Presenter Rules
The Rules tab of the Presenter control bar allows you to apply materials to models according to certain user-defined criteria, rather than by dragging and dropping onto individual layers, groups or components. For example, all layers that are floors can be assigned a material called "floorboards", without having to manually drag-and-drop the material on to each floorboard. Each time the model is updated, the rules then just need re-applying, rather than manually re-applying them to all items.
All materials can be saved in a JetStream "palette" (.nwp) file, which allows you to set up a palette of materials once for a project and re-apply them to a model as it evolves, or to another model in the same project that has been set up with the same layer names, colors, selection sets and/or properties.
You can apply as many rules at once, as all rules depend on material names. Rules can be defined using the JetStream API, but three pre-defined rules are:
Layers by name enables you to apply a material to named layers.
As an example, if a layer is called "Doors" and you rename a material to "Doors" (the spelling and case must be exactly the same as the layer's name) then all layers named "Doors" will appear with the properties of that material when you check the rule Layers by name , and click Apply Rules
You can give multiple materials the name of different layers and apply this rule to all of the layers.
JetStream materials by name enables you to apply a material to named Roamer materials. JetStream Roamer materials are not the same as JetStream Presenter materials - Roamer materials merely refers to the color and transparency of the item as it comes through from the original CAD file, whereas Presenter materials are those materials applied using the Presenter plugin, or are more complex materials such as bitmaps converted from the original CAD file.
If a Presenter material has the same name as a Roamer material in the model (for example, "AutoCAD Color Index 7"), then all items with this original Roamer material name in the scene receive this Presenter material from the palette when you check the rule JetStream materials by name , and click Apply Rules
Selection Sets by name enables you to apply a material to selection sets. See the section called "Selection and Search Sets" in the chapter called "Selecting Items" in the Roamer book for more information on setting up selection sets.
If a material has the same name as a selection set in the model, then all items in this selection set receive this material from the palette when you check the rule Selection Sets by name , and click Apply Rules
New custom rules may also be added and defined, using the Rules Editor:
From the Rules tab of the Presenter control bar, click the New button.
The Rules Editor dialog is displayed:
Enter a new name for your rule in the Rule name box.
Note
If you choose not to enter a name, upon selecting a rule template the name of that template will be used.
From the Rule templates list, choose a template from which your rule will be based upon.
Note
The Layers by name, Materials by name and Selection Sets by name templates are those used for the pre-defined Presenter rules.
The Materials by property template enables you to specify a property within the model scene. If a material has the same name as the specified property value in the model, then all items having that property will receive this material from the palette when you check the rule Materials by property , and click Apply Rules
In the Rule description box, click on each of the underlined values to define your custom rule. The customizable values available with the built in templates are:
Name . Use the name of the category or property as it is displayed in the interface (recommended). You can also choose Internal Name which is that accessed via the API (for advanced use only).
'
' . Choose from the available list, which category the property you wish to define is in. Only the categories that are contained in the scene are available in the drop down.'
' . Choose from the available list, which property you wish to define. Again, only the properties in the scene within the chosen category will be available.
Click OK to add the new ignore rule, or Cancel to return to JetStream.
Adding custom Presenter rules
The three options on the right hand side of the dialog affect how these rules are applied to the scene:
Check Override current mappings if you want to override any existing mappings from Presenter materials to items in the selection tree.
Check Apply to current selection if you want to apply this rule only to the currently selected items in the scene. Be aware that this is the default setting, so if your rule seems not to have worked, check that you don't have this option checked with nothing selected in the scene.
Check Apply to all instances if you want to apply this rule to all instances of any multiply-instanced item affected by the rule.
Setting Presenter Rules Options
From the Rules tab of the Presenter control bar, click the New button.
Enter a name for the rule, Insulation thickness
Choose the Materials by property template.
Click on '
' and choose PDS Component Data from the drop down list.Click on '
' and choose Insulation from the drop down list.Click OK to save the custom rule.
From the Recommended, Metals archive on the Materials tab, drag the Aluminium material into the palette (right hand pane).
Select the Aluminium material and press F2 and rename it, 50MM . Press Enter to save the new name.
Go to the Rules tab and check the Insulation thickness rule.
Ensure only the Override any current exact mappings option is checked and then click the Apply button, to apply the rule.
All items within the model scene that have a 50mm insulation thickness property should now have the aluminium material applied to them.
Presenter rules example
Let's assume, you wish to apply an aluminium material to all (Intergraph PDS) items that have 50mm insulation thickness. The following procedure describes the necessary steps to achieve this, using Presenter rules: