What’s new in Version 24.5.6?

Released: June 2024

BEXEL CDE Publisher

• Fixed an issue when publishing Cost to CDE in Imperial units. The published element Quantities were in Metric units.

Cost

• The issue that caused the wrong columns to be removed when hiding and deleting columns in the Cost Editor tab has been fixed.
• Fixed an issue in the Cost Editor tab where the column header filters would be enabled for filtering Classification data when there is no active Classification.
• Fixed an issue in the Cost Editor tab where user-defined properties of Date type would be displayed in the wrong format when opening the Edit Property window.

Cost Estimate

• Fixed an issue where Non-BIM Cost Assignments had their Cost columns improperly calculated. The value shown in column cells was always zero.

IFC

• Fixed an issue that caused the project update process to fail in certain cases when updating the project with IFC files.

Property Checker

• Fixed the issue that caused BEXEL Manager to crash when opening a project with an older version of Property Checker data.

Schedule

• Fixed the issue that prevented editing of Progress Entry working hours.
• Fixed an issue when copying a Task from one Schedule to another. In some cases, the Gantt control of the destination Schedule did not refresh properly.
• Fixed an issue that caused BEXEL Manager to crash when using the Task Report option. The issue occurs when the selected Task has resources and the baseline Schedule has a deeper structure than the active Schedule.
• Fixed an issue when creating a new Schedule grouping or deleting an existing one. Some Schedule operations were unavailable.
• Fixed an issue that caused BEXEL Manager to crash when changing the active Schedule while there was an active filter in the Line of Balance control.
• Fixed the issue of not being able to add Parent Task Level columns to the Gantt control immediately after updating the active Schedule.
• Fixed an issue that caused BEXEL Manager to crash when using the filter option in the Schedule Editor tab. The issue occurs when custom task grouping is performed and leaf Tasks have no name (N/A).
• Fixed an issue causing duplicating schedule properties during the copying tasks from one schedule into another if the destination schedule has properties with the same name. Now the properties of the destination schedule are correctly updated.
• Fixed an issue that causes BEXEL Manager to crash in certain situations when duplicating a Schedule.
• Introduced option to choose from which MS Project Completion Percentage column the progress is imported. The user can choose the following columns: % Complete, % Work Complete, Physical % Complete.

Released: May 2024

AI Assistant

• The implementation of the AI Assistant within BEXEL Manager empowers users with intelligent support throughout their BIM projects. Users can now use natural language prompts in their native language. Some of the currently supported prompts are:
  – Select Elements of category Walls.
  – Select Walls where the Area is greater than 30 m2.
  – Select elements where the property Storey Elevation is greater than 5m.
  – Create a Selection set with the name “Elements above 5m” from the selection.
     * The resulting Selection set is available under the “AI Assistant Selection Sets” selection set folder.
  – Create selection sets for each Subcontractor.
     * For this query it’s needed to have an active schedule and Subcontractor property populated with Subcontractor names. The resulting Selection sets are available under the “AI Assistant Selection Sets” selection set folder.
  – Select elements executed by subcontractor Company 01.
     * For this query it’s needed to have active Schedule and Subcontractor property populated with Subcontractor names.
  – Add the Total Cost property for each element.
     * For this query it’s needed to have an active schedule and cost assigned to the schedule.
  – Add Start and Finish Date properties for each element.
    * For this query it’s needed to have an active schedule.
  – Select the elements where the Total Cost is between 1000 and 2000 dollars.
    * For this query it’s needed to add the Total Cost property to the BIM model elements. That can be achieved by using AI Assistant or by using API Script.
  – Create look-ahead selection sets for the next 2 months.
    * For this query it’s needed to have an active Schedule. The resulting Selection sets are available under the “AI Assistant Selection Sets” selection set folder.

BCF

• Updated BCF Manager updated and brings the following functionalities:

         – Smoother License Activation
         – Enhanced user interface
         – Better support of the latest BCF API standard
         – A smoother BCF collaboration between the BEXEL Manager and BEXEL CDE solution.

BEXEL CDE Publisher

• Introduced functionality to publish Cost Estimation (Cost Version) to BEXEL CDE. The user is now capable of publishing all visible columns from the Cost Estimation window to BEXEL CDE. Also, it’s possible to update the existing CDE version and publish a new one or to update the existing Cost Estimation.
• Enhanced the positioning of the .glb files (e.g. Google Earth models) uploaded directly to the existing CDE project version made by publishing other model files from the BEXEL Manager.
• The following additional properties are now published to CDE when publishing the new version:

  – Category
  – Family
  – Building Name
  – Building Storey Name
  – Storey Elevation
  – Storey Name
  – Document Path
  – Document Title
  – Import Date and Time
  – Central File Name
  – BX3 File Name
  – BX3 File Folder
  These properties are especially useful while creating QTO/CBS directly in the CDE web portal.

