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Creating a Project using IFC

Before creating a VIM Enterprise project using an IFC file as the source, you will need to have an Azure Storage Account and an Azure SQL Database or local SQL Server Database configured. A separate database is required for each VIM Enterprise project. If the database and storage were configured by your IT department, you will need to contact them to get the connection strings required for your VIM Enterprise project.

If desired, you can run your project at each stage of the project configuration to verify the settings:

  1. Project source and local VIM file destination
  2. Azure SQL Database or local SQL Server Database connection
  3. Azure Storage Account

This will help you to isolate and quickly resolve any project configuration issues if required.

Creating an IFC Project​

  1. In VIM Enterprise, on the Projects tab, click New Project.
  2. In the New Project dialog, type a Name for the project.
    IFC Project
  3. Under Source, select IFC Local and click OK. The new project name is listed on the left panel and the project settings are displayed.
  4. On the project settings panel, click the folder icon beside the File Path field, select the IFC file for your project, and click Open.
    IFC Project Settings
  5. Enable the Centered option if you want to base the origin on the average transform of each object.
  6. In the VIM File Path field, click the folder icon, select a folder in which to store the exported VIM file, and click Save.
  7. On the top of the project settings panel, click Run to verify the project source and VIM file destination settings. The IFC file is converted to a VIM file and saved in the specified folder. You can verify the exported VIM file by clicking the Open icon beside the VIM File Path field. The VIM file is opened in VIM Desktop.
  8. Obtain the database connection string required for the next step and copy it to the Windows clipboard. NOTE: If your IT department created the Azure SQL database, you will need to contact them to obtain the database connection string.
    • If you created an Azure SQL database, log on to Microsoft Azure and go to the resource page for the SQL database you will be using with this project. In the left panel under Settings, click Connection Strings. On the SQL database Connection strings page, in the ADO.NET (SQL authentication) field, click the Copy to clipboard icon in the lower right corner. Before you add this connection string to the VIM Enterprise project settings, you must update the {your_password} placeholder with the password you used when you configured SQL authentication for the Database Server. See Creating an Azure SQL Database
    • If you created a local SQL database, use the following connection string, but replace {database_name} with the name of your database:
    Data Source=localhost\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog={database_name};Integrated Security=SSPI;TrustServerCertificate=True;
  9. In VIM Enterprise, on the project settings panel, right-click in the Database Connection String field and choose Paste. By default, the database string is hidden. Click the Show/Hide icon beside the field to view the string.
    Paste String
  10. At the top of the project settings panel, click Run to verify the database connection settings. The IFC file is converted to a VIM file and saved in the specified folder. A "Done!" message is displayed when the element data has been successfully added to the SQL database.
  11. Obtain the Azure Blob SAS URL required for the next step and copy it to the Windows clipboard. The Blob SAS URL is generated on the Microsoft Azure Container page. See Creating Shared Access Tokens. NOTE: If your IT department created the Azure Storage Account, you will need to contact them to obtain the Blob SAS URL.
  12. On the project settings panel, right-click in the Container Shared Access Signature (SAS) URL field and choose Paste. The same SAS URL can be used for all of your VIM projects.
  13. Click Save. NOTE: The fields in the Power BI section of the project settings are populated automatically from the Azure Blob Storage and Database settings. If you have a local SQL database using Windows Authentication, the Database User Name and Database Password fields will be empty.
  14. Scroll to the top of the project settings panel and click Run. When complete, the project Status will say "Done!", and a green checkmark will be displayed beside the project in the projects list.

Updating a Project​

To ensure your Power BI reports contain the latest data, you can manually update your VIM Enterprise projects, or you can schedule them to run at specific times.

NOTE: After a VIM Enterprise project has been updated, either manually or using the scheduler, you will need to click Refresh in the Queries section of the Power BI toolbar to get latest the data.

  • To manually update a project in VIM Enterprise, select the project you want to update and click Run. The BIM data is transferred to the SQL server, and the VIM file is uploaded to the Azure storage account. A "Done!" message is displayed when all of the operations are complete.
    Run
  • To schedule regular project updates, click on the Schedule icon on the top of the project panel (see below). Set the time and days you want to update the project and click OK.
    Schedule

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