About this project
This project started from simply adding external hyperlinks to Tekla Structures model object so links were reusable in the model. Ad-hoc attributing is a common feature in many BIM, 3D or parametric systems in current. It allows user to attach additional information to model objects that enriches semantics and usages of native objects with greater customizability.
From a simple macro, we started to get more demands from users for a managerial UI (User Interface) to manage external hyperlinks. Most users wish to obtain a “Document-Centric View” to organize documents and links, sort of a hierarchical grouping mechanism. This is quite common whereas most 3D BIM are geometry centric, meaning information are organized and displayed purely in a 3D object fashion. This is certain because nature of the application and service it provides. However, from a collaborative perspective, more and more tasks require views from multiple perspectives such as document organization or view of schedules. A typical example is the 4D CAD where one needs to visualize information from both temporal and physical views. This therefore becomes a primary change from previous macro to a more coherent solution.
In conjunction with a newer UI of Link Manager, we combined the BuildSite integration in the same solution since their functionalities quite overlapped.
BuildSite is an online manufacturers, products, material documentations and reseller information for building construction. Quite like an online “Yellow Page” on steroid. It is applicable for contractors’ submittal process. Contractors can find mandatory documents of inspections, material tests, manufacturer guarantee and other useful information for submittal. It also serves as a search engine that allows contractors to find products, manufacturers, and reseller information from particular product category. It supports different “categorizations” including master unit format and soon believe to support OminiClass classification.
Integration Highlight
For user’s to select BuildSite information in runtime, a light Web Browser is therefore incorporated into the application. It parses an underlying XML file returned from a BuildSite URL query. Parsed contents, especially hyperlinks (HTML) that linked to a document file such as a PDF file are then displayable to users for selection. All links are bind to nodes in an underlying XML file that serves as a live database. User can manage multiple links tailored to their needs.
The following video is a general introductory of Link Manager:
Result and Future Work
Intention of creating Link Manager was to create a prototype to collectively generate a specification that can be incorporated into main product one day. At an application architecture level, I used this opportunity to outline a fundamental module to support generic association that is applicable to many other tasks e.g. the 4D CAD tasks.
Acknowledgement
Special thanks for Andy Dickey who manages the partnership of BuildSite and Hannu Lindberg who collectively manages all users’ aspects and feedbacks.
Reference
Presentations
Use Cases
Link Manager has been adopted in several commercial projects since then. Here are a few use cases
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