Navisworks - Using the Compare Tool

By Garry Stockton

Whilst many people look at Navisworks as a Collaboration, Communication and Clash detection tool, using the compare functionality is never thought of. This is a great way of comparing the changes made in any model.

The first thing you need to do is to Export the models from Revit. There are a few different file types that you can export. Navisworks can read the Revit file format, but I wouldn't use that format in all cases, really in very few cases. When trying to compare different version of the same building I would export my Revit file as an NWC (then convert to NWD) or DWF file. The reason why I would export as a DWF file is because DWF's are small files and multiple versions can easily be stored, also these files can easily be imported into Navisworks.

Next, we Import the files into Navisworks, because the files are usually made from the same file, their origins are the same so they will come in at the same point, on top of one another. You import the 2nd model by clicking the append button (1), then select the two files you want to compare (2) in your selection tree.

Staying on the Home tab, go to the Tools panel and select the Compare. Note that the compare tool is greyed out until you select 2 items you want to do the comparison on.

Once you have selected the item for compare, a dialog box gives you options to choose for the compare, so you could choose whether it's looking for differences in the geometry or just in the properties. Then for the results you can hide matched elements and highlight differences.

Make sure you note that the Overridden Material and Overridden Transform check boxes relate to changing the colour and transparency in Navisworks, and changing a file's origin, scale, or rotation since loading into Navisworks, respectively. These check boxes are clear by default, and all the other criteria relate to the properties of items from the original model.

The compare function then creates the two models’ in different colours so that you can see the changes in the two models. In this Project red highlights are where changes have been made.