topic Re: Extracting the Polyline data for MEP Elements from the Model in Archicad C++ API

Extracting the Polyline data for MEP Elements from the Model

Amit Tiwari — Thu, 06 Jun 2024 14:57:30 GMT

What is API_Neig?

I encountered the term API_Neig in the MEP Test example, where it is used for selecting an MEP element. Can someone explain what API_Neig represents and how it is used in the context of MEP elements?

Extracting Polyline Information for All Routing Elements in the Model

I want to extract the Polyline information for all Routing Elements from the entire model, not just from a specific selection. Here’s the workflow I’m using:

getElementList: Retrieve all elements.
Filter by TypeID: Check if it’s an MEP Element.
Check if Routing Element: Confirm if it’s a routing element.
get Routing Element for this guid: Retrieve the routing element.
extract the Polyline using getPolyline(): Attempt to get the polyline.

However, I’m unable to get any coordinates using this method. The same workflow successfully retrieves the polyline when a specific routing element is selected. What could be the issue with extracting polyline data for all routing elements in the model?

Re: Extracting the Polyline data for MEP Elements from the Model

Amit Tiwari — Thu, 30 May 2024 06:39:58 GMT

@Viktor Kindly help

Re: Extracting the Polyline data for MEP Elements from the Model

Amit Tiwari — Thu, 30 May 2024 06:42:15 GMT

@Ralph Wessel.

Re: Extracting the Polyline data for MEP Elements from the Model

Ralph Wessel — Fri, 31 May 2024 07:52:51 GMT

API_Neig is primarily concerned with element selection. It carries element identifiers so the element can be loaded, e.g. with ACAPI_Element_Get, but also contains information about how/where the element was selected, e.g. if the user selected a hole in a slab, the API_Neig structure would identify that a slab was selected and carry enough data to identify the selected hole. This means that any add-on looking at the user selection will use this structure, including MEP add-ons.

Re: Extracting the Polyline data for MEP Elements from the Model

Ralph Wessel — Fri, 31 May 2024 08:01:37 GMT

If you want to find all elements of some type rather than just the selected elements, take a look at ACAPI_Element_GetElemList. This allows you to retrieve an array of elements from anywhere (whether selected or not).

Re: Extracting the Polyline data for MEP Elements from the Model

Amit Tiwari — Fri, 31 May 2024 10:14:51 GMT

Hi Ralph,

Thank you for your previous response. I'm currently working on extracting polyline data for all MEP elements in my model. Here's the workflow I'm implementing:

Retrieve All Elements:
- I use ACAPI_Element_GetElemList to get a comprehensive list of all elements in the database.
Filter for MEP Elements:
- From this list, I filter out the elements that are of the MEP type.
Extract Polyline Data from Routing Elements:
- For each MEP element identified as a RoutingElement, I extract the polyline data.

Although I've implemented this workflow, I'm not getting any results. Can you please help me identify what might be going wrong or suggest any improvements?

Thank you!

Re: Extracting the Polyline data for MEP Elements from the Model

Amit Tiwari — Fri, 31 May 2024 10:15:47 GMT

@Ralph Wessel

Re: Extracting the Polyline data for MEP Elements from the Model

Ralph Wessel — Fri, 31 May 2024 11:55:17 GMT

Can you clarify what you mean by "not getting any results"? At what point in the 3 steps you described does the process seem to fail? For example, is the process correctly finding MEP elements? If so, how are you trying to get the required information from them (and what happens)?

Re: Extracting the Polyline data for MEP Elements from the Model

Amit Tiwari — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 04:52:28 GMT

In the third step, I am not able to obtain any polyline data; First two steps succeed. When I use the following line

ACAPI::Result<RoutingElement> routingElementResult = RoutingElement::Get (uniquId);

if (routingElementResult.IsErr()) {

const auto& error = routingElementResult.UnwrapErr();

ACAPI_WriteReport(error.text.c_str(), false);

return;

}

Reporter routingElementReporter;

std::vector<API_Coord3D> polyline = {};

polyline =routingElementResult->GetPolyLine(); --> this line doesn't populate teh polyline with coordinates data

Re: Extracting the Polyline data for MEP Elements from the Model

Amit Tiwari — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 09:41:54 GMT

@Ralph Wessel

Re: Extracting the Polyline data for MEP Elements from the Model

Ralph Wessel — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 12:05:33 GMT

Are you confident that the elements you're inspecting should have a polyline? I haven't tried myself yet, but I assume not all MEP elements have one.

