What is a Layout?

A Layout is a sub set of the data from the parent DataView, with a limited number of columns, custom text formatting, conditional formatting and sorting

Creating a New Layout

Layouts can be created:

  • From the Projects Tree, right click a DataView Node or a Layout Node and select New Layout


An existing Layout can be cloned:

  • From the Projects Tree, right click a Layout Node, select New Layout and confirm the duplication.


Layouts can be edited:

  • From the Projects Tree, right click a Layout Node and select Configure
  • Right click the Gird Header and select the Columns button.

Configuring the Layout

Styling Columns

When you create or edit a Layout, the Layout Configuration Dialogue opens:

  • Specify a Name for the Layout, this is the name as displayed in the Projects Tree.
  • From the Grid View
    • 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.Specify a 
    • In the Freeze column you can specify whether the column is frozen when scrolling horizontally. Changing the freeze option of a column will automatically change the preceding and succeeding columns freeze option to maintain consistency. Freeze can also be changed from a column header right click > Freeze
    • In the Group column you can specify whether the column values should be grouped. When columns values are grouped via a Layout, identical consecutive values in the same columns are painted as if the cells were merged with custom background appearance.

When multiple columns are grouped:

      • The visual merging occurs if the values in the all the preceding columns are also identical
      • When the Layout is applied and no user sorting is in place, the data is automatically sorted on all grouped columns


ROW GROUPING SOURCES


Note that the Data Pivot will automatically enable visual grouping for Grouping Fields, this can be extended with more fields in the Layout but cannot be overridden


    • 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.


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.


  • From the Name  group
    • The Column Base Name is read only. Some DataView may support column renaming, refer to the DataView configuration.
    • The Column Alias can be used to change the display name of the column in the layout:


GROUPING GRID HEADERS


Using return carriage in the Alias will create multiple headers levels. If multiple consecutive columns have the same name at the same level of the header, the headers will be merged


  • From the Type Group
    • The Column Data Type is read only. Some DataView may support editing of the column type, refer to the DataView configuration.

       When the Column Data Type is 'TrueFalse' (Boolean), BimSens supports both the standard Checkbox, and the Switch. They can be used interchangeably but the recommendation is to use

      • the Switch for temporary states that can be toggled on and off
      • the Checkbox for more permanent states or one-off options

Activating the Switch option will also show in Edit and Actions forms

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

      • Wrap Text: Wrap the text of the cell on multiple line when it is too long instead of truncating it
      • Is Hyperlink: format the column to display hyperlinks that you can click, with a menu to select from multiple links if you enter multiple value delimited by a comma; In Hyperlink mode, you can specify Alternative Link Text to display in lieu of the link, either static text or the name of another column in the view to use as display value

When the Column Data Type is 'RawData' the cell can be flagged as containing Image so that BimSens displays a preview of the image


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.

By default BimSens requires Ctrl + click to open hyperlinks, this is to avoid disturbing the normal row selection process. You can change this and allow single click activation via the Options dialogue


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:

  • relative to the Project file location

if not found then... Are you sure you want to use relative path?



  • From the Format group
    • Specify whether the text should be Bolded
    • 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. Refer to Formatting for more information about value formatting.
    • 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 Background Color options allows for selecting either a static color or a Colour Filter to apply to the cell background. Click the Define Rules link to open the selection menu and pick a Colour Filter

If the selected Colour Filter is based on another column two behaviours are available:

      • Default: the background color is calculated based on the value of the column the Colour Filter is based on
      • Override: the Colour Filter rules are kept but the background color is calculated based on the values in the color coded column. This is useful when multiple columns have the same set of values (e.g. pivoted columns, or stage statuses)

When a Colour Filter is defined, more layout options are available:

      • Colour Only: allows displaying of the colour only and not the text
      • Layout: allows choosing between rendering options for the colour in the cell:
        • Background: The whole cell background is filled with the colour
        • VerticalBand: A thin vertical band is painted on the left hand side of the cell
        • HorizontalBand: A band the height of the text is painted across the cell horizontally
        • Padded: The padded cell background is filled with the colour
        • Text: Only the text background is painted


  • From the Size group
    • 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:
      • Not Set: the column width is set by BimSens's grid
      • None: the column width is fixed
      • Column Header: the column width is adjusted to the content of the header
      • All Cells Except Header: the column width is adjusted to the content of all cells, except the header
      • All Cells: the column width is adjusted to the content of all cells, including the header
      • Displayed Cells Except Header: the column width is adjusted to the content of all visible cells in the grid, except the header
      • Displayed Cells: the column width is adjusted to the content of all visible cells in the grid, including the header
      • Fill: the column width is adjusted to fill the remaining space (shared between all columns set to Fill)


    • 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.


Calculated COLUMNS


Calculated columns are no longer defined at the Layout level. They must now be setup when configuring DataView in the Calculated Columns section

Inherited Style

When styling columns of a Data Pivot, the style of columns generated by a pivoted field is managed at the parent field level, inherited by all associated columns. Changing this style will impact all associated columns by default, unless they have the Override Individually flag activated.

This can be leveraged to define a style for columns that do not yet exist in the Layout but will appear as the data value change and new columns are hence generated by the pivoted field.

Styling Rows Height

  • Column Headers: You can specify a fix or Automated Height for the column headers row
  • Rows: You can specify a fix (Preferred Height) or Automatic Height for data rows. When Automatic is set you can also set a Minimum Height. The Preferred Height 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

Row Group Styling

When the rows are grouped either by a Data Pivot or in the layout by setting Grouping Columns, the grouping style can be customised:

  • By choosing whether to Show Vertical Borders for group cells or not
  • By Selecting the Visibility of Grouped Values between:
    • Never: The Cell Value is only shown for the first cell of the group
    • Selected: The Cell Value is shown for the first cell and the selected cells
    • Top: The Cell Value is shown for the first visible cell of the group. Use this option so that the group name remains visible when scrolling down
    • Always: The Cell Value is always visible