1. Accessing the iModel Manager

iModel Manager can be found on the left toolbar of any Infrastructure Cloud project.

 


Once opened, this lists all the iModels in your project and allows you to perform different actions on them.  Using the controls in the top right of the frame, you can switch between Tile and List modes:

2. Creating an iModel

To create a new iModel, click on the blue "Create iModel" button at the top left of the iModel Manager page.  This gives the user the ability to select a new connection-based iModel (from CAD files), an ",sp" iModel (created from a SYCNHRO 4D file) or a Composite iModel (created from other iModels).

The following steps outline creating an iModel from Design files.  For steps on creating a Composite iModel look here. For creating an iModel from a SYNCHRO Pro .sp file look here.

3. iModel Title and Description 

Give the iModel a title (required) and optionally type a description and\or upload an image to differentiate it from other iModels  When finished, click the Create button.

 

4. Choose the Connection Method

 

The next page allows you to create connections for synchronising CAD file data to the iModel.

At this stage, you can choose to populate your iModel by creating a Connection for:

• Design Files - where you select individual files and optionally process their reference files
• Saved Search - Files retrived from a PW Saved Search (you can optionally use reference files with saved searches but is not recommended).

 

When selecting the Design Files option, the user is presented with a set of folder options from the Documents section of the Infrastructure Cloud Design project. You can select from any PWDI Work Area Connection, or select from the delivered PW web Documents folders (these are the folders typically used with PW Drive).

If the user selects the "Saved Search" option, then ONLY PWDI Work Area connections will be displayed, as the web-based PW Documents do not have Saved Search capability.

[Note: See the next section on Saved Search Considerations]

You can select multiple files if necessary.  In the example below, the user selects a single design file (which has references) from a PWDI Work Area connection and clicks the Select button.

 

5. File Format and Geospatial Data

If selecting from a PW DI Work Area Connection, the application association is read from PW to determine a "best guess" for the iModel Connector:

Notes:
The Connector that is selected by default is based on the application association above, but the user can change it if there are other possible connectors as in the above example for a DGN file. If for example it were an IFC file there would only be a single option: the IFC Connector.

If selecting from the delivered PW web Documents area, there is no application association, and the user will need to manually select the connector.

If processing reference files, note that the connector selected for the parent (Master) file IS ALSO USED for all references.  Therefore is specific files are required to be processed with specific connector, it's best to organise them in a structure where all files are group in a connection based on application (i.e., all architectural files in a connection using only OpenBuildings Designer or Revit files).

 

Next the user needs to select a file to be used as the geospatial root for this iModel.  Every iModel needs to have a geocoordinate system defined before elements can be written to it.  If one is not supplied, the very first file sycnhronised is used.  In that case, the Next button will not enable until a file with a geocoordinate system is selected.

Often this can (and should) simply be an empty DGN file used just for geolocation purposes. Note that if a file containing elements in it is chosen as the file with the geocoordinate system, that file cannot be unmapped (removed) afterwards.  By using an empty DGN with the geolocation in it, the user does not need to worry about that file needing to be unmapped.

Supported CAD and neutral file formats can be found here

Connection Schedule and Settings

The next step is to define a connection name , set the sync frequency and configure settings for the connection.

When finished, this connection can be found on the main Connections page.

Deleting a connection:

After deleting a connection, a sync job is kicked off to remove the files from the iModel, before any subsequent connections are run..