Configuring a Layout

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What is a Layout?

A Layout is a sub set of the data from the parent DataView, with a limited number of columns, custom formatting, sorting and optionally Calculated Columns.

Creating a New Layout

Layouts can be created:


An existing Layout can be cloned:


Layouts can be edited:

Configuring the Layout



Specify a Name  for the Layout, this is the name as displayed in the Sources Manager Tree.

In the Show column you can specify whether each column is visible or not. Note that the data of a hidden column is stilled pulled from the DataSource every time the DataSource is refreshed, when possible you should limit the number of column that are pulled from the DataSource by configuring the DataView.

Use the Reorder buttons to reorder the columns of the Layout: move one or multiple columns down, at the bottom, up or at the top. You can also Remove columns if they are calculated columns.


TIPS: DRAG & DROP COLUMNS TO CREATE/EDIT THE LAYOUT


Columns can be reordered directly from the BimSens grid with a drag and drop operations. The active Layout will automatically be updated and a new Layout will be created if none is active.


Add a calculated column to a Layout

The Column Name is read only, it can only be changed for Calculated Columns. Some DataView may support column renaming, refer to the DataView configuration.

The Column Data Type is read only, it can only be changed for Calculated Columns. Some DataView may support editing of the column type, refer to the DataView configuration.

When the Column Data Type is 'Text',  BimSens provide 2 additional formatting options:


TIPS: HYPERLINKS


Tick the option Hyperlinks when the column contains file names or urls, this tells BimSens that the content is to be displayed as clickable links.


NOTE: HYPERLINKS RELATIVE PATH


You can use relative path for hyperlinks. Relative path are resolved in the following order:

  • relative to the parent DataView file location if one is provided (for instance Excel and Text DataView have one, but SQL doesn't; If not found then
  • relative to the DataView file location (not used currently); if not found then
  • relative to the Viewer file path. For instance when a file is open in Navisworks Viewer with a valid location; if not found then
  • finally, relative to the Project file location



The cell Alignment. When the alignment is on NotSet the cell alignment is the default for BimSens's grid. The other values are combination of vertical and horizontal alignment, respectively Top, Middle, Bottom and Left, Centre, Right.

The Display Format allows you to specify formatting for numeric and date values, for instance to round up decimal numbers, display as percentages, add units etc. The standard formats are defined by one letter for the type of number and optionally one digit for the precision. For instance the format C displays a Currency with default precision while C2 displays a Currency rounded to 2 decimals.


Value

Format

Formatted value

NUMERIC

1234.5678

C

£1234.56

1234.5678

C0

£1235

1234.5678

E

1.234568E+003

1234.5678

N3

1,234.568

0.12345

P1

12.3%

See more standard numeric format


CUSTOM NUMREIC

1234.5678

00000

01235

0.12345

#.##

.12

0.12345

0.###

0.123

12345678

##,#

12,345,678

12345678

#,#,,M$

12M$

See more custom numeric format


DATE

2009-06-15T13:45:30

d

15/06/2009

2009-06-15T13:45:30

D

Monday, June 15, 2009

2009-06-15T13:45:30

G

15/06/2009 13:45:30

See more standard date format


CUSTOM DATE

#29/08/2014 7:27:15PM#

dddd dd MMMM

Friday 29 August

#29/08/2014 7:27:15PM#

mm

27

#29/08/2014 7:27:15PM#

MMM

Aug

#29/08/2014 7:27:15PM#

yy/MM/dd H:mm

14/08/29 7:27

#29/08/2014 7:27:15PM#

HH:mm

19:27

See more custom date format

The Auto Size mode of the column is used to adjust the column width based on the cells content or when the grid is resized:

The Preferred Width allows you to specify a fix column width when the column Auto Size is set to None or a minimum width when the column Auto Size is set to Fill and there is not enough visible space to display all columns without scrolling. Values inferior to the minimum column width are ignored.

When the selected column is a calculated column you can edit the column formula

Specifies the preferred row height when rows are resized. This is set automatically when the user resizes row in the grid if the user has a valid licence level to edit configuration (otherwise the resizing is applied but not saved). Values of zero or less are ignored

Creating a New Calculated Columns

To create a new calculated column, click the New Column button.

A calculated column requires the following information:


TIPS


You can load an existing bsxc Layout configuration by using the Import button . You can also save the Layout configuration to a sharable bsxc file using the Export button.

About Formulas in Layout

Layout formulas support all the default Microsoft features for DataColumns:

See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.data.datacolumn.expression.aspx for a list of features supported by Microsoft.


In addition to the standard Microsoft features, BimSens implements a couple more functions:


Custom BimSens functions are evaluated before the normal Layout formula is evaluated, during pre-processing. For this reason, they do not have access to other operators and functions. You can nest BimSens functions together and you can use the result of their evaluation for standard functions, but not the other way around.

For example, this works:

but this doesn't work:


For more examples of advanced formulas, check the Look ahead colour filter walk through.