Specifying the colours of 3D objects in a 3D model

3D objects within a 3D model, and site objects, may appear in different colours, depending on colour settings within the 3D model itself. If you want to override these colours, you can specify that 3D objects should instead be coloured according to the background colour of the code library of the tasks with which are associated, or according to override colours that apply to specific types of object in the 3D model, or to specific site objects.

To specify override colours for the 3D objects in a 3D model, you use the fields on the Colour Override tab of the IFC Model Properties dialog. You can also specify override colours for IFC group models and site objects, using the fields on the Colour Override tab of the IFC Group Model Properties dialog. If the override colours that you specify for an IFC group model differ from the settings on any of the individual 3D models within the group, the IFC group model settings take precedence.

To specify override colours for a 3D model or IFC group model:

Launch Library Explorer and click either IFC Model or IFC Group Model in the left pane.
Right-click the 3D model or IFC group model that you want to edit in the right pane of Library Explorer and select Properties from the menu that appears. The IFC Model Properties dialog or IFC Group Model Properties dialog appears.
Click the Colour Override tab.
Select a colour to display in the background of the IFC Model pane in the Model background colour field.
If you want to colour 3D objects according to the background colours of the code library entries of the tasks with which they have been associated, select a code library in the Code library colours field; select None if you do not want to colour 3D objects according to codes.

For example, if you select a Risk Factor code library in this field, each 3D object is coloured with the background colour of the Risk Factor code that has been assigned to the task with which the object is associated. 3D objects associated with high risk tasks are coloured using the background colour of the high risk code; objects associated with low risk tasks are coloured using the background colour of the low risk code; and so on.

Each 3D object can be associated with more than one task, and each task can have different codes assigned from the selected library. You can specify which code is used to colour multi-task 3D objects by editing the codes in the specified code library and specifying a sort order for each code. If a 3D object is associated with more than one task and each task has a different code, the code with the highest sort order is used to colour the object.
If you want to colour 3D objects according to their IFC entity and type, use the grid on the dialog:
- Click Add to add a new row to the grid, in which you can select an IFC entity - and optionally, a predefined type and material - and specify the colour in which to display 3D objects of that type; select the Transparency check box to display objects of that type as transparent.
- Colour override settings are applied in the order in which rows appear in the grid, from the top down. This means, for example, that you could choose to display all slabs in a particular colour (by entering a row that relates to all slabs) but to display slabs of one particular type in a different colour (by entering a row specific to that slab type beneath the row that relates to all slabs). Use the Up and Down buttons to change the position of selected rows in the grid and change the order in which colour override settings are applied.
- Select a row in the grid and click Remove to delete it, removing the colour override settings for 3D objects of that type.
If you want to colour individual site objects with a particular colour, click the Site Objects tab, select a site object and select a colour in the Colour field. You can choose a different colour for each site object.
Click Close.