• The following additional information was added to the animation publishing screen: Interval Type (e.g. Daily, Weekly, Monthly), Camera Animation Name, and Cost Version Name.

• The process of converting the model when publishing on the BEXEL CDE is improved by reading conversion parameters from a selected CDE server. If the configuration doesn’t match, you can still customize it within the config file located at “C:\Program Files\BEXEL\Bexel Manager 24 BETA\BexelManager.exe.config”. Only need to adjust the “OnlineViewer.Publisher.MaxTriangles” setting to your desired value (but between 100,000 and 1,000,000), and the “OnlineViewer.Publisher.UseMaxTrianglesFromCde” to False.

Clash Detection

• Enhanced the clash detection engine, making Containment clash detection much faster.

Cost Estimate

• Additional filters have been introduced in the Cost Estimate window, which makes it easier for the user to determine which assignments did not pass the Schedule or caused a duplicate cost. In the Cost Estimate tab, filters can be used by clicking the Filter button with the drop-down menu and selecting the desired filters. The filters that currently exist in the Cost Estimate tab are:
  – Filter by Element Selection.
  – Selected Assignments.
  – Assignments Without Elements.
  – Assignments With Elements.
  – Fixed (Overridden) Assignments.
  – Auto-calculated Assignments.
  – Partially Assigned to Tasks.
  – Partially Not Assigned to Tasks.
• Introduced the functionality to export User Defined Columns from the Cost Estimate window. The option is accessible from the Cost Estimate tab, by clicking the Report button with the drop-down menu and selecting the Cost Version (Excel) option.
• Enabled import of Supplements via Cost Estimate Excel. The option is accessible in the Cost Estimate tab by clicking on the Import button with the drop-down menu and selecting the option Import Cost Estimate.
• Added instructions for using import supplements to the Cost Estimate inside the Excel template.
• Enabled inline edit Cost Assignment user-defined properties within the Cost Estimate window.
• Modified behavior so that if multiple elements under the same Cost Item have different values in the User Defined column, these values are now presented to the user as a comma-separated list instead of displaying ‘Different values’ text.
• Enable the selection of elements based on the value of the user-defined property on the assignment. The option is accessed from the Cost Estimate tab, by right-clicking on a specific assignment (value of the property) and selecting View Values of Property option.
• Added option Expand to Level in the Cost Estimate window.
• Added option Expand selection for one or more folders in the Cost Estimate window.
• Introduced Collapse selection in the Cost Estimate window.
• Introduced separate Code and Name columns within the Cost Estimate window.
• Introduced functionality ‘Find In’ in the Cost Editor and Cost Estimate tabs. Enabled finding selected items from one tab in another and vice versa.
• Added option to automatically select elements in the Viewer when selecting Cost Assignment. The option is located in the second row of the Cost Estimate tab and is called “Auto-Select Elements”.

Cost Editor

• Introduced Excel-like filtering in the Cost Editor window for all visible columns.
• Improved evaluation of quantity formulas, minimizing the required formula parameters for the auto-assign process. Now, required parameters are checked based on the conditions of the IF formula.
• Introduced production capacity (per hour) at the level of Cost Item. This value is set within the Cost Item Editor window or imported from Cost Classification Excel. This value is used as the base for calculating Task duration via the following options in the Schedule Editor window:
  – Update Task Duration -> By Production Capacity Sum
  – Update Task Duration -> By Production Capacity Max
• Enabled text input for element queries in Smart Selection Sets, and for formulas and queries within the Cost Editor window.

Data Enrichment

• Added Help Sheet to all predefined data enrichment templates.
  The newest version of the Data Enrichnment will be automatically installed when launching BEXEL Manager. [LINK]

Grids

• Bugfix: Corrected the loading of grids from IFC files received from the ArchiCAD.

IFC

• Enabled moving of the geometry towards the starting point if any of the sources were positioned over 10K meters from the starting point. This feature fixes previous errors of creating fuzzy geometry that occurred when moving far sources.
• The regular update of xBim and IfcEngine libraries, used to export and import IFC files.
• Enabled export of Task Work Type to IFC file and import of IfcTask Global IDs.

Materials

• Enabled reading and displaying properties from materials in the BEXEL Manager. Some of the properties that are related to the material rather than the specific element are displayed inside the Materials tab by selecting the specific material. The properties related to the specific element are displayed inside the Properties tab, in the “Materials and Finishes” group, with the format “(Material Name)—(Area/Volume/Width)”.
• Removed the display of surface materials from the Materials tab. This type of information can now be accessed only using the API.

