Navisworks Quick Access Toolbar

[Breogan Heflin]

Onmy Windows 10 computer, the Quick access toolbar is blank Both with Simulate 2016 and Freedom 2020. Quick Access toolbar in File Explorer is visible. The invisible buttons work, the tooltip is shown when hovering over them.

Autodesk Navisworks is a great tool; however, there are many customization fields that must be selected in order for the tool to function at optimum efficiency. This article reviews the essential features that must be enabled to ensure you are getting the results you desire.

The next key feature to check is snapping options. Out of the box, Navisworks does not allow you to snap to the edge of modeled content. In order to customize Navisworks so it works the way you predict, it is necessary to explicitly select how you wish it to snap. Open the Options Editor (Application Button>OptionsF12) and expand the Interface node. Select Snapping. Snap to Vertex allows you to snap to a point that is created by two or more objects connecting together forming a vertex. Snap to Line Vertex allows you to explicitly snap to a vertex created by lines. Snap to Edge allows you to snap to the exact edge of an object.

The Tolerance option is another critical setting to adjust. This option allows you to define how close your cursor must be in order to snap to an object. The smaller the value, the closer you must place the cursor to be able to snap. I suggest a tolerance of 5.

A well-kept secret in Navisworks is the ability to customize how you persist viewpoints. When you save a viewpoint, Navisworks can save much more than just the location of the camera. For instance, say you wish to click on a viewpoint and always have that viewpoint section the model and have certain objects highlighted differently than in a normal view. This is achievable by changing a couple of options.

To customize viewpoints, open the Options Editor (F12). Within the Options Editor, expand the Interface node and select Viewpoint Defaults. The checkboxes allow you to customize how viewpoints are saved.

The first checkbox, Save Hide/Required Attributes, will save a number of key features. First, it saves sectioning. If this option is selected and you save a viewpoint, the section you defined at the time you save your viewpoint will always be activated when the viewpoint is selected. You can leverage this to your advantage when you work on a project with multiple floors. Simply create a viewpoint for each floor with a section that cuts the model to the location you wish to see. By saving key viewpoints, you can quickly navigate a model during a meeting without having to fight gizmos and views.

Another key feature of the Save Hide/Required Attributes option is that when it is selected, you can hide objects and have them stay hidden when navigating between views. This again becomes extremely useful when you wish to customize a view to allow you to quickly review an object that would otherwise be obscured by other objects.

If you decide to enable links from the Home tab of the ribbon>Display panel>Links you may notice hundred of links that appear in the scene view. To customize these links so they become meaningful, open the Options Editor (F12). In the Options Editor, expand the Interface node and select Links.

Navisworks gives you the unique ability to customize the way you set up your workspace. If there is a tool you frequently use, you should add it to the Quick Access Toolbar. This bar is located in the top left of the screen next to the Application Button.

To add a tool to the quick access menu, right-click the tool in the ribbon and from the context menu, select Add to Quick Access toolbar. Tools I frequently use and have added to the Quick Access toolbar include the tag, camera, redline, and lighting tools. By adding them to the Quick Access toolbar, I am able to quickly use these tools without having to navigate the ribbon to select them.

The ribbon can also be customized. To move an entire panel, select the panel name and drag it. If you do not move it back to the ribbon, it will simply float where you release it. To dock it to the ribbon simply drag the detached panel to your desired location on the ribbon. This allows you to customize the layout of any tab. It is worth noting that you cannot move a panel to a different tab on the ribbon.

If you would like to customize the tab and panel visibility on the ribbon itself, right-click the ribbon and simply hover over the Show Tabs or Show Panels to expose the names of the Tabs and Panels. Deselect any Tab or Panel you wish to hide.

If you wish to restore the ribbon to its original factory settings, simply right-click any grey area on the panel and select Restore Default Ribbon.

During the course of a coordination meeting, you often receive a dwg or nwc during a meeting and need to update the model. If you try to overwrite the file, you will receive an error message stating that you cannot overwrite the file because the file is in use. To eliminate this problem, open the Options Editor (F12). Expand the Model node and select Performance where you will find a number of key features to customize.

You can also customize other features here such as when duplicates will be merged. Merging does take time so be careful in your decision of when you wish objects to merge. By default all of these options under this heading are selected.

Another useful customization tool that is frequently overlooked is the Recent Documents list. To modify how many recent files will be listed when you select the Application Button, open the Options Editor (F12). Expand the General node and select Environment. Change the Maximum Recently Used Files to the number of your choice.

From the Home tab Project panel select File Options. These options allow you to customize a number of useful functions. In the Culling tab you can quickly define your culling planes. I suggest setting your Near Clipping Plane to 0.001 and leaving your Far Clipping Plane set to automatic. Change as desired.

