New Show/Alter State Attribute: Any Property
In the 2024 Service Pack 1 release, we introduced a powerful Show/Alter State attribute named “Any Property”. This feature enables rapid and efficient graphical comparison of any selected entity property, vastly expanding the Review View capabilities. For more about this feature see the Help Topic Effective Lengths and Factors - review and copy
With the new “Any Property” attribute active, simply select any entity, then any of its properties in the Properties window to see a color-coded view and associated legend showing how the property is set throughout the model. For example, as shown in the picture below, this can be used to rapidly assess the various slab depths throughout the model, making checking simple and quick.
Filter by Entity type and Variant
You can optionally choose to apply an Entity Filter to refine the results. As illustrated in the pictures below, you first select from the “Entity type” drop list the main type you want to filter by. Then, where appropriate, an additional “Variant” option appears, enabling further filtering - the drop list for this will contain all the variants of the selected entity type contained in the model.
Editing properties of the originally selected entity
It is also possible to edit the properties of the original entity that was selected when making the comparison. In the graphical display an arrow indicates the location of the selected entity as shown in the picture above of slab depth comparison. To edit properties, first enable the “Editable Properties” option highlighted in the picture below - the Properties Window will then display the properties of the selected entity. You can then select any of its properties to make comparisons and edit them if required - For example, when checking slab depths, as in the example above, this would enable a quick check and correction/ adjustment of slab depths throughout the model.
Copy Mode
In the 2024 Service Pack 2 release, the “Any Property” feature was further enhanced with a new Copy Mode, enabling a selected property to be copied to multiple entities during the review process. As shown in the picture below, the new Copy option is selected via the [M]ode drop list when the “Any Property” Attribute is active - note the yellow operation step description at the top of the view which prompts you to select an entity in the view with the property you wish to copy when no entity is currently selected.
When a property of the entity is selected in the Properties Window its distribution in the model is displayed - for example that of the Design section order of steel members as illustrated in the picture below - and you can then select single or multiple entities to copy the active property value to. The active property value of the selected entity to be copied, e.g. the design section order “UB Beam” in this case, is shown in the yellow operation step description. The active property value also appears at the top of the legend (when this extends over more than one page) and is assigned the lime green selection color.
