Colour elements by a property

Goal: paint model items by what a property says, first with one colour for a match, then with a different colour for every value.

Before you start

• Open a model in Navisworks (any product) and open the CamelGraph editor from the BIMCamel ribbon tab.
• Know the tab and the property you want. If you do not, read Find the name of a tab or property first.
• Save the model. A run changes colours in the open document.

Part A: one colour for everything that matches

Download the graph

1. Add a String node (Input). Double-click its title and rename it Material text. Type Concrete into it.
2. Press Space over the canvas, type Search.ByProperty and press Enter. The node is in Navisworks ▸ Search. Type Element into categoryName and Material into propertyName, and choose contains in the mode drop-down. Use the names your model shows. Wire the value output of the String into the value input. That input accepts any kind of value, so it has no box of its own: you wire a String (or Number) node into it.
3. Add Appearance.OverrideColor (Navisworks ▸ Appearance). Wire items from the search into its items.
4. Click the swatch on its color input and choose red. color also accepts a #RRGGBB text such as #FF0000 wired in from a String node.
5. Press F5. Every matching item turns red in the Navisworks view.

The downloadable graph also puts a Watch List on the search result and saves the items as a selection set (Save selection sets).

The finished graph: Search.ByProperty into Appearance.OverrideColor and SelectionSet.Create, with a Watch List on the search result.

To take the colour back, use Appearance.Reset on the same items, or Appearance.ResetAll for the whole model (both in Navisworks ▸ Appearance).

Part B: a different colour for every value

Download the graph

This colours, for example, every item by its level.

1. Add two String nodes (Input). Rename them Property tab and Property, and type Element and Level into them. Both searches below use the same two texts, so you change them in one place.
2. Add Search.ByProperty (Navisworks ▸ Search) and choose exists in mode. Wire Property tab into its categoryName and Property into its propertyName; value stays empty. It finds every item that carries the property. (The download uses Search.HasProperty, which is retired and does the same.)
3. Add Properties.Value (Navisworks ▸ Properties). Wire the search items into its item input, and wire Property tab and Property into its two name inputs too. The wire into item is dashed: the node runs once per item and gives one value per item.
4. Add Appearance.ColorByValues (Navisworks ▸ Appearance). Wire the search items into its items and the value output of Properties.Value into its values.
5. Add a Watch node (Display), rename it Legend, and wire the legend output into it.
6. Press F5.

The colour-by-value graph: a search, Properties.Value, Appearance.ColorByValues and a Watch node for the legend.

What you get

• Part A: a normal Navisworks colour override on the matching items. It is saved with the model file.
• Part B: each distinct value gets its own colour from a built-in palette. When every value is a number, the colours run from blue to red instead. The legend output lists each value with its colour as #RRGGBB.
• To choose the colours yourself, wire a list of colours into the optional palette input. They are used in turn, one per distinct value.

Keep the lists the same length

Appearance.ColorByValues needs one value for each item. If it says "Got 40 items but 38 values", the two lists came from different searches. Wire the same list into both.

If it does not work

• The search finds nothing: see A search returns nothing.
• Nothing changes when you press Run: see Nothing happens when I press Run.
• A node is red: see Read errors and warnings.

Next

• Save selection sets to keep what you found.
• Appearance nodes lists every colour, transparency and hide node.
• Your first script builds Part A step by step.