Start from a list or a model
- Open IDS editor and click the field at the top, or press Ctrl K. In the column Start from, choose A list of sets and properties. Beside it it says "Excel, CSV, or an IFC model's own sets".
- Choose the file: an Excel file, a CSV or TSV file, or an IFC model. You can also drop it anywhere on the page: the prompt says "Drop an IDS file, an IFC model or a list". A list is a small file, under 20 MB, and its first 20,000 rows are read.
- If the editor does not know the headings of your columns, a step asks Which column is what? Choose what each column holds: Set, Property, Class or Not read. Tick "The first row is the headings" if it is. Then choose Next, which says how many properties in how many sets it found. The editor knows its own column names, the Latvian ones (Datu kopa, Atribūts, Klase) and the columns of the predefined tests, and skips this step for them.
- Read the checklist. Its heading says how many properties in how many sets, with the file's name. One test is on at first: Every property has a value. Choose More kinds of test for Warn only, never fail and, for a model, also a test from the model's own values or ranges. They are off at first.
- Look at each set. It has a tick, which is partly ticked when only some of its properties are, its number of properties, and where it is checked, for example "on Spaces". Open a set to tick or untick its properties one by one.
- A set with no class column, and no model or standard set to take its elements from, says on: pick the elements. Choose it and give category names or IFC classes. It makes no rule until it has elements.
- Choose Make rules, which says how many it makes. Cancel leaves the table as it was. The new rows are marked new, and a note says how many rules were made from the file, with Undo, which takes it all back in one step.
From a model
An IFC model opens the same checklist, with the sets and properties the model carries. A property is ticked when it is filled on 90 percent of the elements of a category, as the editor's draft always did. Sets that an authoring tool adds for its own use are listed and left out, and say so. Instead of the file's rows, the sets show "8 of 12 filled", and the model's own values and ranges can be used to write the test.
If you make the list again
Made again from the same list, the note says there is nothing new: the table has every rule already.
What the rules are
Each property becomes an ordinary rule of its own, with the test you chose, so you can change it after, one cell or many together (How do I test many properties?).