection of objects. The Model file itself is also a collection of objects.