Glossary¶

The words used in CamelGraph and in this guide, in alphabetical order. Each entry links to the page that explains it. If a word is about the Navisworks model rather than about CamelGraph, the entry says so.

A to B¶

Action: A step built by an Action.* node, such as Action.Isolate, Action.ZoomTo or Action.SaveViewpoint. Workflow.ForEach plays a list of actions for each item, one item completely before the next. See Save one viewpoint for every item. Action is also a socket kind.
Active document: The Navisworks document that is open. A Document input with nothing wired to it uses it, so the same graph works on whatever model you have open. See Concepts.
Appearance override: A change to how items look in Navisworks: a colour, a transparency or a hide. A permanent override is saved with the file and removed with Appearance.Reset or Appearance.ResetAll. A temporary override lasts until you reset it or close the view. See Running a graph.
Auto and Manual: The two run modes in the run bar. In Manual you press Run (F5). In Auto a run starts after every edit. See Running a graph.
Autosave: A safety copy of a script with unsaved changes, written about once a minute to %APPDATA%\CamelGraph\recovery and offered back after a crash. See Saving and opening.
BCF: BIM Collaboration Format: the vendor-neutral file for issues, a .bcfzip of topics with a title, status, comments, a camera and the elements involved. See Send clashes to BCF and IFC, BCF, Excel and CSV.
Bookmark: A named canvas position and zoom, saved in the script file (Ctrl+K). See The editor.
Breadcrumb bar: The bar at the top left of the canvas while a node group is open, such as My script ▸ Level colours. See Node groups.

C to D¶

Canvas: The middle of the editor, where nodes and wires live. See The editor.
Category: Two meanings. In the property sense it is a tab of the Navisworks Properties window, such as Element or Item; nodes ask for it as categoryName. In the library sense it is a folder of nodes. See Find the name of a tab or property and Node library and search.
Choice: An input node that offers a pick-list of your own options, one per line. It gives the chosen text and its position. In the Script Player it is a drop-down. See Give colleagues a form.
Clash test: A Clash Detective test in Navisworks Manage. CamelGraph reads and runs tests and their results with the Clash* nodes. See Make a clash report.
Command palette: A search box for every command, setting and canvas node, opened with Ctrl+Shift+P. See The editor.
Cross-Product: A lacing mode that pairs every item of one list with every item of the other, giving a list of lists. See Concepts.
Dashed wire: A wire that feeds a list into an input that wants one value, so the node runs once for each item. See Inputs, outputs and kinds.
Default: The value an optional input uses when nothing is wired and nothing is typed. It is shown in the socket tooltip and in the node library. See Inputs, outputs and kinds.
Document: A Navisworks document, and the socket kind for it (F). See Concepts.
.dyc: The file a graph is saved in: small, versioned, plain text (JSON). It stores nodes, wires and typed values, not results and not your model. See Saving and opening.

E to G¶

Error: The red node state: the node failed, its outputs are empty and nodes after it wait. See Read errors and warnings and Running a graph.
Executed: The node state of a node that ran fine.
Favourites: Nodes you starred in the library. They are pinned in a ★ Favourites folder and come first in searches. See Node library and search.
Frame: A coloured rectangle behind some nodes, made with Ctrl+G. It is for tidiness only and is not a node group. See The editor.
Freeze: Hold a node, and everything after it, at the results of its last run (Shift+M, badge FROZEN). See Running a graph and Speed up a slow graph.
Graph: What you build on the canvas: nodes joined by wires. Saved to disk it is a .dyc file. See Concepts.
Group Input and Group Output: The two special nodes inside an open node group. Their sockets are the group's inputs and outputs. See Node groups.

I to K¶

IFC GlobalId: The 22-character identity of an IFC element, such as 0$WU4A9R19$vKWO$AdOnKA. Other tools show it as a standard GUID. ModelItem.IfcGuid, IFC.GuidDecode and IFC.GuidEncode read and convert it. See IFC, BCF, Excel and CSV.
Idle: The node state of a node that has not run, or cannot run yet: a required input is empty, or a Flow.When before it was false. It is not an error. See Running a graph.
Input node: A node in the Input category that holds a value you type or pick: Number, Integer, Number Slider, Integer Slider, Boolean, String, Date, Choice, File Path, Directory Path and Color Picker. The Script Player turns them into form fields. See The Script Player.
Instance (node group): One use of a node group on the canvas. It looks like a normal node whose sockets are the group's interface. Editing the group changes every instance. See Node groups.
Instance GUID: The stable GUID of a model item, read by ModelItem.Info (its guid output) and matched by Search.ByGuid. See Find elements from a list of GUIDs.
Interface (node group): The list of inputs and outputs of a node group. See Node groups.
Item: A Navisworks model item (ModelItem): a thing in the model tree such as a wall or a pipe. Not to be confused with a node. See Concepts.
Kind: The type of data a socket carries (number, text, item, colour and so on), shown by its colour and, with Type letters in sockets on, by a letter. See Inputs, outputs and kinds.

