In addition to using the Model Comparison Ruleset to compare model versions, this article defines the steps to create an Information Takeoff (ITO) that displays the changes in Quantities in the ITO table format. This allows for easy review of any changes in the model quantities, in real-time.
A model recreating the screenshots and model conditions in this article is available here: SMC Building – ITO Model Comparision.smc
For tutorial information about using the ITO tool, please see our previous article on the topic: Understanding Information Takeoff (ITO)
In Solibri Model Checker, with two different IFC versions of the same model loaded, create an ITO sorting the model by Components. ITO sorts elements within the model by the values of their properties of the left most columns.
Now, create an ITO column for the “Model” property of the “Identification” column type and ensure that “Grouping” is checked. By doing this, ITO will create an individual row for each type of component in each model. In other words, one type of component will be listed twice: one row representing the component(s) in Model A, and a second row representing the component(s) in Model B.
Next, decide which quantities are relevant for the comparison. In this example, we have added columns for length, width, height, area, volume, and count. For each column, ensure that “Grouping” is turned OFF, and the function is set to “SUM”. This means that ITO will not use these columns as a sorted grouping mechanism and that the quantity displayed in the column will be a sum for the components.
The resulting ITO will resemble the results below. Each Component type is listed on two rows, representing the components and their quantities from each of the respective two model versions.
Please use the example model to explore the screenshots from this article, and to experiment with the settings in ITO.
