topic Re: Template File Importing Other Attributes in Project data & BIM

Template File Importing Other Attributes

Anonymous — Fri, 26 May 2023 13:21:20 GMT

I've been working on a template file for our office and have put a lot of effort into fixing the attributes. I haven't opened it in a while but now when I open the .tpl, it has imported attributes from other files. It has completely changed my layer combinations and layers to what is being used in other projects, readded profiles and composites that I've deleted, etc.

No one has touched my .pln's of the templates and no one would even know how to create a new .tpl from those .pln's. Previously, a template file for the office would just have been the last project copied and pasted for the new project. Since I was brought on 5 months ago, I've been working to create a .tpl file to use which has already greatly decreased the amount of issues they we were having.

Is there any way to figure out why other project's attributes are being imported into the template and how to stop it? If there is nothing I can do to fix it, how can I keep this from happening in the future? Create .aat files of all the attributes? Keep my work on a flash drive and only save a .tpl to the server when a new project begins?

We use ArchiCAD 18 and CadImage. I fear that CadImage could be the issue because I've talked with someone else that says she is having an issue with CadImage importing into her .tpl's also.

Re: Template File Importing Other Attributes

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Jun 2015 15:27:07 GMT

I just opened the project that the .tpl was created from. Luckily, it is not importing other file's attributes so I've found where I can remake the .tpl from and not lose all of my attributes. But I'm still wondering why this would happen and how to fix it / keep it from happening.

Thanks!
KG

Re: Template File Importing Other Attributes

Laszlo Nagy — Wed, 03 Jun 2015 15:04:28 GMT

Any pre-hotlinked files in your Template? Or pre-placed DWG/DXF files somewhere? Those may bring in their own attributes.
Also, libraries may contain MASTERGDL files that can create attributes.
Also, copy-pasting elements from other project files may bring in their own attributes.

Re: Template File Importing Other Attributes

Link — Wed, 03 Jun 2015 15:05:16 GMT

In the Attribute Manager are any of the imported attributes italicized? This means they are brought in via GDL. Usually a library part included in a library or add-on, but this kind of problem usually affects fills and surfaces, etc. I haven't seen it myself with layers.

If you copy/paste from other files, it will bring in all the attributes of those elements. Same with hotlink moduling. This can play havoc with polluting your attributes but it shouldn't overwrite them, thus changing your layer combos, etc.

That sounds like more of an add-on issue to me. Try contacting Cadimage they are very responsive and should be able to help you narrow down the issue whether it's theirs or not. Please let us know what you figure out!

Cheers,
Link.

Re: Template File Importing Other Attributes

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Jun 2015 15:44:01 GMT

laszlonagy wrote:
Any pre-hotlinked files in your Template? Or pre-placed DWG/DXF files somewhere? Those may bring in their own attributes.
Also, libraries may contain MASTERGDL files that can create attributes.
Also, copy-pasting elements from other project files may bring in their own attributes.

Laszlo,

There are no hotlinks, DWG/DXF files, or elements copied/pasted in this template file. I was very diligent with these items knowing that they bring in their own attributes. I do think I should delete and reload my libraries. I knew that they would bring their own attributes which is fine but I didn't think it would affect things like layers. There may be something hidden in the libraries though that I need to purge out.

Re: Template File Importing Other Attributes

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Jun 2015 16:10:30 GMT

Link wrote:
In the Attribute Manager are any of the imported attributes italicized? This means they are brought in via GDL. Usually a library part included in a library or add-on, but this kind of problem usually affects fills and surfaces, etc. I haven't seen it myself with layers.

If you copy/paste from other files, it will bring in all the attributes of those elements. Same with hotlink moduling. This can play havoc with polluting your attributes but it shouldn't overwrite them, thus changing your layer combos, etc.

That sounds like more of an add-on issue to me. Try contacting Cadimage they are very responsive and should be able to help you narrow down the issue whether it's theirs or not. Please let us know what you figure out!

Cheers,
Link.

I don't see any attributes italicized which is good but as I mentioned to Laszlo, I'm going to purge my libraries just to be safe.

I am very diligent with copy/pasting. I do know that that will corrupt a file quickly. I also removed all hotlinks prior to creating the template. Typically when a hotlink is removed, it also removes all the attributes associated with it.

I do think this may be related to CadImage. I've talked with someone else at another office who says it has begun to corrupt her .tpl's also. Both of our .tpl's and .plns's were fine when we saved them. Neither of us had made updates to those files either but somehow things are importing themselves into these files that have had no changes made to them. This is not something either of us have seen before CadImage was introduced into our projects. I will contact them to see if they know why this could be happening.

I will definitely update this thread once I find out more.

