Write a rule, step by step
- Look at the top row of the table. It writes a new rule and starts on All elements, so nothing in it needs fixing before you begin.
- Choose the Applies to cell. It opens small: a search, All elements first, then the categories of the loaded model with their counts (the common ones, such as Walls and Doors, without a model). Tick a category to limit the rule to it.
- Fill in the Property set, Property, Data type, Value and Need cells one after another with Tab. Each opens only its own editor under it.
- Choose Add rule, or press Ctrl Enter. The rule joins the table. The top row keeps its categories, conditions and property set, ready for the next property of the same set.
- To change a rule, choose one of its cells, or move to it with Tab and press Enter. A change is made as you go, and Undo (or Ctrl Z) takes it back.
- Choose Keys, by the heading, for the keys of the table.
The columns
The columns say a rule in order: Applies to, Property set, Property, Data type, Value and Need. Each column's header counts its values, such as how many property sets the IDS uses. Less used columns wait under Columns: Only those with, Instructions, Spec, and Phase when the IDS has phases.
- Applies to lists the element categories by plain name, with their IFC classes, and under them what the rule is limited to. Browse all categories opens the whole list by discipline. + Only those with limits the rule to the elements that have a property, an attribute, a classification or a material: each is one line, written under the categories as "with IsExternal = True", and you point at it to see the property set. IDS has no word for "all elements": All elements is written as the classes of every element category.
- Property set is one text field under the kind of rule: a property set, quantities, name and attributes, a classification, a material, a location, or the class and type. Click the heading to change the kind. Leave the field empty for any set, type a name, or type a pattern such as
Pset_.+, which gets a small tag. The model's sets come first, then the standard sets of the rule's categories. When a set belongs to a few kinds of element only, such as Pset_WallCommon on All elements, one line offers to limit the rule to them. - Property is a field with the properties of the set.
- Data type starts at Automatic: the model's type, else the standard's.
- Value is a kind and a value on one line. Empty means any value.
- Need says Required, Optional (if the element has it, it must match) or Not allowed, with Warning only under them. Optional and Not allowed need a named set.
A cell the editor cannot change, a rare form written by another tool, says why and is written back as it was.
To give one rule's test to many other properties, or one test to a whole property set, see How do I test many properties?.
One rule or one specification
Rules that share their elements and conditions are written into one IDS specification. The Spec column numbers them as the file will (S1, S2, and so on), and choosing it lets you name one. A rule moved onto other elements joins the specification already written for them, or starts one of its own.
Group, filter and hide columns
Group by turns the same rules into groups without changing the IDS: by IFC class (as class lists, or each class on its own, where a rule for several classes shows under each, with its counts for that class), by Property set or, for a predefined test in stages, by Phase. "Then by" adds a second level. Each group's header says how many rules it holds, in how many specifications of the file, and with a model how they do. Its tick chooses all its rules, and "+ New rule in" at its end starts the top row with the group's value.
Filter keeps only the rules that fail on the model, warn, have a problem to fix, apply to no element or repeat another. The search finds rules by their classes, sets, properties and values. Columns shows and hides columns. The browser remembers how you grouped the table and which columns you showed or hid.