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Upload BIM Model |
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Before we can align your BIM model to a floor plan, you’ll need to have conducted a 360° video capture:
Download the OpenSpace mobile app
Take your first 360 video capture on the project.
Once your 360° video captures have been uploaded and published on your project, you can upload the model on the project following the steps below and start using BIM Compare.
Steps to set up BIM Compare:
Log in to your local OpenSpace web server.
Select the project and go to your Project Settings page.
Go to the "Upload BIM" tab.
Upload your model!
See below for some tips to prepare your model before uploading to improve usability and performance in the BIM Compare web viewer.
Notes about Number of Models, Size, and Performance
Please note that you can upload one model per project with OpenSpace Capture. Each model can be up to 4GB in size, but we recommend the model does not exceed 1GB—see more information about this recommendation later in this article.
If you need the ability to upload multiple models—for example to break up a large file or to upload individual trade files—you can do so with OpenSpace BIM+—contact your OpenSpace representative about setting up a subscription.
If you don’t have OpenSpace BIM+ on your project and need to be able to view BIM modeled elements from more than one source file in BIM Compare, we recommend uploading a single, federated NWD or IFC file that includes everything in your project: the federated model (sometimes called the coordinated model).
A web viewer's performance, such as the BIM viewer side of BIM Compare, is primarily impacted by browser memory management. To get the most out of your browser experience when viewing BIM in OpenSpace, we recommend using Chrome. We also recommend keeping your browser up to date, since browser updates can improve browser memory management for a better BIM viewer performance.
Model characteristics can also impact load time and performance once loaded in any BIM viewer. Here are three factors that impact performance:
Model complexity: the number of nodes in the assembly / “model tree”
Model complexity: the number of different meshes / materials to render
Model size: the file size of the model
Because “model complexity” is more difficult to assess without opening and examining an individual file, we sometimes use file size as a proxy to also assume complexity—larger files also tend to be more complex in the ways described the first two points.
Tips for NWD Files:
Model files under 1GB in size perform best in the BIM viewer. (While you can upload models up to 4GB in file size, they might face performance issues if they are complex.
Complexity is the biggest factor impacting BIM viewer performance, even for relatively small model files. If your model is having performance issues in the BIM Compare viewer, or if you are experiencing issues uploading a model with a large file size, the best method to improve web viewer performance is eliminating unnecessary geometry, which willreduce the model file size and complexity. Consider what is important to see in your model in OpenSpace, and when you export the model that you’ll upload to OpenSpace, exclude unnecessary categories and/or elements, especially those that are complex.
We do not support Saved Viewpoints in an NWD file in the BIM Compare viewer, so we recommend removing them before exporting the NWD file from Navisworks.
Note that if you have OpenSpace BIM+ on your project, you can use the Saved Views feature to create and revisit views in OpenSpace much like Navisworks Saved Viewpoints or Revizto Viewpoints.
The BIM viewer is built as an integration with Autodesk's Forge Viewer API, so any file type compatible with their Forge Viewer is acceptable (NWD, RVT, FBX, etc.)—click here for a definitive list of supported file formats from Autodesk's Forge Viewer API.
Note that if you upload a new model to your OpenSpace project, and if the model coordinate system has not changed, your new model should be aligned as soon as the upload is processed!
Tips for Revit files:
Publish Settings
When you publish a Revit model, the default 3D view and all 2D sheets are published by default. In order to customize what BIM elements appear in BIM Compare, you can use one of two methods:
Customize the Active View Set in RVT files:
Visit the Autodesk publish settings support article, geared toward BIM360 and ACC Build customers, but the same steps can help customize the view settings of the file for OpenSpace. Here’s an overview of the steps—read the article for more detailed instructions:
Open the RVT with Revit Desktop.
Go to "Collaborate > Manage Models panel > Publish Settings".
Select your 3D views and other views you want to see in OpenSpace and ensure that they are in the Active view set.
Save the change to your RVT file.
Re-upload the modified RVT to OpenSpace.
Export to an NWC file:
Note that exporting to an NWC file can improve the performance of very "heavy" RVT files in a web viewer such as BIM Compare. So if your RVT file is very large you may want to use this method rather than #1 above.
If you upload an RVT file and have not customized the publish settings as shown in #1 above, the Autodesk Viewer will default to the "default 3D" view (typically called "{3D}") in your Revit file. Our upload process does not allow a user to select a specific 3D view other than this view, and it does not allow the user to specify the phasing of a Revit model, so all geometry and all phases within the Revit model shown in the view named {3D} will be uploaded and visible in OpenSpace.
For this method, we suggest creating a 3D view in Revit that only shows the modeled geometries that you want to see in OpenSpace, name this view "OpenSpace Export" or similar, and export that view as an .NWC file to upload to OpenSpace.
In order to use this export method, you will need to download and install the Autodesk Navisworks Add-in for Revit.
The resulting .NWC export will only contain the geometry visible in the "OpensSpace Export" 3D View that you have set up.
For future uploads, in cases where your Revit file has been updated since the initial OpenSpace upload, continue to use the saved "OpenSpace Export" 3D View in Revit to export an updated version of your model that you can then upload to OpenSpace.
Linked Files in a Revit model
Note that linked files in a Revit model, even if it is the central model, still do not exist in the Revit file itself. Therefore, if you upload a Revit model with linked files into OpenSpace, the linked files will not show up in the BIM viewer.
Revit Rooms
OpenSpace does not support importing Rooms from a Revit model. If exporting a Revit file to .NWC to produce a lighter file, we recommend un-checking the "Export room geometry" box in the Navisworks Options Editor (see screenshot below from Autodesk).
If you have any additional questions please reach out to the OpenSpace Support team at support@openspace.ai.