L to M¶

Lacing: How two lists pair up when both go into one-value inputs: Shortest (the default), Longest or Cross-Product. Set it from the node's right-click menu. See Concepts.
Library: The panel on the left of the canvas that lists every node in a category tree, with a search box. See Node library and search.
List level (@L): A setting on an input that says which depth of a nested list it takes: @L1 is the individual items, @L2 the lists of items. It also makes an input of kind Any run once for each item. See Concepts and Write spreadsheet data onto model items.
Loop: Everything wired between Loop.Item and Loop.Collect runs once for each item, in order. See Save one viewpoint for every item.
Magnifier: The small search button next to a tab or property box. It lists names from one element. See Find the name of a tab or property.
Minimap: A small overview of the canvas in the bottom right corner (Ctrl+M). See The editor.
ModelItem: See Item.
Multi-input: A pill-shaped socket that takes any number of wires and combines them into one list. See Inputs, outputs and kinds.
Mute: Bypass a node (M, badge MUTED): each output passes along the first input of a matching kind and everything after it still runs. A muted wire is ignored alone. See Running a graph.

N to O¶

Node: One step of a graph, with inputs on the left and outputs on the right. Not to be confused with a Navisworks item. See Concepts and the node library.
Node group: A few nodes packed into one reusable node with its own inputs and outputs, stored in the .dyc file. See Node groups and Make and reuse a node group.
Node pack: An extra library of nodes, loaded from a Packages folder. A pack is code, so install packs only from authors you trust. See Writing your own nodes and Privacy and safety.
Note: A yellow sticky note on the canvas for explaining a graph. See The editor.
Output: A socket on the right of a node that carries a result. One output can feed many inputs. See Inputs, outputs and kinds.

P to R¶

Pass-through: Nodes that change the model give back the items they were given on an output with the same name, so you can chain them. See Inputs, outputs and kinds.
Personal use and Professional copy: The two editions of CamelGraph. The copy from GitHub or bimcamel.com is free for personal use. The professional copy, for work, is coming soon to the Autodesk App Store. See Licence.
Pill: See Multi-input.
Player: See Script Player.
Problems list: The list of every node that failed or warned in the last run, errors first (Ctrl+Shift+E). See Read errors and warnings.
Property: A named value on a model item, inside a category. Nodes ask for it as propertyName.
Quick search: The small search box that opens when you press Space over the canvas. See Node library and search.
Reading node and writing node: A reading node only looks at the model (Search.*, Properties.*). A writing node changes the model, a file, a program or the web. See Concepts.
Replication: When a list goes into an input that wants one value, the node runs once for each item and gives a list of results. See Concepts.
Reroute: A small waypoint on a wire that bends it. See The editor.
Run: Execute the nodes that changed since the last run (F5). See Running a graph.
Run up to a node: Run only the selected nodes and what they depend on, then stop (Shift+F5). See Running a graph.

S to T¶

Saved viewpoint: A named view in the Navisworks Saved Viewpoints window: a camera, and optionally the overrides. Viewpoint.Save makes them (with or without the overrides). See Save one viewpoint for every item.
Script: A graph kept in a folder the Script Player knows. See Saving and opening.
Script Player: A pane that runs a saved graph from a simple form built from its input nodes, without opening the editor. See The Script Player.
Search set: A live Navisworks set that stores a rule and re-evaluates as the model changes. SelectionSet.CreateFromSearch and SelectionSets.BulkByPropertyValues make them. See Save selection sets.
Selection set: A saved Navisworks set of the items it was given, listed in the Sets window. SelectionSet.Create makes one. See Save selection sets.
Socket (port): The connection point on a node: inputs on the left, outputs on the right. Its colour is its kind and its shape says one value or a list. See Inputs, outputs and kinds.
Start screen: The screen on an empty canvas with cards for a new script, recent scripts and examples, the version and update notice. See The editor.
State: What a node shows after a run: idle, executed, warning or error, plus frozen and muted. See Running a graph.
Table: Data in columns with names and rows of cells, made by Properties.ToTable, Table.FromRows, Table.FromExcelFile and others, and changed by the Table.* nodes. See Take quantities out to Excel.
Type letters: The optional letter inside each socket that names its kind (Settings ▸ Appearance ▸ Type letters in sockets). See Settings.

U to Z¶

Warning: The amber node state: the node ran with a recoverable problem, or an input node before it failed. See Running a graph.
Watch: A display node that shows the value wired into it: Watch, Watch List, Watch Table and Watch Image. The Script Player shows their values after a run. See Inputs, outputs and kinds.
Wire: The line from an output to an input that carries a value. Data flows from left to right. See Concepts.
Zero-touch: A node written as a public static C# method with a few attributes. The built-in libraries and node packs are made this way. Nodes with controls of their own, such as the sliders and the Watch nodes, are written differently. See Writing your own nodes.