You can automatically link graphic elements to schedule tasks. When importing a schedule from an external application, the Task Linking Rules dialog opens with options for linking. To perform the automatic linking, the schedule needs to be set up so that tasks have information about the related graphic elements. One way to set up the schedule is to put the corresponding level name (from your standards) in a column, which can be titled Text1, next to the task to which you want to link the elements.

For example, the first task of the project is to pour the concrete (Pour Concrete). The elements in the design that represent this part of the construction project are on a level named C-New-Concrete (a company-standard level name). By including C-New-Concrete in the Text1 field of the Pour Concrete task, the “Link a level to a task” rule automatically associates the concrete elements with that task.

The Task Linking Rules dialog opens when click the Task Linking Rules icon in the Schedule Simulation toolbox. With this dialog, you can reprocess the rules if you have updated the graphic elements but not the schedule and want to associate the new or modified graphics to the tasks.

Files with the extension *.TaskLinkingRules.xml are used to store task linking rules for export and import. If you create and want to save additional task linking rules, select the Export Task Linking Rules tool on the Schedule Simulation toolbox. The Export Task Linking Rules dialog opens and you can save the file with a different name and in a different location. Thereafter, whenever you open the Task Linking Rules dialog, your saved rules are listed.