On This Page: 

• Getting Started with Groups
  • A. Intro to Groups
  • B. Manual Grouping
  • C. Automatic Grouping
• Exercise #2: Creating Project Groups
• Groups Video
• Further Resources

Getting Started with Groups

A. Intro to Groups

Groups have four primary purposes in ALICE: 

• Organize the Element Tree
• Organize the WBS of the model elements
• Control the level of detail that will be produced in the schedules
• Transforming the BIM model to a CIM model (see Create Projects and Plans Section B.3)

ALICE has three options to perform the grouping:

• Manual Grouping 
• Automatic Grouping By Parameters
• Automatic Grouping By Coordinates

Note: The user should be mindful of the naming convention used in creating the group names. The text is filterable in the Element Tree, which can be very helpful in selecting specific groups in ALICE. The group name is also reflected in the ALICE outputs (i.e. Gantt chart, csv exports, etc.). 

B. Manual Grouping

B.1 Create Groups

To create a group: 

• Select more than one element and go to the “Groups” tab in the upper right corner
• Type a group name, then click the sign or hit the “Enter” key

Example: In the video above, notice that the number of elements decreased from 77 to 75.ALICE counts groups as one element

• Groups that are created in ALICE are sorted in the Element Tree under the “Groups” hierarchy
• Elements that are not grouped fall outside of the “Groups” hierarchy

B.2 Ungroup or Remove Groups

ALICE has two options to ungroup the elements. This will completely dissolve the group entirely and revert it back to the individual elements that make up the group.

• Option #1
• Select the group and go to “Edit Group” in the upper right 
• Click on the link symbol to explode the group

• Option #2
• Select the group and click the right mouse button on the blank area / white space to open the tools tab
• Click on the “Un-group (group name)” to break the group 

B.3 Add elements to the group 

ALICE has two options to add elements to the existing groups: 

• Option #1
• Select the group, hold the “Shift” key, and select the element(s) you want to add
• Click the right mouse button on the blank area / white space to open the tools tab
• Select the “Add to (Group Name)

• Option #2
• Select the group and go to “Edit Group” on the upper right
• Click on the sign, and select the element you want to add to that group
• Click on the sign and hold the “Shift” key to add multiple elements to that group

B.4 Remove elements from the group

ALICE has two options to remove elements from existing groups: 

• Option #1
• Select the group, and go to “Edit Group” in the upper right 
• Below the “Edit Group” window, you can see the list of elements inside the group
• Hover the mouse over the element(s) name to see the sign

• • Click the sign to remove the element from the group

• Option #2
• Select the group and go to “Edit Group” on the upper right
• Click on the sign, and select the element you want to remove from that group
• Click on the sign and hold the “Shift” key to remove multiple elements from that group

C. Automatic Grouping

Manual Grouping is an excellent option for creating non-typical groups. For mass grouping, ALICE has Automatic Grouping tools to save time and focus more on planning than the technical work. 

ALICE has two Automatic Grouping tools:

• Automatic Grouping by Parameters
• Automatic Grouping by Coordinates

C.1 Automatic Grouping by Parameters

Auto-Grouping By Parameters requires having Custom Parameters or imported BIM parameters. 

• From the Element Tree or 3D view, select all un-grouped elements 
• Go to “Group” tab on the upper right and click on the icon

• In the opened window, click on the name field to activate the drop-down list of custom parameters of the selected elements
• You can use more than one parameter to perform the auto-grouping. You can also choose to insert text in between the custom parameters provided 

• • Example: Select “Category,” then click on the and add the “Level” parameter

• Click “Create Groups” to perform the auto-grouping. It can take seconds to several minutes based on the number of elements selected

• Check the groups and group names in the Element Tree under the “Groups” category

Tip: Select a small subset of the elements to test out the automatic grouping feature to ensure the intended naming convention is accurate before performing the action for the entire project.

Exercise #2: Creating Project Groups

Several of the ALICE Support Pages detail information on key ALICE topics. This learning can be solidified by completing an exercise on a trial project. To put your learning into practice, follow this link:

Exercise #2: Creating Project Groups 

Groups Video

Further Resources

• Groups: Auto - Grouping by Coordinates
• Groups: Auto-grouping by Parameters