Clash panel

Set Gap

Point at two faces and type the gap you want between them; the selected object slides the exact difference, tighter or apart, clash or no clash.

What it does#

Clear Clash only moves an object that is in the way, and only away. Coordination is mostly the other cases: a run of services that should sit tighter to free a corridor, or a tray that needs another 100 mm of air for a duct to pass. Select the object that should move, point at a face on it and the face it should sit against, type the gap you want, and it slides along those faces' normal by exactly the difference, towards or away, then tells you how far, ready to type into Revit.

How to use it#

1. Select the object that should move, say the cable tray.
2. Click Set Gap. The native Point to Point measure opens and the banner along the bottom of the window asks for the face of the tray that must move.
3. Click the top of the tray. The banner now asks for the face it should sit against.
4. Click the underside of the duct. A prompt reads "Tray 42 is 350 mm from Duct 7. Gap to leave between the two faces, in millimeters:", prefilled with your default.
5. Type 100 and press Enter. The tray rises 250 mm and a dialog reads "Moved Tray 42 by 250 mm. Towards Duct 7: the gap was 350 mm, now 100 mm."
6. Click Copy in the dialog and paste the bare distance into the authoring tool. Ctrl+Z puts the tray back in Navisworks.

Limitations#

• Only the two faces are considered. Pulling an object tighter can push another part of it into something else; the tool does not check.
• The two faces must be parallel. Skewed faces are refused on the banner before the prompt opens, so you never type a number that cannot be used.
• The gap cannot be negative. To bury one object in another on purpose, use Item Tools.
• The move is a Navisworks transform, the same one Item Tools makes. It changes the review model only, never the source file; the number is what goes back to the author.

Other uses#

• Clearing a clash with a set gap in one go: it also moves objects that are inside each other, and says how deep the clash was.
• Checking whether a tighter arrangement fits: set the gap, look, undo.

Good to know#

Esc, a right-click or cancelling the prompt leaves everything as it was, quietly. The default gap is stored with its unit in set_gap.json; the number you type in the prompt is used once and does not change the default.