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Model validation: Metadata purposes

In this article, we will cover how to set up and use metadata purpose checks for metadata validation.

The purpose of metadata validation is to ensure that property requirements are being met. This could be the requirements in an ICT agreement or a specific purpose like a quantity takeoff.

Table of contents

  1. How to set up metadata purposes
  2. Create metadata purpose checks
  3. Validate metadata using purpose checks
  4. Correct the data using the Revit plugin

How to set up metadata purposes

 Read more

This feature requires knowledge about the model validation feature. To learn more, read our article about Model validation: How to perform checks.

Create metadata purpose checks

 User rights

Creating metadata purposes can be done by a project administrator, a project planning manager, or a user in a user group that has been given access to 'Design'.

To create a metadata purpose, go to

DesignSelect a buildingModel validationAdd  Metadata purpose:

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From this new window, you can create and design the purpose. First, give it a name and choose the folder in which it should be located.

Add Property Rules to the Property List

Before creating the checks, you need to add property rules to the property list. These property rules will be used when creating the checks. To add a property rule, click Property list  Add:

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Then, type in the name of the property rule, choose the property, and then the value that the property must comply with for the checks that use it. For the values, you can choose between text and numeric based:

  • Must exist (There must exist a value for the property)

Text-based:

  • Equals (The property value must be a text string that is precisely equal to what is written here)

Numeric-based (The chosen value must adhere to the following numerical rules):

  • Equals
  • Greater or equal
  • Less or equal

For this example, we want the walls of the federated model to comply with the ICT Agreement, which in this case states that the metadata for the structural walls need to include the used materials. In this case, we set the property to 'Material' and the value to 'Must exist':

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Add checks to the purpose

Then, add checks to the purpose - you can have multiple checks for a single purpose. 

To create a check, click Add, give the check a name, and decide which property the check should look for. In this instance, we want to check the metadata for the material of the walls in the project. So, we name it 'Wall Material' and add a filter of 'Category - Equals - Walls' and add the previously created property rule to the 'Property checks' column: 

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Then click 'Save' and the metadata purpose check is ready to be used in the model validation to validate the metadata.

Validate metadata using purpose checks

When the metadata purpose checks have been created and set up, they can be used in the Model validation to validate the metadata they have been set up for. 

To use the created metadata purpose, go to

DesignSelect a building  Model validation.

Then select a file for that building like you would using the model validation feature, and select the metadata purpose under the 'Requirements' tab:

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The model will now display all of the objects in the model that don't comply with the requirement of the purpose - in this instance all of the wall elements (110) that do not have any material metadata.

Selecting one of the objects will also display what missing properties it has:

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You can then inform the relevant person or fix it yourself. This can be done by using the Revit plugin.

Correct the data using the Revit Plugin

After finding the lacking metadata using metadata purposes, you can now use the Revit plugin to open Revit directly to the relevant object that needs to be changed.

 Read more

If you need to download the Revit plugin first, read our article on how to download it: Revit Plugin

First, start Revit and load the model. Then go to the 'Dalux' tab and open up Dalux using the  Model Validation button:

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With Dalux open, select the right building and file, then select the metadata purpose, as described earlier in the article.

Now, select the highlighted object in Dalux that you want to change and click Open in Revit:

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This will select the object in Revit (works in both 2D and 3D) and you can then edit it:

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To make it easier to see the object itself, you can use the Selection Box function:

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This process can be repeated for as many elements/objects that you want to change.

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