Attach documents to 3D model elements

Attach documents to 3D model elements

In BIMcollab Twin, users can attach documents uploaded in their Project phase directly to specific elements within the 3D model. Connecting documents to relevant objects provides context specific information and makes it easier to find relevant information.

To attach documents to objects, you first need to have the documents uploaded to your project (phases) and the required 3D models uploaded to the WebViewer.

3D models can be visualized in the WebViewer only if they have been uploaded on a Project Phase level.  Make sure that you have the correct phase selected and documents uploaded on the phase level.

User Permissions

In BIMcollab Twin, each user role has specific permissions that allow or restrict the ability to view, add, edit or delete various aspects of a project. 
These also apply to the ability to attach documents to objects in the WebViewer. Specifically, the permission listed below will affect what is available to you within this feature:
  1. Document Viewing rights: Only the documents that you as a user have rights to will be available for selection. Similarly, when selecting objects with attached documents, only the documents that fall under your permissions will be displayed. So it is possible that documents are linked to elements that you are not able to view.
  2. Model rights: Only users with both the right to View the model, and the right to Attach documents to objects can attach documents to elements.
Read more about the details of user roles and permissions here: User role permissions

Attach Documents to model elements

Documents can be attached to objects from the Model tab. The Attach Documents panel by default opens on the left side. To minimize the panel, click on the arrow button (1).



  1. Select the needed elements from the 3D model interface. You can select elements manually, or you can select all elements belonging to the same Object Type from the Navigation menu. 
The maximum number of elements that can be selected at the same time is 200. If more than 200 objects are selected, the Attach documents button will be grayed out. 

      2. Once you have the elements selected, click on the Attach Document button (2).
            
      
      3. The summary button (3) displays how many elements have been selected that the documents will be attached to.
          
                        

      4. To select the documents to attach to the selected object, start by typing in the search bar (4). To find documents, you can use any terms from the document name as well as any of the document's metadata. 
          
      5. From the displayed documents, you can select multiple documents to attach by clicking on the Attach Document (5) button for each. 
          

      6. The document is now attached to the object. 

      

If you decide to add more documents to an object at a later stage, the "Attach Document" button will be greyed out if a document has already been added to the object.
When hovering over the button, a message appears saying "This document is attached to all selected objects".


When a new version of a model is uploaded, the documents will remain linked, whether the model is part of a Revision or not. Documents are connected to the your components' GUIDs, which allows Twin to correctly recognize the linked files.
If you redraw an element, its GUID will stay the same unless the element is deleted or significantly changed (e.g., changing a door to a window). In those cases, the element will receive a new GUID, and the documents will no longer be linked.

Find documents attached to specific objects

Once documents have been attached to objects, these will be displayed in the document panel whenever those objects are selected in the 3D view.

Selecting one element:
By selecting one element from the 3D model, if there are documents attached to it, they will be displayed in the menu. 



If there aren't any, the message "This object does not have any documents attached" is displayed.



Selecting multiple elements:
If you select multiple elements, the list displays all documents attached to the selected documents, even if a particular document is attached to only one item in the selection.




The summary button clarifies if the specific document is attached to all selected elements, or only to specific elements from the selection.
On hover it will show more details about the related objects.
  1. If it is already attached to all objects from the selection, the summary  displays "All" and the Attach Document action is not available. When hovering over the button, a message appears saying "This document is attached to all selected objects".



  2. If the document is not attached to all objects in the selection, then the number of objects is shown (more details are displayed on hover), and the Attach document action is available. 


Actions with attached documents

View
To View a document from the list, select the three dots icon and choose the "View" option. The document will open in another tab.



Only files in PDF, DWG, PNG, and JPG formats can be previewed.

Detach documents
To detach a document from the object, select three dots icon for the required document and choose the "Detach" option. 




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