The Scene Tree shows all objects currently visible in the open drawing in a hierarchical (kinematic) tree structure. This lets you represent object hierarchies, which is helpful when you want to copy or move related elements together or combine their properties and tables. In general, the display order has no effect on static or electrical calculations; however, a specific arrangement can still be useful for certain workflows.
By default, Production Assist tries to group objects along trusses and structural elements when copying. You can enable or disable this automatic grouping in the properties.
Next to the Scene Tree heading, you will find the name of the currently open drawing. You can use the drop-down menu next to it to switch between all drawings that are currently open.
Note: Switching the active drawing is only possible in the desktop app. In plugins such as Vectorworks, SketchUp, or Outdoor Cut, the drawing name is typically only displayed; you generally cannot switch directly to another active drawing there.
In the example shown, Electric.lrwx is active, while Drawing1 is also open and can be selected.
All inserted objects can be selected individually or as a multi-selection in the Scene Tree. On macOS, multi-selection works by holding down the Cmd key; on Windows, use the Ctrl key.
You can select several consecutive objects with the Shift key. All objects between the two selected entries are also highlighted.
Depending on the object type, additional information is shown directly in the object rows of the Scene Tree, for example:
All objects in a drawing are displayed in a structured way in the Scene Tree. Related objects, for example fixtures on a truss, can be combined into an assembly group (Assembly Group). This improves clarity and makes tasks such as preparing paperwork easier. In addition, all included objects can be selected and edited together.
In the following example, several objects are grouped together within one group:
You can create an assembly group (Assembly Group) from several selected objects. To do this, first select the desired objects. Use the shortcut Cmd + G (on macOS) or Ctrl + G (on Windows) to create the assembly group. Alternatively, you can right-click the selected objects to open the context menu and use the Group Selected Objects command there. Then assign a name to the assembly group.
It is also possible to nest assembly groups. If you want to assign objects to an existing assembly group, you can drag and drop them into the desired group or right-click the object or objects and use the Move to Assembly Group command in the context menu.
NOTE: In some commands, the sub-objects of an assembly group are also referred to as Child or Children. The parent assembly group is called Parent.
Objects in the Scene Tree can be sorted according to various criteria. By default, No Sorting is active. Depending on the object type and use case, however, you can also sort by certain properties.
If a sorting is active, it is also shown in the Scene Tree:
Sorting is especially helpful if you want to quickly arrange fixtures, consumers, or other objects with unique IDs in a logical order.
To improve clarity and speed up your work, you can filter the objects displayed in the Scene Tree.
Under Show the following, you can define which object types are displayed in the Scene Tree:
Enabled options are marked with a check mark. If you remove the check mark, the corresponding objects are hidden in the Scene Tree.
Different symbols are shown in the Scene Tree depending on the object type:
| Symbol | Object |
|---|---|
| Light bulb | Fixtures / GDTF |
| Tool | Assembly Group (Assembly Group) |
| Calculator | Calculation elements |
| Cube | Geometry |
| Boxes | Symbol |
| Tag | Dimension |
In addition, the assigned Object ID or Fixture ID is displayed in front of many objects. If this ID is red, it has been assigned more than once in the plan.
For objects with electrical or network-based connections, such as fixtures, power connections, power distributors, or consoles, the color of the symbol also changes:
NOTE: Right-clicking an object in the Scene Tree opens the context menu with many helpful commands. You can find an overview of these commands in the Context Menu chapter.
WARNING: Many selected objects in the Scene Tree, especially symbol and geometry objects, can be edited via Edit Mode in the Edit Geometry Window. You can find more details in the Symbol Workflow chapter.