By Garry Stockton
Are you aware of a tool in Navisworks called Appearance Profiler? You’ll find it on the Home Tab, then go to the Tools Pallet.
This underused tool allows you to set up custom colour profiles, based on sets (in the search and selection pallet). Use this great tool to colour code objects in the model to differentiate wall, door types or MEP system types and visually identify their status. The Appearance profiles can then be saved as DAT files and shared with other Autodesk Navisworks project users.
I find the best method of using the Appearance Profiler is with sets. Follow these simple steps:
- Open the Appearance Profile dialog.
- Click the By Set tab in the Selector area.
- Select the set you want to use in the list and click Test Selection. All objects that satisfy the criteria are selected in the Scene View.
- When you are happy with the results, use the Appearance area to configure the colour and transparency overrides for your selector.
- Click Add. The selector is now added to the Selector list.
- Repeat the steps until you have added all required selectors. Remember, the order of selectors in the list is important.
- Click Run. The objects in your model are now colour-coded.
If required, you can save the selectors to a .dat file for reuse on other Navisworks file sets and by other users. You can reset these overrides by clicking Home Tab> Project Panel > Reset All > Appearances.