The BIMSearch report is the result of the search. It will appear in the bottom half of the browser automatically once you load a search template, or when you click “create report” after selecting your own search settings.
Each row in the report consists of a group of elements, and each column presents information about that group. The columns are dependent on the table parameters and groupings, with a tally at the bottom of the report.
Note that there is always a “count” column, which will show the total number of elements in that particular row.
The example below shows the report created by the Walls template. As you can see, the table parameters for the template are “type name”, “area”, “volume” and “base constraint”. These parameters form the columns for the report.
The first column is dictated by the “organize by” setting, and so in this case includes the base constraint and type name.
If no groups are selected for the “organize by” setting, the default for the first column is “element”, which corresponds to the Revit element (if you are searching a model built on a different program, this may vary).
The bar at the bottom of the report keeps a tally of the totals, where applicable.
There are many possible table parameters that can make up the columns in the report. Here is an explanation of the parameters in the Walls template.
Column 1 – [Base Constraint][Type Name]
Column 1 shows the data within the search parameters.
Base Constraint represents the level where the bottom of the wall should be installed (Ground level, Level 1 etc.).
Type name represents the material of the wall (Concrete, CMU, DRW etc.)
In this case, the walls are arranged, or grouped, according to level (i.e. Base Constraints). However, if the columns were arranged [Type Name][Base Constraints], they would be arranged according to the type of wall.
The reasoning behind this grouping is such: the typical information needed on site, for example, is how many CMU units should be delivered to each level. The Wall template groups the element by level and then type name so that it is easy to see what needs to be delivered where.
Column 2 – Count
How many elements in the group
Column 3 – Type Name
Type Name is a built-in Revit parameter. In practice, this will often include information about the element material (in this example, Exterior Glazing 10cm includes the thickness of the glazing).
Column 4,5 – Area Σ, Volume Σ
These columns represent the quantities of the group. Note that the sigma (Σ) indicates that the column presents the sum of the elements in the group.
Column 6 – Base Constraint
As in column 1, the Base Constraint represents the level where the bottom of the wall (i.e. the base of the wall) should be installed.
There are two ways to search within the report:
1) Search bar
2) Selecting rows
Search bar
At the top of the report is a search bar. Here you can narrow down the results. In the example below, a report has been created for the Walls template, and the report has been searched for “exterior glazing”.
There are 11 walls that consist of exterior glazing, and this total is tracked at the bottom of the report.
Please note this function does not change the search settings, it only searches within the results.
Selecting rows
The second option for narrowing the search results is to manually select rows in the report. As the report and viewer are interactive, when you select rows the corresponding element will be highlighted in the viewer (all other elements will then appear transparent). This enables you to see exactly where each element is located in the model.
The total bar at the bottom of the report tracks how many elements you have selected, and their totals in comparison to that of the rest of the search results.
Once you have completed your report, you can download it and it will open in Excel. To learn more about this, see “Export to Excel”.
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