Thanks!
KG

Re: Template File Importing Other Attributes

Link — Wed, 03 Jun 2015 16:32:38 GMT

KGrace wrote:
Typically when a hotlink is removed, it also removes all the attributes associated with it.

XREFs perhaps but not Hotlinked Modules AFAIK.

Cheers,
Link.

Re: Template File Importing Other Attributes

Laura Yanoviak — Mon, 09 Nov 2015 21:02:34 GMT

A little off-topic, but still applicable...

I was pulling my hair out updating our AC18 Template to AC19. Attribute proliferation has always been a problem, but it seems to have gotten worse.

We had several Embedded Library Objects attaching themselves to files and bringing Attributes along with them. Where these Objects came from is the mystery.

GS was no help because the Objects seem to be Cadimage in origin (judging by their names) -- we do not use CadImage objects or plug-ins, but suspect a company we were sharing a Teamwork file with was (they deny it).

So I had Cadimage investigate. After about a month of back-and-forth, Cadimage found no solution to the issue. The best we could determine was that the problem had to do with the way AC uses Embedded Libraries.

We tried this: cut/pasted a 2D line from an "infected file" to a New file created from an out-of-the-box AC19 Template -- it brought ALL the aforementioned embedded library Objects [and Attributes] with it.

The "pull my hair out" part was when new Attributes would over overwrite existing Attributes. This happens most frequently with Fills and Line Types, but has also happened with Surfaces and Building Materials.

I strongly suspect this is all interrelated, but I can't get GS to even look at the problem. All we can do for now is avoid cutting/pasting between project files.

Re: Template File Importing Other Attributes

Laszlo Nagy — Mon, 09 Nov 2015 22:45:28 GMT

Laura,

Could you do a short experiment?

Maybe the file's data structure got corrupted somehow and this is why it brings those attributes.
Please try this:

1. Copy the 2D line from the infected file.
2. Paste it into a new file in AC19.
3. Now, copy the 2D line you just pasted to the AC 19 file from the file.
4. Paste it into another new file in AC19.

My thinking is that if the file's data structure is corrupted, it is corrected at the first paste (but the attributes still come through).
However, at 3. above you copy a correct data structure and hopefully that will paste into the new AC19 file without bringing attributes with it.

(My other thought was that maybe the 2D line was part of a group and the whole group was copy-pasted and that brought in undesired attributes, but I guess that would be too obvious a reason.)

Re: Template File Importing Other Attributes

Laura Yanoviak — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 00:12:48 GMT

laszlonagy wrote:
1. Copy the 2D line from the infected file.
2. Paste it into a new file in AC19.
3. Now, copy the 2D line you just pasted to the AC 19 file from the file.
4. Paste it into another new file in AC19.

I followed the steps above, and the Objects/Attributes DID NOT come into the second file.

I'm not sure I understand your reasoning, but can tell you this has been spreading throughout files within our office, so multiple data structures have been corrupted.

Re: Template File Importing Other Attributes

Laszlo Nagy — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 05:36:46 GMT

My reasoning is that in step 2. ARCHICAD tries to correct the data structure of pasted elements, if it detects it is corrupted.
So then in step 3. you are now copying elements with correct data structure.
This is why you have to do the copy-paste twice so by the second time you hopefully got rid of corrupt data since ARCHICAD fixed it in step 2.

Re: Template File Importing Other Attributes

fuzzytnth3 — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 13:58:53 GMT

On our BIM Server we keep an empty template made by Masterscript for when I want to access a Module file and be 100 percent certain no extraneous attributes are imported into the module.

You can download it here

Re: Template File Importing Other Attributes

Anonymous — Thu, 16 Feb 2017 13:41:19 GMT

Hi,

There has been a strange phenomenon of some mysterious libraries appearing for no evident reason into many projects for some time now. Today I decided to investigate this.

I'm so glad I stumbled into this thread. I'm seeing the behavior Laura described in my office. Steps to reproduce include having an "infected" file and pasting a simple 2d-line in plan view into a clean file. (AC19 FIN)

Seems to work across versions, too, so that copying from AC19 "infected" into AC20 clean also infects the clean file.

Has this issue progressed in any way towards a solution?

EDIT: While playing with this, I also noticed something even more weird; In the infected file, if the element I copy has a renovation status which is not visible on the target (clean) file, pasting into the clean file produces a notification along the lines of "cannot paste element that isn't visible in current renovation view". OK, all fine. The weird problem is that 1)while nothing gets pasted, the failed paste-operation still brings the mystery libraries into the clean file, and 2)the imported mystery libraries cannot be removed from the project. At all. Removing them in the library manager seems to work normally, but the next time the library manager is opened the libraries are again there.