How to consolidate your specification

'Consolidate' identifies identical clauses and lets you consolidate them. This article is a step-by-step guide to using ‘Consolidate.’

Related:

• See ‘Consolidate – An overview’ for a demo of this feature.
• Duplicate clauses found (Uniclass - Work sections).

How to use ‘Consolidate’

1. Open your ‘Uniclass – Work Sections’ based specification.
   
   Please note: 
   1. ‘Consolidate’ is only available for Australia and the UK Uniclass – Work Sections. For other content sets, we recommend the ‘Spec check’ report’s ‘Consider consolidating.’
      Please see Consolidating your specification using Spec check.
      
      
   2. The ‘Consolidate’ tab is available for users with ‘Contributor’ permission (and above) on the specification.A screenshot of the 'Consolidate' tab in 'Uniclass - Work Sections'-based specification.
      
      
2. Click on the ‘Consolidate’ tab. The grid shows:
   1. Clauses that have been compared and identified as identical.
   2. The ‘Count’ column shows how many identical instances of each clause there are in the spec.
      
      
3. Click on the title of a clause you want to consolidate.
   
   
4. The 'Consolidate' wizard is displayed, showing each identical instance of the clause.
   1. The platform automatically checks out each instance of the clauses (and their 'parent' clauses) so they cannot be edited while you are consolidating them.
   2. If you want more context, click on the ‘Part of’ link to open the 'parent' clause in a new browser tab. If the clause has more than one 'parent' clause (i.e. it is a shared clause), the 'Part of' column will show the first clause it was linked to.   
   3. Clicking over the Prefix, Title, Suffix or Last Edit details for any of the listed clauses will display a preview of the clause in the ‘Preview’ panel on the right-hand side.
   4. Clauses that are 'Marked as complete' cannot be selected. We recommend marking them as incomplete before consolidating them.
      
      
5. Select/ tick the checkbox(es) next to the clause(s) you want to consolidate. A screenshot of the 'Consolidate' wizard showing clauses selected to consolidate.
   
   Please note that if your selected clauses contain either scenario below, you cannot consolidate them. Please see 'Max 1 clause' for more information.
   A screenshot of the 'Max 1 clause...' messages displayed in the 'Consolidate' wizard.
   • The message 'Max 1 clause associated with a model' is shown when the clauses you have selected have been associated with more than one object in a BIM model, such as Autodesk Revit.
   • The message 'Max 1 clause copied from a master' is shown when the clauses you have selected originate from different clauses in the master.
     
     
6. Now enter the ‘Prefix’, ‘Title’, and 'Suffix’ you want your consolidated clause to have. As a reminder, clicking into the prefix or suffix fields will each show a drop down list displaying the details your selected clauses already contain.A screenshot showing how to set the ‘Prefix’, ‘Title’, and Suffix’ on your consolidated clause.
   
   
7. The pla will consolidate the clauses and present a confirmation message. Clicking 'View in editor' will open your consolidated clause in a new browser tab.A screenshot of the confirmation message with the option to 'View in editor'.
   
   
8. Clicking on ‘View in editor’ will open the consolidated clause in a new tab. The ‘Prefix’, ‘Title’ and ‘Suffix’ will be set to what you entered in step 6. The ‘Shared by’ information will show as updated.
   A screenshot showing the 'Shared by' information for the consolidated clause.