SpaceDesign Filtering

SpaceDesign Filtering is used to determine which components or sub-components should be included in the report.

Filter by layers and hidden geometry

Components which are not visible are not included in the report.

Filter by selection

The setting Selected Entities only on the Report Setup tab will report only on entities which are selected in the SketchUp model.

Filter using Skip_If and No_Drill

Skip_If attribute

Marking the new attribute - NoShow - as Skip_if.
Note: This attribute is marked to as Allow Report so that it is used to calculate the report. But is also marked Suppress from Report so it does not show up on the report.

If you have an component which you never want to include in a report, you can mark it as 'Skip_If.

If Skip If is set for an attribute and the attribute is true, then the component will not be included in the report.

If the Skip If attribute is calculated, then the result of the calculation will be used.

If it is Numeric, Database, or Currency, then it will be skipped if the values is non-zero.

If if is Text, then it will be skipped if it is not blank.

  • Note: for skip_if to work properly, the attribute for it has to be marked as include in report.
(You can also mark suppress to suppress it from display in the report.)

See: Skip If using calculations


The attribute NoShow is marked as Skip_If. If it is checked for a component, then that component is not included int the report.


No_Drill

Setting the attribute called NoDrill as No_Drill.
Note: This attribute is marked to as Allow Report so that it is used to calculate the report. But is also marked Suppress from Report so it does not show up on the report.

If you have items which you want to count when placed individually, but do not want to count when placed in a package or container, then you can mark the package containing the items as No_drill and the components within the package will not be counted.

If an attribute is marked as No_Drill and that attribute is true for a component, then that component will not be drilled into to look for other attributes.


The attribute called NoDrill is marked as No_Drill in the Attribute Setup Wizard, and the value for NoDrill is checked for the components which should not e drilled into.


Reversing Skip_If and No_Drill Attributes

Some time you may want to mark only those items you don't want to Skip, or mark only those items you do want to drill.

This is done by creating a second attribute, e.g. DoShow, and using it to calculate the NoShow attribute.

  • DoShow is a Boolean Attribute and you set it for the items to include in the report.
  • NoShow is also a Boolean Attribute. Its Calculation is set to: !%DoShow% - this will set NoShow to true when DoShow is false.
    Mark NoShow as Skip_if so that items for which NoShow is true, (because DoShow is false), will not be included in the report.


Attribute Skip_if Calculation
DoShow not set
NoShow set !%DoShow%
others not set

Specifying Package Components

You can use similar logic to specify Package components, which should be drilled, but not shown on the report.

  • Create a new attribute - Package - and set it to true for those items which should be drilled, but not reported.
  • Create a new attribute - NoDrill - mark it as No_Drill, and set is to calculate as: !%Package%
    (NoDrill will be true for all components for which Package is false)
  • Also mark Package as Skip_If. Components with Package set to true will be drilled into, and not shown on the report.


Attribute Skip_if No_Drill Calculation
Package set not set
NoDrill not set set !%Package%
others not set not set

Filter using filter expressions

SpaceDesign Filter Tab.jpg


This feature lets you define phrases which will be used to select components to include in your report.

For example, to create a wall report you could:

  1. Define an attribute, Type, which would contain the word Wall for walls.
  2. Set the filter to include components only when the attribute Type contains the word Wall

For a Door and Window report, you could use similar filtering.

  • Use filters to choose entities
    If checked, then only component and groups whose attributes match the filter will be used for reporting.
  • Ignore case in filter expressions
    If checked, then the case of values is ignored, e.g. Wall, wall, and WALL would all match the filter value 'wall'.

Process Components which:

  • Match all Filters
    only items which match all filters will be processed.
  • Match any filters
    items which match any filter will be processed.
If you need other options, then you can create dummy attributes, based n calculations, which will be can be used for more complex filtering.

Apply filter to:

  • Top level components only
    If a Top level component is selected, then any sub-components will be processed as well. (Assuming you are drilling into sub-components.)
  • All components (including sub components)
    The filter is applied to everything. If a top-level component is filtered out, then its sub-components will not be processed either.

Filters

  • Attribute
    Select one of the report attributes from the drop down list.
  • Condition
  • ignore - do not use this filter
  • contains - contains the filter phrase anywhere in the attribute value.
  • does not not contain - Does not contain the phrase.
  • is precisely - the filter phrase must exactly match the attribute value.
  • is not precisely - the filter phrase does not exactly match the attribute value.
  • is true - a Boolean attribute is true
  • is false - a Boolean attribute is false



Advanced Techniques

  • Calculations - setting attribute values based on size of components, or other attributes.
  • Area - report on the area of a face in a component.
  • Length - report on the length or curves or edge lines in a component.
  • Hyperlink Attributes - attributes containing a WEB URL which will link to that URL from the PDF
  • ‎Number Formatting - Database and Currency formatting
  • List Attributes - creating a list of attributes and settings.
  • Filtering - filtering which attributes to include in report.
  • Select Entities by Attribute - search for words, phrases or patterns in attributes.
  • Auto Generate Attributes - define and edit attributes in an excel spread sheet.


See also

SpaceDesign: