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issue-tracker

Arup Issue Tracker official repository

Arup/CASE Issue Tracker

Software Documentation Created: June 04, 2014 Last update: February 12, 2018

Introduction

This document describes the functionalities and use of the Arup Issue Tracker (AIT) initially developed by CASE and then extended by Arup.

Summary

The Arup Issue Tracker (AIT) is a set of tools designed to manage the electronic workflow for reviewing and amending BIM models. It currently works with Revit, Navisworks, Tekla BIMSight and Tekla Structures.

The tools can be used to store a list of ‘Issues’ in either a BCF file (BIM Collaboration Format) or using a web-based ‘Issue Tracker’ called Jira. This Issues can then be assignened, tracked and managed by the team in order to manage updates and tasks within the BIM model.

AIT is made up of the following applications:

Requirements

Installation

Grab the latest installer from github and follow the installation wizard. The first time you run AIT you’ll be prompted for your Jira credentials. By default the username is your firstname.lastname.

Please note, the Jira Address field is not expecting a final /.

Interface

User interface is consistent across the various clients/plugins. The Jira panel lets the user connect to the Jira server and manage, import, export issues. The BCF panel is for managing BCF reports (.bcfzip files) and BCF issues.

Jira panel

Layout

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  1. Tab control to switch between the Jira and BCF panels
  2. Jira Project selection combo box
  3. Issue List
  4. Selected issue details (if multiple issues are selected, will display only the first)
  5. Selected issue comments

Actions

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  1. Disconnect from Jira
  2. Reloads the list of projects and permissions
  3. Opens the selected project in the browser
  4. Opens the Settings window
  5. Expands the Filter section (see specific page)
  6. Opens the selected issue in the browser
  7. Changes Issue Fields like Assignee, Issue Type, Status or Priority for the selected issue or issues (change of status will only be applied to the first selected)
  8. Opens the Snapshot in a new window
  9. Opens a 3D view to see the issue and elements involved, not available in the standalone version
  10. Opens a windows containing a list of attached elements
  11. Creates a new Issue directly into Jira (see specific page)
  12. Deletes the selected issues
  13. Exports the selected issues to BCF. Only issues that have a viewpoint.bcfv and a snapshot.png attachments will be exported.
  14. Pagination for when there are more than 50 issues in the list
  15. Adds a comment to the selected issue or issues

BCF panel

Layout

The BCF panel is very similar to the Jira panel, the project dropdown is replaced by a menu.

Actions

actions-bcf

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Same as in the Jira panel with some exceptions:

  1. Creates a new report
  2. Prompts to save the current report as BCF 1.0 or 2.0
  3. Opens an existing report (reports can be also opened by dragging them onto the application’s main window)
  4. Merge a BCF report into the current one
  5. Remove all attached model components
  6. Prompts to upload the selected issues to Jira
  7. Deletes the selected issue or issues

Settings

The settings window allows you to set the credentials of your Jira account/s. By default the username is your name.surname. Please note, the Jira Address field is not expecting a final /.

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Revit Project Settings (optional)

Revit Projects Setting are optional and not created by default. In order to set up a Revit project settings file it is necessary to create a .bcfconfig file in the same folder as the .rvt file named exactly as the Revit file (including extension). Therefore, for a SampleProject.rvt you’ll need a SampleProject.rvt.bcfconfig file in the same directory and it will only affect BCF files used on that project.

The content of the .bcfconfig has to be structured as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
    <appSettings>
    	<add key="useDefaultZoom" value="0" />
    </appSettings>
</configuration>

useDefaultZoom

Boolean (0 = false, 1 = true), default value: 0

Set it to 1 if working to/from Tekla so that Orthographic and Perspective views will be adjusted to its zoom factor. If not planning to exchange BCF files with Tekla set it to 1 so that views will not be scaled.

Usage

All addins work similarly although AIT for Windows does not provide functionality to create new issues and open viewpoints, and issues are created slightly differently in Navisworks.

General usage (AIT for Windows)

In no shortcut was created during installation, AIT for Windows can be accessed from:

[DRIVE]:\Program Files (x86)\CASE\ARUP Issue Tracker\ARUP.IssueTracker.Win.exe

If on a x86 system:

[DRIVE]:\Program Files\CASE\ARUP Issue Tracker\ARUP.IssueTracker.Win.exe

All the following features are also available in AIT for Revit and Navisworks.

Filters

flters

Issues can be filtered by Issue Type, Status and Priority. After selecting one or more filters and clicking “Apply” the filter bar will be highlighted.

N.B.

If a certain Issue Type, Status or Priority is being filtered out and a new issue with that Issue Type, Status or Priority is created it won’t be visible until that filter is cleared.

Order, not being a real filter, is always applied to the query retrieving the list of issues.

Export Jira issues to BCF

From the Jira panel, by selecting one or more issues and clicking the “Export to BCF” it is possible to create a new BCF report containing the issues.

It is important to keep in mind the following:

Upload BCF issues to JIRA

From the BCF panel, by selecting one or more issues and clicking the “Upload to JIRA” it is possible to create new Jira issues. The user will be prompted to select a project and an Issue Type for the new issues.

It is important to keep in mind the following:

Use in Revit

The AIT for Revit can be accessed from the CASE ribbon panel.

revit-ribbon

Add an Issue

Adding a new issue to a Jira project or to a BCF report follows the same procedure. The active view has to be either a 3D view (orthographic) or a camera view (perspective). After clicking the “Add Issue” button, the following window will appear:

add-issue-revit

Open a 3D View

Opening a 3D view in Revit can only be done if the active view is not a perspective (camera) view, in that case switch to any other type of view (2D or 3D).

Use in Navisworks

Add an Issue

Issues in Navisworks are added from existing Saved Viewpoints. The process of adding a new issue is different than in Revit since it’s a batch upload.

add-issue-navis

saved-viewpoints

After Clicking “Add Issue” it is possible to select one or more Viewpoints to add as issues, the “Attach elements to view” section lets the user decide which elements to attach to the issue.

N.B. to attach selected elements, they needs to be selected before clicking the “Add Issue” button. Only Selected Viewpoints will be uploaded and their comments will be used as BCF or Jira comments.

Model export from Revit

Revit to Tekla

Please refer to the requirements chapter before proceeding. Go to: Revit>Export>IFC>Modify Setup…

Mind to check “Include IFCSITE Elevation in the site local placement origin”.

ifc-export

Revit to Navisworks

For optimal results, it is suggested to use the NWC export utility from within Revit and export as NWC or to use an IFC file generated as mentioned above.

Known Limitations

Jira Setup

An Atlassian Jira instance, local or cloud, is needed to fully use the AIT.