  Context. The main feature of the spatial large-scale galaxy distribution is
an intricate network of galaxy filaments. Although many attempts have been made
to quantify this network, there is no unique and satisfactory recipe for that
yet. Aims. The present paper compares the filaments in the real data and in the
numerical models, to see if our best models reproduce statistically the
filamentary network of galaxies. Methods. We apply an object point process with
interactions (the Bisous process) to trace and describe the filamentary network
both in the observed samples (the 2dFGRS catalogue) and in the numerical models
that have been prepared to mimic the data.We compare the networks. Results. We
find that the properties of filaments in numerical models (mock samples) have a
large variance. A few mock samples display filaments that resemble the observed
filaments, but usually the model filaments are much shorter and do not form an
extended network. Conclusions. We conclude that although we can build numerical
models that are similar to observations in many respects, they may fail yet to
explain the filamentary structure seen in the data. The Bisous-built filaments
are a good test for such a structure.

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics