Productivity Toolbox
Win64, EnglishGeneral Usage Instructions
Getting started
After installation, a Productivity Toolbox tab appears on the Navisworks ribbon with four tool panels (Group Elements, Clash Manager, Reporting and Other Tools) and a Help panel. Every tool works on the model you have open. A demo model (Federated_Model.nwf with architectural, structural and MEP files) and an example rules file are installed in %APPDATA%\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\Autodesk_Navisworks_ProductivityToolbox.bundle\Contents\Demo.
Typical coordination workflow
- Group Elements: build nested groups from property rules, for example level, then system, then category. The groups are colored in the model. Save them as search or selection sets, and export the rules to XML to rerun them on the next model.
- Clash Manager: save the clash matrix from selection set folders to Excel, fill in the tolerances and load it back as clash tests. List, run and batch-update the tests from the Clash Manager pane.
- Clash Results: auto-group the results of a test by level, grid, assignee, status, source file or any property, rename groups and set statuses in batch.
- Clash reports: export the Standard, Assigned To, Detailed and Matrix reports to Excel. Append each export to a clash history workbook to track new and resolved clashes from week to week.
- Reporting: render one image per group, an HTML report that prints one group per page, or a quantity take-off per group to Excel or CSV.
Other tools
- Selection Set Manager: find every selection or search set that contains the selected elements.
- Section Box Manager: section the view to a Revit room or level.
- Export and Import Properties: move property values between the model and Excel or CSV.
- Copy Revit IDs, Explode Model and Generate Timeline.
Help
Hover any button for its tooltip and press F1 to open its help page. The Help button on the ribbon opens the user guide. Video tutorials are on the Productivity Toolbox YouTube channel.
Screenshots
Commands
Installation/Uninstallation
Productivity Toolbox uses its own MSI installer, not the standard App Store installer. Close Navisworks, then run the installer downloaded from the Autodesk App Store. It installs for the current Windows user into %APPDATA%\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\Autodesk_Navisworks_ProductivityToolbox.bundle and covers Navisworks Manage and Simulate 2021 to 2027. The next time Navisworks starts, the Productivity Toolbox tab appears on the ribbon.
To uninstall, close Navisworks and remove Productivity Toolbox in Windows Settings > Apps > Installed apps, or in Control Panel > Programs and Features.
Additional Information
Licensing
The plugin checks your entitlement with the Autodesk App Store the first time you click a tool in a Navisworks session, using the Autodesk account you are signed in to in Navisworks. After a successful check you can work offline for 24 hours. After that, connect to the Internet and sign in to Navisworks with the Autodesk account that bought or trialled the plugin.
Navisworks Simulate
The clash tools require Navisworks Manage. In Navisworks Simulate the four clash buttons are disabled because Simulate has no Clash Detective. Every other tool works in both products.
Usage data
The plugin sends pseudonymous usage and error data (commands used, timings, errors, toolbox and Navisworks versions) to find and fix problems. File paths are replaced by placeholders, and model names, element names and user names are not sent. Details are in the privacy policy.
Known Issues
At Windows display scaling other than 100%, some buttons in Productivity Toolbox dialogs and panes can be cut off or hidden. If a button is not visible, set the display scaling to 100% before starting Navisworks. Once Navisworks is running with the toolbox loaded, the scaling can be changed for that session; set it back to 100% before the next start.
Contact
Author/Company Information
Support Information
Email support@productivitytoolbox.app. The user guide, tutorials and release notes are at productivitytoolbox.app.
When a tool fails, the error dialog shows a reference code. For an error report, please include:
- The reference code from the error dialog
- The Navisworks version and edition (Manage or Simulate)
- The steps that led to the error
- A sample model, if possible
- A ZIP of the log folder %TEMP%\ProductivityToolboxLogs
Feature suggestions are welcome by email. Please describe the workflow and the result you need.
Version History
| Version Number | Version Description |
|---|---|
|
3.0.0 |
- New Section Box Manager: section the view to any Revit room or level in one click, or to several at once, at the room's own height or the full storey. - New Generate Timeline: turn a selection set folder into a TimeLiner task tree, ordered by a sequence blueprint. The built-in "UniFormat by level" blueprint sorts levels by height and trades in construction order; blueprints can be edited and shared. - Clash Results: auto-group a test by nearest level, grid, assignee, status, an item property or source file. Add To Group with drag and drop, and set the status of a whole test at once. - Clash matrix: nested folders, a preview before anything changes, existing tests updated instead of duplicated, clash test folders on Navisworks 2027, and a new Matrix report of results per pair of sets. - Clash history: clash reports can append to a history workbook that tracks new, resolved and reappeared clashes from one export to the next. Every report opens on a Summary sheet. - Much faster grouping: a rule set or rules file reads the model once (six rule sets on 11,000 elements went from 30 s to 2 s), and cached properties fill the property dialogs instantly. - Cancel any long operation from the progress bar and keep what was finished. Clash edits are single undo steps. - Import Rules explains itself: missing properties are flagged before the import, and every rule that fails is listed with the reason. - New user guide at productivitytoolbox.app/docs. F1 on any button opens its help page, and every button and clash control has a tooltip. - Safer files: settings, rules, caches, blueprints and Excel exports are saved without risk of a half-written file, and read the same on every Windows language. - Privacy and support: error reports leave out file paths and user names and show a reference code to quote in a support email. - Dozens of fixes across every tool, many of them found by a new automated test suite that runs on Navisworks 2021 to 2027. |
|
2.8.0 |
- Group Elements is dramatically faster: groups are built in a single pass over the model instead of one search per property value. Typical models group about twice as fast with roughly half the memory. - Re-running, editing or importing grouping rules is near-instant for properties already used this session. - Saving groups to selection sets now offers search-based sets (they update as the model changes) or static sets, for every rule type including numeric ranges and value lists. - Importing grouping rules shows a summary with elapsed time per rule. - Clash Results Navigator: new "Set Status" option in the right-click menu changes the status of the selected clashes. Selecting a group updates every clash inside it. - Clash Results Navigator: Rename can now replace the name entirely. Untick "Keep original name" and type a new one; every renamed item ends with a unique generated id, so names never collide. - Clash Results Navigator: Rename now works on selected groups, with a "Rename children" option to also rename the clashes inside them. - The Clash Manager and Clash Results panes are much snappier on large clash sets, and the results list keeps its column widths when switching tests. - The Selection Set Manager walk mode is much more responsive and keeps its scroll and expand state. - The Group Elements pane is much faster on large groupings, and recolouring a multi-selection is applied in one step. - "Analyze properties" is remembered for the loaded model, so later dialogs that need it open ready to use. It can also be cancelled. - Export Properties and QTO reports are substantially faster on large selections. Both can be cancelled while they run. - Image reports, HTML reports and saved-viewpoint generation can be cancelled part way; a cancelled viewpoint run keeps the viewpoints already generated. - The HTML report has a new look: a cover page with the grouping rules and a colour strip, a clickable contents page, and one A4 page per group with the four views. Click any view for full screen; the report prints to PDF one group per page. - Progress bars no longer stay on screen when an export or report fails. - Fixed: the HTML and image reports produced no images in Navisworks 2027. - Fixed a crash in the Clash Results Navigator when switching clash tests while result checkboxes were selected. - Fixed a crash in the clash results tree while its contents refresh. - Fixed a crash when exporting a clash matrix with no eligible selection-set folders, and a misleading "exported successfully" message when the save was cancelled. - Loading a clash matrix whose hidden selection-set IDs were edited now shows a clear message naming the affected selection set and how to fix it. - Clash Results: new "Auto-group" button groups every clash of the selected test by nearest level, grid intersection, assignee, status, an item property or the item's source file, with an optional second rule, a minimum group size and a cancellable progress bar. - Clash Manager: the Excel reports open on