Every part looks the same
A combined model draws architecture, structure and building services in the same neutral tones. A pipe and a beam read as one tangle, and people point at the screen instead of naming what they mean.
BIM viewer
Color code a BIM model for your next meeting
When a team looks at a combined model, the first question is always which part is which. Coloring the view by model, level or object type answers it at a glance, and a saved picture carries the answer into the minutes. This page walks through both steps in Fidrel’s browser viewer and says what the colors do not mean.
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Why a plain model confuses a room
The view lives only in the meeting
A screenshot taken at low resolution blurs the one detail that mattered. Someone then redraws it by hand for the report, and the minutes show a picture that no longer matches the model.
Colors without a key
A colored view is only useful when the room knows what each color stands for. Without a legend, the first ten minutes go to asking whether red is the mechanical model or the third floor.
Which grouping answers which question
Color by Model gives every file its own color, which is the quickest way to show who owns what when each discipline uploads its own model: the architect’s walls, the engineer’s frame, the services. Color by Level separates the floors, so a walk through the building floor by floor reads cleanly. Color by Object type separates kinds of element, such as walls, slabs, pipe segments and ducts, which is what you want when the discussion is about one system crossing many floors. Model is offered only with more than one model open; Level and Object type work with a single model.
BIM & 3D
Reading the legend
The legend is built from the model itself. Under Level, each row is a level name and objects with no level are grouped as No level. Under Object type, each row is an IFC class in readable form, and anything the legend cannot name falls into a gray Other group. The count beside a row is the number of objects in it, so a row with a very large count tells you where most of the model sits before you look at it. The eye on each row shows whether the group is currently drawn.
From a plain model to a picture for the minutes
Step 1
Open the model or the combined view
Open the IFC model in 3D, or open several models together when the meeting is about how they fit. The Model choice in the next step appears only when more than one model is open.
Step 2
Open Colors and choose Color by
Open Colors in the toolbar. The Color coding panel offers Original, Model, Level and Object type. Pick one, and the view is painted at once with a legend beside it. Original returns the colors the model came with.
Step 3
Read the legend and clear the clutter
Each legend row shows a swatch, a name and the number of objects in the group. Click a row to hide or show that group. Hide the groups nobody is discussing, or isolate an object, so the colors that remain carry the point.
Step 4
Save the view as an image
Open Image, choose Full HD, 4K or 8K, tick Transparent background if the picture goes onto a sheet, and choose Save PNG. The file downloads to your computer, ready to attach to the minutes or a report.
Saving the picture for the minutes or a report
The Image tool saves what the viewer shows as a PNG at 1,920, 3,840 or 7,680 pixels wide, labeled Full HD, 4K and 8K. Measurements and sections are included in the image, so cut the model and take your measurement first. With Transparent background ticked there is no backdrop, which suits a picture placed on a drawing sheet. Without it, the backdrop is white, or dark when your workspace is in dark mode. The picture downloads under a name built from the model title, and you attach it to your own document.
What color coding does not do
The colors are chosen by Fidrel from a fixed palette, so you cannot set your own or match a discipline color scheme from your office standard. The three groupings are the only ones: there is no coloring by a property value, a status or an activity in the schedule. The setting belongs to your own view and is not saved with the model, so set it again after you reopen it. Fidrel claims no standard for what a color means, so the legend is the only key; say so in the minutes when the picture goes to people who were not in the room.
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Yes, when each trade uploads its own model: Color by Model gives each file its own color. Within one model, Color by Object type separates kinds of element, but it does not know which trade installs them.
Yes. Open Colors, choose Level and the legend lists every level with its object count. Objects without a level are grouped as No level.
Model is offered only when more than one model is open. Open two or more models together and it appears beside Level and Object type.
Full HD, 4K and 8K, as a PNG, with an option for a transparent background. Measurements and sections in the view are included in the image.
No. The color setting belongs to your own view, so set it again when you reopen the model. The saved PNG keeps the picture as it was when you saved it.
Yes. Click its row in the legend to hide it and click again to show it. Show all in the toolbar brings every group back.