If you haven't tried already I suggest building and running the API example project "MEP_Test". It includes a function WriteRoutingElementDetails which echoes what you're trying to do. If it works, we can try to work out what the difference is. If it doesn't work, I suspect it's a problem with the MEP elements you are trying to inspect.

Re: Extracting the Polyline data for MEP Elements from the Model

Amit Tiwari — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 12:42:12 GMT

Initial Success with MEP_Test:
- I successfully built the MEP_Test project.
- Using this project, I was able to extract polyline data from selected elements.
MEP_Test Functionality:
- The MEP_Test project is designed to work based on user selection.
- It uses the ACAPI_Selection_Get API to retrieve selected elements (API_Neig).
- A unique ID is then generated from the neig_guid.
- Finally, the routing element is extracted using RoutingElement::Get(UniqueId).
Objective:
- My goal is to extract all routing elements present in the model automatically, without relying on manual selection.

void ExtractAllRoutingElements() { GS::Array<API_Guid> elementGuids; ACAPI_Element_GetElemList(API_ZombieElemID, &elementGuids); for (const API_Guid& guid : elementGuids) { API_Element element = {}; element.header.guid = guid; if (ACAPI_Element_Get(&element) == NoError) { // Check if the element is a routing element if (element.header.typeID == API_ExternalElemID && (IsBranch(element.header.type.classID) || IsAccessory(element.header.type.classID) || IsEquipment(element.header.type.classID) || IsTerminal(element.header.type.classID) || IsFitting(element.header.type.classID) || IsFlexibleSegment(element.header.type.classID) || IsRoutingElement(element.header.type.classID))) { // Process the routing element Adapter::UniqueID uniqueId(guid); WriteRoutingElementDetails(uniqueId); } } } } void WriteRoutingElementDetails(Adapter::UniqueID &uniqueId) { try { ACAPI::Result<RoutingElement> routingElementResult = RoutingElement::Get(uniqueId); if (routingElementResult.IsErr()) { const auto& error = routingElementResult.UnwrapErr(); ACAPI_WriteReport(error.text.c_str(), false); return; } Reporter routingElementReporter; std::vector<API_Coord3D> polyline = routingElementResult->GetPolyLine(); if (polyline.empty()) { ACAPI_WriteReport("Polyline is empty", false); } else { routingElementReporter.Add("Polyline of the routing element:"); routingElementReporter.SetTabCount(1); for (const API_Coord3D& node : polyline) { routingElementReporter.Add(node); } routingElementReporter.Add("This is new Tab"); routingElementReporter.Write(); } polyline.clear(); } catch (const std::exception& e) { ACAPI_WriteReport(std::string(e.what()).c_str(), false); } catch (...) { ACAPI_WriteReport("Unknown exception in WriteRoutingElementDetails", false); } }

Implementation:

ExtractAllRoutingElements Function:
- Enumerates all elements in the model using ACAPI_Element_GetElemList.
- Filters elements to find routing elements based on their type.
- Calls WriteRoutingElementDetails for each routing element.
WriteRoutingElementDetails Function:
- Extracts detailed information about the routing element using RoutingElement::Get.
- Checks if the polyline data is empty and handles it appropriately.
- Logs the polyline data.
But my code fails in getting the polyline data. Whereas using the same workflow in Selection I am able to successfully obtain the polyline data

Re: Extracting the Polyline data for MEP Elements from the Model

Ralph Wessel — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 12:50:32 GMT

The function WriteRoutingElementDetails in the "MEP_Test" project only takes the guid to an element as a parameter, which means it should work the same way irrespective of being selected or not. Have you tried a copy/paste of that function to your code to see if it still works when the element guids have not come from a selection?

Re: Extracting the Polyline data for MEP Elements from the Model

Amit Tiwari — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 13:06:40 GMT

I tried copy pasting the same in my code ( writeRoutingElementDetails comes from MEP_Test Example ). It still doesn't work.

Re: Extracting the Polyline data for MEP Elements from the Model

Ralph Wessel — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 13:10:06 GMT

Are the element guids the same in both cases?