Does conditional formatting in a schedule work with a zero value?

[Mark_Engwirda]

Sometimes a area perimeter might not close after a modification to the design  so I thought I would make this more noticeable in the areas schedule, the result will always be 0.00m2

For some reason the background formatting in the schedule doesn't work with a zero value which seems odd?

Am I missing something or do I need to do a convoluted workaround?  

[yes_and_no]

How about <0.00000000000000000000001

[Mark_Engwirda]

Not even "between 1 and -1" works, it just doesn't like 0.0

[yes_and_no]

Nice to know.

[RDAOU]

@Mark_Engwirda 

Area Boundaries have a tolerance where even if they not close (to a certain extent) the area would still be deemed enclosed. See GIF Below:

• When the gap exceeds that tolerance (similar to what you described), the Area becomes NOT ENCLOSED  and this does not mean the Area became Zero. Hence, the conditional formatting you are using will not work and you will need to address it in a reversed approach by filtering the enclosed ones and leaving the not enclosed one out
• Technically speaking a ZERO area is nonexistent. AN area could be 0.0001 m2 or less maybe but not ZERO
• If the area has value, and it is within the 6 digits precision factor, conditional formatting can be applied in the schedule 

[Mark_Engwirda]

Thanks for the explanation RDAOU
Well 0.0m2 means it's not enclosed, anything else means that it is, so I
guess the idea wont work.

[RDAOU]

@Mark_Engwirda 

Not true. 

• Not encolsed means the area is not defined
• 0.0 m2 means that the area is smaller than what the project units are set to display. 

Hence, the answer to your original question, is: Yes, Conditional Formatting Works fine on Zero Values

[Mark_Engwirda]

Well, whatever it means it's not going to give the desired outcome for the
conditional formatting, such is life 🙂

Thanks again.

[Mark_Engwirda · Accepted solution]

I have figured out a workaround that works really well.

Set the conditional formatting as follow;

1. Condition Area !=0.00 m2
2. Background colour set to white, this works with both a white or dark canvas.

Format the column background  to anything other than white, I am using red.

The result is a red cell where the condition is 0.0m2, which is a unenclosed area.

See screenshot attached of the end result.

[Mark_Engwirda]

Hi RDAOU

If an area is unenclosed it will provide a "true zero value" in the schedule and that's the condition that I wish to conditional format.

Thanks for your help 🙂

[RDAOU]

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@Mark_Engwirda wrote:

Hi RDAOU

If an area is unenclosed it will provide a "true zero value" in the schedule and that's the condition that I wish to conditional format.

Thanks for your help 🙂

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@Mark_Engwirda 

That's not how "Not Enclosed" areas work. "Not Enclosed" is more like "does not exist" — programmatically speaking, it's more like a null than a zero.

The only way to achieve what you're trying to do is to reverse-format the field or column (ie: Format everything except the Not Enclosed Areas). However, since combined conditions can't be used, this approach would essentially render conditional formating in such schedule useless for other purposes.    

A simpler approach would be to sort and group the schedule. This will group the "Not Enclosed" entries together, make them more noticeable at the top of the schedule and saves the one chance at formating for something which might be of more relevance or importance

         

[Mark_Engwirda]

Thanks, if you look at the forum you will see that I have previously posted
this as the solution.

[Mike.FORM]

This is another reason why conditional formatting needs to be worked on so that any value that can be represented in a cell (like, not enclosed, null, is blank) has the option to test for.

[Mark_Engwirda]

Absolutely!