What is an Action?

Actions are operations that can be performed on the DataView such as creating, deleting or altering objects.

Actions are available depending on the type and configuration of each DataView, some DataViews do not expose any actions some will expose many.

An Action has one of 3 types: Create, Delete or Advanced (Other). When a DataView exposes Actions, they are located in the corresponding actions menus in the top toolbar, each menu is only visible if at least one Action of the corresponding type is available.

Performing Miracles Actions

To execute an Action, select row(s) in the Grid to perform the Action on, open the drop down menu and click the Action item. Actions will often require additional information to run, or Parameters, that you will have to fill in the dialogue that opens.

Default Actions and Shortcuts

If a default action has been defined for a given type, it will show as ticked in the actions drop down and can be executed with a keyboard shortcut.

• The default Create action is called with the shortcut Ctrl+N (New)
• The default Delete action is called when pressing the Delete key
• The default Other action is called with the shortcut Ctrl+E (Execute)

Actions Parameters

Actions Parameters can be of 4 types: Locked, Required, Optional or Reference:

• Locked Parameters are required for the Action to be executed. They cannot be edited by the user so you must provide a Default Value.
• Required Parameters are required for the Action to be executed; they can have a Default Value but are editable.
• Optional Parameters are not required to execute the Action but allow you to provide additional information if needed.
• Reference Parameters are for information only, they will not be used for the Action. They cannot be edited by the user so you must provide a Default Value.

Parameters Default Values

Some Parameters can have or require a Default Value.

The Default Value is set by selecting a Default Mode, and specifying a value to use a default. The Default Mode can be:

• Value: the value specified as Default Value is used in plain text. This value must be compatible with the selected parameter data type
• RowValue: the value specified as Default Value must be the name of a property of the DataView (i.e. column in the grid). The value to use will be inferred from the row that is selected at the time the Action is run.
• ModelProperty: the value specified as Default Value must be the name of a property as recognised by a viewer (for instance in Navisworks use CategoryName.PropertyName e.g. Element.Mark). The value to use will be inferred from the Viewer ID Match for the selected row in the grid, or from the viewer selection if the selected rows have no match or no row is selected.

• A ModelViewpoint: the value specified as Default Value must be Name or Path, for the viewer to return the corresponding property of the active viewpoint

See the SQL walk through for an example of Actions and Parameters setup.

Actions Repeat and Loop Modes

When executing an action you have the option to click Create/Delete/Execute or Repeat. Clicking Repeat will execute the action and immediately reopen the Action dialogue to execute the action again. If you had selected rows, clicking Repeat execute the action on the same row.

If you select more than one row you have 2 additional options, Next and All. Clicking Next will execute the action on the first row, and reopen the Action dialogue to execute the action on the following row, and so on until the last row. Clicking All will execute the action on all rows at once.