PowerBI

• Enabled the use of CDE public links when exporting the PBI Report. Public links are generated on demand for each model version through the CDE portal. Anyone with the link can access the report without requiring a direct access version to view the model.

  * This option will be available upon request only to customers with enterprise agreements.

• Added the additional instructions for the Schedule Integrity Check Power BI report (Manage -> Power BI -> Publish Report with BEXEL CDE -> Schedule Integrity Check -> About Schedule Integrity Check).

• The Power BI visual for BEXEL CDE/Viewer has been changed in all predefined Power BI report templates to support working without third-party cookies, which Chrome developers will likely retire soon. In addition, it is possible to load models and use BEXEL CDE/Viewer within the Power BI desktop application as well.

• Fixed export of schedule data for all Power BI reports that use that section when the baseline’s depth is different from the currently selected schedule’s depth.

• Fixed the calculation of relationship-dependent KPIs in the Schedule Integrity Check Power BI report.

Property Checker

• Enhanced the user interface of the Property Checker so that it more closely matches how the IDS displays rules. Now a tree-like structure is displayed, on the first level the name of the rule is written, and within it the checks that are executed.
• Enabled reading and using the following IDS queries within the Property Checker:
  – IFC class,
  – IFC attribute,
  – IFC property,
  – Material,
  – Classification,
  – and Relation.
• Introduced an option for selecting elements based on Passed / Not Passed values.
• Enabled support of IDS exported from BIM Collab. The main issue was that IFC attributes were not passed before.
• The newest version of the Property Manager will be automatically installed when launching BEXEL Manager. [LINK]
• Also, because of the changes made to the Property Checker, the Portfolio Manager Publisher has been also updated and will be automatically installed when launching BEXEL Manager. [LINK]

Revit

• Introduced an option within the Revit Publisher to choose whether to export only building stories or all available stories.
• From now on update notification will be displayed whenever a new version of Revit Publisher is available for download. The update notification will be shown when starting Revit, and there will be an option to go to the download location in order to get the latest version.
• The latest version of the Revit Publisher can be downloaded from this location [LINK].

Schedule

• Introduced the grouping of tasks in Gantt control like grouping in MS Project or Primavera P6.
  – In the schedule or tab editor, it is possible to group tasks by the values of their properties by clicking the New Group By button.
  – Also, it is possible to change the active grouping by selecting one of the already saved groupings in the drop-down menu next to the New Group By button.
  – The [No Group] option returns the Schedule to its initial state before grouping tasks in the schedule by task properties.
•  New predefined properties have been added to tasks. Now it is possible to add them to the Gantt as a column or view them through the Task Editor in the Properties tab. The following properties were added:
  * Text:
   Material Resources,
  – Labor Resources,
  – Equipment Resources,
  – Cost Item Codes,
  – Quantities,
  * Numeric:
  – Elements QTO – Area,
  – Elements QTO – Length,
  – Elements QTO – Volume,
  * Boolean:
  – Has Resources.
•  Added an option that enables the selection of the successor and predecessor tasks for selected tasks. The new option can be found in the Gantt control by right-clicking on the selected task and expanding the “Selection” option.
• Enabled selection of whether sub-elements on the task will be drawn in schedule animation or not. The option “Include Sub Elements” can be found inside the Task Editor under the Settings tab under the animation-related section.
• Added a predefined property called ‘Task Level Index’ to tasks. That property can be viewed within Gantt as a column and might be used for coloring tasks by level.
• Added a warning message in case the work hours in a progress entry are entered outside of the progress entry date range.
• The active filter in the Line of Balance is retained after changing the duration of a task.
• The Schedule Editor -> Find In -> Line of Balance option is now always enabled when used from the Gantt or Logic controls.
• From now on, entering task names when creating new ones is mandatory instead of auto-generated names (Schedule Editor -> New Task -> Direct Link -> Selected Elements or New Task -> Filtered Link -> Selected Elements).
• Fixed the issue that has caused an error when trying to delete multiple schedules at once.
• An issue that caused errors when exporting schedules to MS Project using .mpp and .xml exporters for schedules originally imported from MS Project has been fixed.
• The regular update of libraries used for export and import schedules from MS Project and Primavera.

Spatial

• Improved processing of spatial structure while loading models. Restrictions on the same building story name with different elevations over different buildings have been removed. Also, multiple stories with the same elevations but with different names inside the same building can be allowed.
• Fixed an issue causing some elements can’t be positioned inside any building during the model update process.

User Interface

• General updates and improvements of translations of the BEXEL Manager interface in all languages.
• Fixed an issue that caused an error during the starting of the BEXEL Manager.
• The regular update of all UI components to the latest version to get fixes for some minor issues and improve stability.