topic Re: How to reindex attributes (best practice) in Project data & BIM

How to reindex attributes (best practice)

Sam Karli — Fri, 04 Jul 2025 13:17:09 GMT

Hi,

I'm about to work on a new template file, essentially by decimating/simpifying an old one (and later growing it).

My problem is that i can remove attributes that I don't need but cannot reindex so that there shouldn't be any gaps between them.

If i reindex them using the Attribute Manager (> Append to temp/Delete all/< Add by index) then the inedexes will be OK but the relations between the attributes will be lost (like a composite will reference a bad fill etc; not mentioning the Favorites).

Is there a method with I can reindex while not loosing the references?

Thanks in advance.

Re: How to reindex attributes (best practice)

Laszlo Nagy — Fri, 04 Jul 2025 20:19:39 GMT

I think if you use the Reindex button in the Attribute Manager Dialog, Archicad makes sure that all references will point to the new index number. However, you will have to do it one by one.

Re: How to reindex attributes (best practice)

Barry Kelly — Sat, 05 Jul 2025 09:21:24 GMT

And just be careful, as your re-indexed template will no longer be compatible with any of your old files.

So no more copy & paste from other files unless they are also based on your new template.

Barry.

Re: How to reindex attributes (best practice)

Sam Karli — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 09:04:50 GMT

Thanks for both,

I consider exporting both attributes and favorites into .xml and writing a script to replace stuff according to a mapping.

I did this mapping (given in an .xls, btw) before for modifying ArchiCAD Library's default parameters, so should apply for attributes and favorites, too.

PS this reindexing is ultimately the most brainrotting thing I've done this year. After reindexing 20 layers I have unintentionally pushed the purge button in the vicinity and had to do the whole from the start 😞

Re: How to reindex attributes (best practice)

Laszlo Nagy — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 19:01:59 GMT

There are two other things I can think of that can be affected by attribute reindexing:

1. Default settings in tool settings dialogs - this is not that much of a problem because you can just apply Favorites after the reindexing and the tool default settings will be the same as the settings of one of the favorites.

2. Library Parts default attribute settings - Library Parts in the default Archicad Library refer to many attributes (like Pen 19 or Pen 91 for fill backgrounds), so just make sure that reindexing does not change the index number of all those attributes, otherwise the 2D and 3D representation of many Library parts can get messy.

Re: How to reindex attributes (best practice)

Sam Karli — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 14:02:55 GMT

1. Default tool settings is not that much a problem because of the limited number of the tools themselves.

2. I have nice gdl/xml lib for parameter mods that i had developed for myself when I was a small kid, so that's not that much a problem.

But I have run into a peculiarity:
The attribute .xml that is exported by the Attribute Manager etc. has a structure like

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no" ?> <AttributeFile> <RegisteredAttributes> ... <Attributes Type="Surfaces"> <RefID>1296127026</RefID> <Attributes> ... </RegisteredAttributes> ... </AttributeFile>

And this RefID is consequent within that .xml file, so folder structure can be linked to the attributes (which folder structure belongs to which attribute).

BUT:

There is the favorites xml, having its own structure, and there:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no" ?> <Favorites> <AttrTable> ... <Item> <Name>AA.00 - Solid Line</Name> <Index>1</Index> <RefId>1296127026</RefId> </Item> ... </AttrTable> ... </Favorites>

and, tadam, the two RefID seem not to be "compatible", that is there are RefIDs that mach one another between the two .xmls, but are not for the same attribute type, others just don't match.

Note that i copied the RefIDs from the actual data, and in the attribute xml the same RefID identifies the surfaces as in the favorite xml the lines.

This is such a strange behaviour, one has to match an attribute from the favorites to the attribute file manually.

I have no idea why is strange behaviour there.

Any idea?

Re: How to reindex attributes (best practice)

Barry Kelly — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 00:59:18 GMT

I have no real idea as I have never gotten into editing XML file - there should be no need.

The index and reference for the favourite will be for that particular favourite, not the settings in that favourite.

The surface is just one setting inside the favourite.

If you re-index the index numbers in the Attribute Manager, then all of your favourites should also be updated automatically to use those changed index numbers.

Everything should update to use that new index number, but keeping the actual attribute exactly the same.

For example, if you re-index a 'brick' surface material, then every composite, complex profile, favourite, etc., that uses that surface material, will still be using the same brick surface material.

Barry.

