Compare

Tools > More Tools > Compare

Compare drawings between two projects to find and highlight the differences. Optionally exports the results to Excel and/or DXF.

The Difference Detection dialog opens when you start the function. See Difference Detection dialog below for details.

  1. Select the project that you want to compare to the currently active project.
  2. Add blocks and drawings to the selection in the selection tree, or filter them out.
  3. Click Compare to run the comparison.

The Comparison Results dialog opens. An overview of the detected differences is shown in table format. The table can be exported to an Excel spreadsheet or a DXF file. See Comparison Results dialog below for details.

Differences in drawings can be visualized per drawing in the graphical window. See Visualization in the graphical window below for details.

Difference Detection dialog

Project to compare to – A list of available projects is shown. One of the projects can be selected to be compared with the active project.

Drawings to compare – You can browse through the selected project's building block levels in the selection tree. You can select multiple items. You can select items and clear selections at the following levels:

  • Entire project – The entire project is compared.
  • Block group – Everything within the selected block group is compared.
  • Block – Everything within the selected block is compared.
  • Drawing – Only the selected drawings are compared. Everything else is skipped.

Comparison Results dialog

The table in Comparison Results lists the available drawings and explains the type of difference per drawing. The name of the project that the active project is compared to is shown in the title bar. The table is in tree format and can be collapsed and expanded at each building block level. The columns in the table are as follows:

  • Group – The block groups in the project.
  • Block – The blocks in the project per block group.
  • View – The available viewing types per block: Frame, Side, Top, Perpendicular.
  • Drawing – The available drawings per viewing type.
  • # Differences – The amount of differences per level and per drawing.
  • Occurence – Indicates whether block groups, blocks and drawings are available in the active project, the other project or both projects.
  • Type – Indicates if something was newly added, changed or removed.
  • Part – Description of the changed item if it concerns a construction part.

Save to Excel – Saves the comparison result tree to an Excel spreadsheet. The content and level structure is the same as in the dialog. The spreadsheet file can be saved to any folder, and the system will remember the last selected folder.

Delete DXF files – Removes all present DXF files from the compare folder, which is located in the project folder of the active project.

Save to DXF – Exports DXF files of each drawing to the compare folder, which is located in the project folder of the active project. In case a file is already present, it will be overwritten. An exclamation mark (!) as a prefix to the DXF file name indicates that a modification is present in the drawing. The file name is written in capital letters in that case.

Note: The five difference types will all have their own layer in the DXF file. This depends on the "tablayer" definition which can be found in the file %ncghelps%/dxf/tablayercompare.dat. If this file is not present, the system will create it with default values. See Interfaces & Integration > DXF / DWG Integration > General for more information about the contents of this file.

Visualization in the graphical window

The comparison results can be visualized in the graphical window.

Select a part in the comparison results table. The part is now highlighted in the drawing. The items in the drawing are highlighted in different colours, according to the comparison results, as follows:

  • Gray – Items that are the same in both projects.
  • Blue – Items that differ, item in the compared project. Each blue item has a cyan counterpart.
  • Cyan – Items that differ, item in the active project. Each cyan item has a blue counterpart.
  • Red –Items that are only present in the compared project.
  • Green – Items that are only present in the active project.