Add links to features using rules

Link rules allow you to use attribute data in feature and scene layers to automatically link BIM documents to GIS data. You can create links by specifying the attribute that contains the URL of the document in the Autodesk Construction Cloud or by specifying the Autodesk Construction Cloud identifiers for the project and document item. Complete the steps in the following sections to add links to features using rules.

Create a Viewer URL rule

If you used ArcGIS Pro to create web maps and web scenes using the BIM Cloud Connection, you can use the SharedView attribute or any other attribute that contains a valid URL to an Autodesk Construction Cloud document to automatically link the document URL to features.

1. On the Links page, click Link Rules.
   The Link Rules table appears below the Map widget.
2. Click the Select Layer drop-down arrow and choose the layer you want to add the Viewer URL rule to.
3. Click + Add.

   The Add Expression dialog box appears.

4. Click the Rule drop-down arrow and choose ViewerUrl.
5. Click the BIM Viewer Url drop-down arrow and choose SharedView.

   If your Autodesk document URLs are stored in a different attribute, choose that attribute from the BIM Viewer Url drop-down menu.

6. Click OK.

   The ViewerUrl link rule is added to the Links table.

Once the ViewerUrl link rule is added to the Links table, you can click the Preview model button to preview the selected feature in the Autodesk Viewer.

Create a BIM Document rule

The BIM Document rule is used by the georeferencing process to automatically create links between Document and Issue layer features and the source data to which they refer. You can also create a BIM Document rule by providing the Project ID and Item ID of the BIM document.

1. Click the Select Layer drop-down arrow and choose the Document or Issue layer to which you want to add the rule.

   Note:

   The Document and Issue layers may contain existing link rules that were created by the Add Document Extents and Add Project Issues tools on the Tools page.

2. Click + Add.

   The Add Expression dialog box appears.

3. Click the Rule drop-down arrow and choose BIMDocument.
4. Click the BIM Project Id drop-down arrow and choose projectId.
5. Click the BIM Item Id drop-down arrow and choose itemId.

   Note:

   You can use ArcGIS analysis to perform spatial joins between the Documents and Issues feature services to allow these rules to apply to other feature services of interest. For example, a high-consequence gas pipeline that did not originate from Autodesk Construction Cloud can be linked to the relevant engineering documents by assigning the [projectid] and [itemid] values based on spatial joins with georeferenced documents.

6. Click OK.

   The BIMDocument link rule is added to the Links table.

Once the BIMDocument link rule is added to the Links table, you can click the Preview model button to preview the selected feature in the Autodesk Viewer.

Create a Document Name rule

The Document Name rule can use any attribute that contains a document name to create links to its source data. You can create a BIM Document Name rule by providing the BIM display name of the document.

1. Click the Select Layer drop-down arrow and choose the feature layer to which you want to add the rule.
2. Click + Add.
   The Add Expression dialog box appears.
3. Click the Rule drop-down arrow and choose DocumentName.
4. Click the Name drop-down arrow and choose the attribute that represents the document name.
5. Click OK.

   The DocumentName link rule is added to the Links table.

Note:

The value in the attribute of the selected feature layer searches for documents in Autodesk Construction Cloud with a display name that matches or contains the attribute value. The search is case sensitive for the attribute value, which means the attribute value as lowercase, uppercase, and with the first letter of the value capitalized also matches the search.

Once the DocumentName link rule is added to the Links table, you can click the Preview model button to preview the related document for the selected feature in the Autodesk Viewer.

Create a Schedule Feature rule

The Schedule Feature rule allows you to link a schedule table to the schedule feature layer.

1. Click the Select Layer drop-down arrow and choose the Schedules layer.
2. Click + Add.

   The Add Expression dialog box appears.

3. Click the Rule drop-down arrow and choose ScheduleFeature.
4. Click the Schedule Join Field drop-down arrow, and select the attribute you want to use for the join rule (typically Id or Name).
5. Click the Feature Layer drop-down arrow, and select the layer in the currently selected map or scene that you want to link.
6. Click the Layer Join Field drop-down arrow, and select the layer field you want to use for the join rule.

   The Layer Join Field setting is used to select an attribute in the Feature Layer table that joins with the schedule.

7. Click OK.

   The ScheduleFeature link rule is added to the Links table.

Once the ScheduleFeature link rule is added to the Links table, you can click the Flash related features button to flash the schedule features in the map.