Re-organising Catalogue

[Burgo]

Having spent considerable time in the last 2 weeks trying to master TFP, I would now like to re-organise or produce my own catalogue as there is a lot of detail in the master catalogue that I will never use and I want to customise elements to suit my needs. What is the best approach. Save the master catalogue under another name and delete elements not needed or can element in one catalogue be easily imported to another. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Bob,

The best way I think is to save with another name and then delete. If you remember later an object you want, you can just open the original one, use the object in your model and switch back to your customised one. The object can be just used in that model only or you can use File/ Catalogues /Add Element to Catalogue and it will become part of the Custom Catalogue.

You can also open a different Catalogue and choose objects from many catagories and send them to a Bim file (File/ Catalogues /Export BIM) , then import the BIM into your Custom Catalogue. That will bring the object and all its associated materials etc.

Make sure you do regular backups of custom catalogues as you cannot just restore the original if you lose or corrupt it in some way.

Allan

[Burgo]

Thanks Allan, after investigating the export / import option I think your suggestion is the best and I will pursue.

[Doug.S]

I agree fully with Allan and also recommend you work with your "own" catalog based on the default and changing it to suit your needs under a new file name.  There are limitations with the kinds of changes you can make...example: lights need to be in catalog as setup; if you try your own folders in another area such as interior accessories they probably won't work.

Catalog has some built-in "rules" we don't know but learn from experience.  You can have as many catalogs as you wish but only one active in TFP at any one time...but easy to switch in/out using menu.

Since extra large catalogs can "overload" or slow down the system; perhaps a smaller catalog will help things to run faster or return a search faster.

Let us know if you find any great ideas for us all or if you run into a problem.

[Burgo]

Thanks Doug for the advice, much appreciated.