Access model elements in BIMx Mobile Apps via hyperlinks

Csaba_Kezer
Graphisoft Alumni
Graphisoft Alumni
Easy data access is essential on construction sites and with facility management. BIMx offers a feature for locating 3D elements in the Virtual Building easily which greatly helps with checking and marking up these elements on site. To be able to access BIM elements in the 3D model quickly or the Hyper-model itself, insert these hyperlinks into any website, an FM database or into a Product catalog application.

Prerequisites

  1. BIMx iOS or Android application installed
  2. Downloaded Hyper-model on the mobile device

 

How to build up a hyperlink to reach a Hyper-model

You can define a URL which will open a BIMx Hyper-model without element selection. The template for hyperlinks looks like this: bimxapplication://showHypermodelContents?hypermodel=hypermodel_name

Build up the hyperlink manually

  1. The first part contains GRAPHISOFT's multi-platform ‘custom url scheme’ technique. This scheme is registered by the OS when you install the BIMx app on your mobile device. From that point on the OS will recognise that this URL is associated with BIMx, therefore it will Open the BIMx app when the link is tapped.
  2. The second part defines which BIMx Hyper-model to open from your available Models. The hypermodel_name part needs to be replaced with the name you defined for the BIMx Publisher Set. If the Publisher Set name contains any special characters it needs to be converted with the default URL encoding (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percent-encoding)

How to build up a hyperlink to reach a specific element

An element access hyperlink consists of three individual parts. The template for hyperlinks looks like this: bimxapplication://showElementIn3dContext?hypermodel=hypermodel_name&element=Unique_ID1,Unique_ID2,...,Unique_IDn

Build up the hyperlink manually

  1. The first part contains GRAPHISOFT's multi-platform ‘custom url scheme’ technique. This scheme is registered by the OS when you install the BIMx app on your mobile device. From that point on the OS will recognise that this URL is associated with BIMx, therefore it will Open the BIMx app when the link is tapped.
  2. The second part defines which BIMx Hyper-model to open from your available Models. The hypermodel_name part needs to be replaced with the name you defined for the BIMx Publisher Set. If the Publisher Set name contains any special characters it needs to be converted with the default URL encoding (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percent-encoding)
  3. The third part contains the Unique_ID of the element that you want to access with the hyperlink. This ID can be obtained in ARCHICAD, by listing the Unique ID field in the Interactive Schedule. The built-up hyperlink can contain multiple Unique_IDs, so BIMx will open the 3D model with all listed elements, highlighted.
Example:
wp-content_uploads_2016_01_BIMx-custom-hyperlink-to-3D-element.png

Get the complete link from BIMx

When a model is published to BIMx, the above link is automatically generated for each 3D element in the project. This link can be obtained by selecting the element in the 3D view of the BIMx project. You can choose the Copy Hyperlink option from the Selected elements settings. The Hyperlink is now copied to the device's clipboard:
wp-content_uploads_2016_11_bimx_hyperlink_select.png
The copied hyperlinks work the same way on both iOS and Android. Hyperlinks can be generated in BIMx Web Viewer too (see Help), however there is no transition between browser and mobile apps.

How to use the hyperlink

Open BIMx from external applications

If you launch this link from any application on your mobile device (Mail, browser, etc.) then it will bring up the BIMx mobile app, open the requested Hyper-model, select the linked model element and zoom to it in 3D. This way you can access any 3D model element easily without navigating manually in the model.
wp-content_uploads_2016_11_bimx_hyperlink_goto.png

Navigate to a 3D element from a BIMx schedule sheet:

BIMx recognises email addresses and website links in schedule sheets. It is also possible to add these custom access hyperlinks to any custom field of a schedule. This way elements can be browsed from a list and when tapping its link it will automatically appear selected in the 3D view of the model:
wp-content_uploads_2016_01_open-3D-from-schedule1.png
Comments
Robs_archiradar
Participant

is it possible to do this also with the BIMx desktop version?

Norbert Kucsma
Graphisoft
Graphisoft

Hi,


Unfortunately it is not possible to access model elements with hyperlinks in BIMx Desktop Viewer. However it would be a nice improvement, we will take it into consideration in future developments.

 

Kind regards,

Norbert Kucsma

 

Technical Support Engineer, Technical Support Team
GRAPHISOFT SE, Budapest

Robs_archiradar
Participant

this feature would definitely be very useful!

thanks a lot

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