a Summary sheet with a status-by-test matrix, the Standard and Assigned To reports add a ready-made pivot, and the Detailed report gains priority, dates, age, distance and clash point in your display unit, nearest level and grid, both items' name, category, source file and Revit id, description and the last comment. The export can be cancelled. - Every ribbon button now has a tooltip explaining what it does. Pressing F1 on a button opens the closest help video. - When something goes wrong, the error dialog shows a short reference code. Quote it in a support email and we can find the exact incident. - Fixed the Tolerance column in the Standard clash report, which was written in document units; it is now converted to your display unit. Fixed the Assigned To column in the Detailed clash report on Navisworks 2026/2027. |
|
2.5.0 |
- Added support for Navisworks 2026 and 2027 - Clash Manager - option to batch-update clash test parameters such as name, tolerance and type - Import properties - new tool to export template with identifier and add custom properties to it, and import it back. IMPORTANT: close any open properties panel, because it's reacting to state changes making whole flow extremely slow - Added instructions to clash detection matrix template - Logging improvements - Fixed issue which crashed Navisworks if Clash Results/Clash Manager is displayed during file opening - Added our own installation with proper license |
|
2.4.1 |
- Clash Results - Filter settings are saved between sessions in Clash Results - Clash Results - Option to apply filters to view - Clash Results - Option to display all clashes, only groups, and only single clashes - Clash Results - Option to highlight intersected clashes. - Clash Results - Renaming options are saved between sessions - Fixed issue which crashed Navisworks if Clash Results/Clash Manager is displayed during file opening - Added support for Navisworks 2025 |
|
2.2.0 |
- Added Clash Result manager - Inside Clash Results Manager, option to rename selected clash groups based on status, test name, custom prefix and tolerance - For selected element, options to check whether it belongs to other clash results and if yes, to create clash group easily - Removed support for Navisworks 2020. |
|
2.0.0 |
• Added option to cache categories and properties and save that cache for later use. Using cache drastically speeds up searching progress within Group Elements module. • Added option to save and load clash detection matrix. User can now create clash detection matrix based on selection set folders as long as folder contains flat list of selection or search sets. • Removed support for Navisworks 2019. From now on, we are going to support last 5 versions of Navisworks. |
|
1.5.3 |
• Support for Navisworks 2024 • Fixed bug affecting Navisworks 2023 HTML and Image reporting |
|
1.5.2 |
• Support for Navisworks 2023 |
|
1.5.1 |
• Fixed bug causing crashing of the application in situations where clash tests were updated outside of Clash Manager while Clash Manager dock pane was turned off • Improved style of checked clash tests inside Clash Manager • Updated 3rd party packages to the latest versions |
|
1.4.0 |
• Instead of having flat structure of the currently colored level within Group Elements dockable pane, exported viewpoints are now following the same structure and colors as a group from which they are exported • From this version. user can selected multiple nodes in Group Elements and change their color at once. To do that, right click in the Group Elements window to expand context menu and then Change Colors… menu item. • Added functionality to save frequently fired clash tests to file and load those files as run groups within Clash Manager dock pane • SourceFile typo in Group Rule window changed to Source File • IMPORTANT: Please read the known issues section if you have problems with scaling |
|
1.2.0 |
• Added support for Navisworks 2022. • IMPORTANT: Please read the known issues section if you have problems with scaling |
|
1.1.0 |
• Group Elements Save All functionality now saves search sets in case that breakdowns are created using the Custom Text Property option. • Introduced the Export Properties module. Now user can select and export properties per element, selected while the first object model resolution is active. • More streamlined properties listing while analyzing properties through software. Properties are now unique by display name and data type, avoiding duplicated property entries while analyzing models from different source files. • Copy Revit IDs functionality is doing only simple coping of Revit IDs, without additional information. If the user wants additional information, it can be done through the new Export Properties module • Added search set icon to Selection Set Manager to distinguish selection sets from search sets • Progress bars during the analysis of properties are now showing percentages • Updated YouTube channel with basic tutorials for all commands • Small under-the-hood improvements. |
|
1.0.0 |
Initial release |