Customizing your documents takes an incredible amount of time. Once you have all your customization set up, you can save the information to xml files. To save your options interface, simply click the Export button in the Options Editor window. This will export all of your customized settings, which can be imported on another system or at a later time. To save changes to the ribbon, Quick Access Toolbar, or panel layouts on your screen, save a workspace. To save a workspace, click the View tab of the ribbon > Workspace Panel > Save Workspace, which will export an xml file that can be loaded at a later time. By customizing Navisworks you will increase your productivity and results.

Need help in detecting clashes with Navisworks? Our team at VIATechnik can create custom clash tests to test scenarios unique to your project. Contact our Navisworks clash detection consultants to get started or visit our BIM services to find out how we can help you with your projects.\n\n\n\n1. Measuring Rounded Objects\n\n\n\nIf you\u2019re having issues measuring rounded objects accurately, such as the bottom sides of pipes, turn on Edge Snapping. Go to Navisworks Options Editor and under Interface>Snapping, Make sure \u201cSnap to Edge\u201d is enabled. This will allow you to snap your measurement tool to the edges of vectors, which is conveniently usually located on the bottom and topmost sides of cylinder-shaped objects.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n2. Quick Iterations of Navisworks Models\n\n\n\nIf you\u2019re working on doing quick iterations of Navisworks models from AutoCAD or Revit, and have to continually unload your appended models in order to export the models from your modeling program, there is a convenient workaround to this. Under Options Editor>Model>Performance, make sure \u201cClose NWC\/NWD Files on Load\u201d is checked. Now you can overwrite NWC files without unloading them in your NWF file. After overwriting these files, simply click refresh in Navisworks\u2019 Home tab and a newer version of the model will replace the older version you were previously viewing.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n3. Measure Tool Shortcut\n\n\n\nKnow your shortcuts for the measuring tool. With The measure tool active, press CTRL+SHIFT+Z to snap to the Z axis, CTRL+SHIFT+Y to snap to the Y Axis, and CTRL+SHIFT+X to snap to the X Axis.\n\n\n\n4. Selection Tool Shortcut\n\n\n\nSimilarly, learn to quickly switch to the selection tool by pressing CTRL+1.\n\n\n\n5. Select Box Tool\n\n\n\nSelect multiple objects quickly by using the select box tool instead of the selection tool. Holding SHIFT while using the select box tool will select all objects that touch the box you made, not just the ones fully surrounded by the selection box. Additionally, hold CTRL+SHIFT and you can multi-select groups of objects.\n\n\n\n6. Multiple\/Single Objects Clash Grouping\n\n\n\nAre multiple objects clashing a single object in the clash detective and require you to group them all at once? Under the Items drop down window in the clash detective Results tab, right click the single element that has multiple clashes, and the option to group all clashes associated with the object will be available to you.\n\n\n\n7. Clipping Planes\n\n\n\nWhen navigating through the model, does your model suddenly disappear or go blank? Your clipping planes may be the troublemaker. Under the Home tab, click File Options and under the Culling tab, change you Near Clipping Plane to Fixed and enter a low number (.01 for example), and change your Far Clipping Plane to Fixed and enter a extremely high number (9999 for example). This should now fix your views. If your model starts flickering after this change, then your clipping plane numbers may be too high or low. Adjust accordingly until you get a good view.\n\n\n\n8. Backface\n\n\n\nIf you have models where only one side of a face of an object is visible and the other side is invisible, your backface is set to off. Go to Home > File Options and under Culling, change your Backface to Solid.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n9. Show Quick Properties\n\n\n\nYou don\u2019t need to have the Properties window open in Navisworks to see identity data for objects. Under Options > Interface > Quick Properties, you can enable \u201cShow Quick Properties.\u201d Now when you hover over an object, some properties of the object will appear over your cursor. To customize what properties appear, under Options>Interface>Quick Properties>Definitions, you can define what parameters are shown.\n\n\n\n10. XYZ Coordinates\n\n\n\nNeed to determine the X, Y, and Z coordinates of a point in the model? Under the Review tab, Measure Section, click on the arrow at the bottom right side of this section and the measure tools window will appear. When you use the measure tool, the start and end point\u2019s coordinations will show in this window, as well as the difference.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n11. Redline Active Tool\n\n\n\nNeed to do quick redline markups on the fly? You don\u2019t have to click \u201cSave Viewpoint\u201d prior to marking up view points. Simply have any redline tool active, and each time you mark up a view with no redlines on it shown, Navisworks will create a new viewpoint with these markups in the saved viewpoints window.\n\n\n\n12. Top And Bottom Selection Pane\n\n\n\nTrying to find an optimal path for your pipe or ductwork within a plenum space? Create a top and bottom section plane using the sectioning tool, such that the distance between the planes are set to be the height of your ductwork or pipe. Link the section planes and adjust the plane until you find an elevation with a clear path for you to run your trade.