Custom Analysis Scales in BuildIT Construction

Tutorial Download

If you would like to download the file used in this article, download the accompanying Training Data and extract its contents to a folder on your PC.

Edit a Color Scale

• Open the example model.
• Open the Surface Deviation Analysis command.
  • Use the plane Reference Elevation for the Surfaces field.
  • Use 3 inches for the Maximum Search Distance.
    
  • To edit the color scale, select Custom for Color Scale.
    
  • This will bring up the Custom Color Scale Editor. The editor has many components to be aware of:
    
    • Display scale value in units instead of %
      • When checked, this allows users to specify specific values rather than percentages. The percentages will be based on the Maximum search distance and the Limits area of Surface Deviation Analysis. For this example, 3 inches and Maximum/Minimum are used, which means that 3 inches would be the 100% mark for upper and lower limits.
    • Values and Colors
      • These are the various values or steps and their corresponding colors.
      • The scale will display on the right of the dialogue to give a preview of the color scale.
      • There are two settings for how the analysis displays. One shows as a rainbow, as the default. The other, shown below, adds a strict cut in the various colors in the scale. This is achieved by right-clicking and adding values above or below with an additional color to represent the stark change. For example, the same color is used for 1 and 0.5 to create a strict color change, representing that orange is valuing between 0.5 and 1 in higher than the reference.
        
    • Exporting, Importing, Save
      • Here we can export the scale we have created or import one that has already been created as a *.scale file, which will be covered later.
• Edit the values to create a Pass/Fail color scale.
  • In this exercise, we want to see values that are within 0.5 inches of our reference as green, areas that are above as red, and areas that are below as blue. To do this, we will:
    • Enter the values as shown below and remove extra values.
      
    • Select the color to edit.
      
    • As an end result, the following should be entered:
      
    • Select Save to preview the custom color scale.
      

Export a Custom Color Scale

• With the same file open, select Custom for color scale once more.
  
• Select Export and save the file to a known location.
  

Import a Custom Color Scale

• With the same file open, select Custom for color scale one last time.
  
• Select Import and navigate to the *.scale file “Example.scale” in the training file.
  
• Select Save then Apply to see the custom color scale.