\n\n\n\n13. Move An Object, Clear A Clash\n\n\n\nNeed to know how much to move an object in AutoCAD or Revit to clear a clash in Navisworks? Rather than using the measuring tool, select the object, and under the Item Tools tab, use the Move tool to move the object in Navisworks such that it isn\u2019t clashing any other object. Just below the Move Tool icon, you can click the Transform drop down menu and a X, Y, and Z distance of change between where the object originally was and where you adjusted it will be shown. Use this number to move your objects in AutoCAD or Revit more accurately. Once you\u2019re done, don\u2019t forget to Reset Transform your object back to its original location.\n\n\n\n14. Open Other Files\n\n\n\nNavisworks is an extremely strong tool that can view files beyond NWC\u2019s and NWD\u2019s. If you have CAD, Revit, 3D Max, or even PDF files, throw them into Navisworks and they will open up with no issues.\n\n\n\n15. Transparent Dimming\n\n\n\nIs your dimmed view in Clash Detective too difficult to read? Your Transparent dimming may be set to high or low. Under Options>Tools>Clash Detective, you can adjust the dimming transparency, and clash colors so they are much easier to read. Note: these transparencies won\u2019t translate to BIM 360 GLUE.\n\n\n\n16. Sport Clash After Section Cut\n\n\n\nCannot spot your clash after adding a section cut? Under the Sectioning Tools tab, click on the Alignment and choose \u201cAlign to view\u201d from drop-down list and your clash will appear.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n17. Add Section Cut To Viewpoints\n\n\n\nWant to add a section cut to your viewpoints? You\u2019ll need to write the viewpoints first and then add a section cut. The most important step is to right click the viewpoints and hit \u201cUpdate.\u201d If you add the section cut first, it will disappear after you write the viewpoint.\n\n\n\n18. Override Object Color\n\n\n\nWant to override the object color in Navisworks? Right click the object and choose Override Item>Override color. If you want to reset the color and transparency you just created, right click the object again and choose Reset Item>Reset Appearance. This color and transparency change will only show up in Navisworks, not in GLUE.\n\n\n\n19. View Clashes From Same Perspective\n\n\n\nWant to look at your clashes from the same perspective? Want to look for your clashes when it disappears in the scene? Click your Home button. To set the home view, move the entire building with Ideal Angle, right click the House symbol on the right corner of scene and choose \u201cSet Current view as Home.\u201d\n\n\n\n20. Group Same Clash Types\n\n\n\nWant to put same type clashes into one group? The Selection Tree can help.! When you click on an object in the scene, it will highlight the object in the Selection Tree. Then click on the highlighted object, use left arrow in the keyboard to go back to higher level until it covers all the clashes you want to group.\n\n\n\n21. Reconnect To Server\n\n\n\nWhen you use Navisworks to open up the model from GLUE, check your left bottom status often to make sure you are connected to the GLUE. After you hit the Save button, if you see a window that says \u201ca new updated model has been uploaded by (Null)\u201d, then this means you are disconnected from the server. You can click the BIM 360 Tab and then the Model in the left side to reconnect.\n\n\n\n22. Locally Edited Models\n\n\n\nWhat does it mean when you say \u201clocally edited\u201d in your Clashes Detection window or Saved Viewpoints? It means someone else was working on the same model while you are editing the viewpoints or tests. Check those local edits before you save the file, since your model version will cover up the previous version model in GLUE.\n\n\n\n23. Corrupt Viewpoint\/Scaling Bug\n\n\n\nThere\u2019s an ongoing bug with Navisworks that results in saved viewpoints being relocated when you open the Navisworks after closing it out. This issue has been brought up to Autodesk, but it looks like there doesn\u2019t seem to be a definite answer (https:\/\/forums.autodesk.com\/t5\/navisworks-general-discussion\/saved-viewpoints-shifted-to-wrong-location\/td-p\/5631288). It seems the underlying issue is not the fact that these views are shifted, but rather the model\u2019s scaling gets changed for some apparent reason. We\u2019ve isolated this issue and determined that models get scaled by 3.28084375 or .3047996418604208 times the original scale. Try overriding your model\u2019s scale, putting these numbers in the scale field for X, Y, and Z, and activating your saved viewpoints to see if this solves the problem. Unfortunately, this is a mere bandaid fix to an ongoing bug.\n\n\n\n24. Saved Viewpoints \u2013 1\n\n\n\nIf you want your saved viewpoints to display all the elements that you required \/ hide when you created them, then go to Options>Viewpoint Defaults and check the box for \u201cSave Hide\/Required Attributes.\u201d\n\n\n\n25. Saved Viewpoints \u2013 2\n\n\n\nSimilarly, if you want your saved viewpoint to display all the materials overrides you did when you saved it, then go to Options>Viewpoint Defaults and check the box for \u201cOverride Appearance\u201d. You should know that both of these options increases the file size, so use it wisely.\n\n\n\n26. Appearance Profiler \n\n\n\nUse \u201cAppearance Profiler\u201d to create a custom appearance for a particular system or family. You can use sets or property values to select a specific group of items. You can also export your saved appearance profiler as a DAT document.\n\n\n\n27. Finding NWC File Location\n\n\n\nHaving a hard time finding where a NWC came from? Open the property window, on the selection

tree, click on the NWC you want to find, and the property window will tell you where the file came from.\n\n\n\n28. Render \/ Animation Tip 1\n\n\n\nWant your model to look more appealing when doing an animation? Go to Options>Interface>Display. Under Graphic Systems, unclick \u201cAuto-select\u201d and under system, switch from \u201cBasic\u201d to \u201cAutodesk.\u201d Then go to Interface>Display>Autodesk. Make sure \u201cScreen Space Ambient Occlusion\u201d is selected. Change \u201cShader Style\u201d to \u201cPhong.\u201d\n\n\n\n29. Render \/ Animation Tip 2\n\n\n\nAnother trick for a better render \/ video is to change the level of MSAA to a higher number. Go to Interface>Display>Autodesk, under Multi Sample>Anti Aliasing, change the level from 2x to 4x or higher. This will generate smoother geometries, but be aware that the higher the number, the longer a rendering will take and more memory it will use.\n\n\n\n30. Patience\n\n\n\nWhat do you need to do when the Navisworks window is white and a window shows up saying \u201cyour Navisworks is not responding\u201d? Use CTRL + ALT + DELETE to open up Task Manager, then take a look at the progress. Sometimes the file is so big that Navisworks needs some time to process. Patience pays off in Navisworks!\n\n\n\n\n","post_title":"30 Navisworks Tips & Shortcuts","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"30-navisworks-tips-shortcuts","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2023-11-20 09:26:17","post_modified_gmt":"2023-11-20 15:26:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.viatechnik.com\/?post_type=resource&p=166","menu_order":0,"post_type":"blog","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},"theme_url":"https:\/\/www.viatechnik.com\/wp-content\/themes\/viat-wp-theme","is_mobile":false,"is_author":false,"author_name":"Terra","page_template":"","is_preview":false,"tf_is_logged_in":false,"home_ID":"209","load_more":null,"back_top":null} .rll-youtube-player, [data-lazy-src]display:none !important; (function(w,d,s,l,i)[];w[l].push('gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js');var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src=' ='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);)(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-WG54VDL'); Who We AreWho We AreAbout UsMeet The TeamCareersCapabilitiesCapabilitiesBIM & Digital DeliveryConstructionBIM & VDC BIM + FieldPrefabrication & Industrialized ConstructionDigital Construction OperationsOperationsBIM for Facilities ManagementDigital TwinSupply ChainDigital ContentConnected Supply ChainDesignComputational BIM & Generative DesignVirtual & Augmented RealitySoftware SolutionsTechnology PlatformsPrecogsVoyagerThreadCustom Software SolutionsStrategy & EnablementInnovationDigital TransformationEnterprise TechnologyStrategic Consulting and AdvisoryRoadmap DevelopmentDue DiligenceBIM ServicesBIM ServicesBIM CoordinationBIM & VDCWho We Work WithWho We Work WithOur ClientsArchitecture & EngineeringGeneral ContractorsOwnersHealthcareMulti-SiteTransportation & InfrastructureReal Estate DevelopmentSupply ChainTrade ContractorsElectricalMechanical & PlumbingOur IndustriesAviationCommercialData CenterEducationHealthcareHospitalityIndustrialResidential and Multi-FamilyRetailSports and EntertainmentTransportation and InfrastructureOur ExperienceInsightsInsightsBlogIn the NewsResourcesContact Back to Index 30 Navisworks Tips & Shortcuts May 21, 2019 10 min read Need help in detecting clashes with Navisworks? Our team at VIATechnik can create custom clash tests to test scenarios unique to your project. Contact our Navisworks clash detection consultants to get started or visit our BIM services to find out how we can help you with your projects.

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