Re: How to reindex attributes (best practice)

Sam Karli — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 07:32:47 GMT

I understand that, but reindexing, like, 1000 attributes is a bit mind-rotting for me, but if I tinker a script together for this this will be automated for the forseeable future. So this is the preferred way.

Now we don't use too many favorites, so the favorite reindexing is a nice to have but if I'm already here (I actually wanted to pass this job to a junior programmer/mentoree but this didn't happen) I have to understand this.

Re: How to reindex attributes (best practice)

Barry Kelly — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 08:15:37 GMT

Favourites are not part of the attributes.

They just save settings for various elements that do use the attributes.

You shouldn't have to do anything with favourites.

Re-index your attributes and the favourites should sort themselves out.

I am just worried that amending an XML file and importing it is not he same as re-indexing.

Re-indexing will ensure everything that was attribute number 1 will become attribute number 2 (including anything in favourites that uses that attribute.

Amending an XML file and importing it is just creating a new attribute number 2.

It is not instructing Archicad to swap attribute one for attribute 2.

Barry.

Re: How to reindex attributes (best practice)

Lingwisyer — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 08:13:15 GMT

ReDEFINING vs reASSIGNING. For science?

Re: How to reindex attributes (best practice)

Sam Karli — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 20:56:20 GMT

Absolutely,

so I purge out the whole (template) project file, having only one attribute per type (only the ArchiCAD layer etc) and build up everything from scratch, manually maintaining/reproducing everything that ArhchiCAD does normally (including the favorites, graphic overrides, etc).

Painful at once but saves repetitive work for later times.

Yes, it would be better to write a C++ addon but that would take more time (not mentioning following ArchiCAD's version changes).

Re: How to reindex attributes (best practice)

Sam Karli — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 10:00:48 GMT

Reindexing means pressing the Reindex... button (many-many times).

I guess in Your approach it is a reassigning, and I do a redefining instead.

Re: How to reindex attributes (best practice)

Barry Kelly — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 10:25:48 GMT

If you are creating a brand new template from scratch where you don't want it to be (copy & paste) compatible with any other file, then I guess it does not matter how you create your attributes.

Create them one by one and they will increment in the attribute number (assuming you one attribute is set as number one).

Or create XML files that can create the attributes for you (I have never played with this, so I am unsure how that will go).

Personally I would use the default template as a base.

Create one attribute of each type and re-index it so the attribute number is much ( a few hundred or 1000) higher.

Delete the attributes you don't need or maybe re-name them to suit your needs better - but keep the attribute numbers the same.

Any new attributes you create, they should create with a number higher than the highest number.

When you think you have it sorted (you will always want to make future changes), create another new higher number attribute.

So you have a space to create new attributes later.

Now you have your template set up and it will still work with the default library objects.

In future when you are working on a project and you create a new attribute, it will get the next highest number.

If it is an attribute you want to have in your template, you can copy it into your template and re-index it so it has a number lower that net highest number attribute you created.

This is important because in every job you work on, any new attributes you create will have a number higher than the previous highest number.

So. in two different jobs you create a new brick surface in one and a new glass surface in the other.

They will actually create with the same attribute number in each file.

This is not good if you want to share information between files.

This is why you copy the attributes to your template and re-index the number to be lower than the highest number.

That way they can never be accidentally replace with the wrong attribute.

You always keep your template up to date.

Now you can import the attributes from your template into any job you have and you will get all the new template attributes without affecting any custom attributes that have been created in that project.

You are basically creating a buffer for your attributes that you have complete control over (although it is a very manual task).

I hope I explained that well and have not totally confused you.

Barry.

Re: How to reindex attributes (best practice)

Sam Karli — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 12:27:21 GMT

Thanks for Your insight, I have some differences in our workflow.

Basically I started from an overcomplex template (that I had inherited) having, like 750 layers etc, and my primary goal is to decimate it. So I went through our projects and collected the used attributes:

I manually purged every project
Then wrote a (Python) script that collects only the used attributes (puts them into a .json file).
(I took the opportunity to get familiarized in the AC Python API).
Then I took the too complex template and removed attributes that weren't among the used ones.

This way I got a template file decimated but with many holes among the indexes.

Then I made some manual adjustments (merging/renaming layers, adding some new one etc), this way I made the final structure, but still having a messy index structure.

Then I exported all attributes to an xml, reindexed them with the script, and reimported into the completely purged template. This way

I have the attribute structure as I wanted
The favorites aren't used by our architects, so its not a big problem that for now I cannot reindex them but later I want to do it
As a side effect, I got a (not so short) list of missing attributes that were removed manually before and forgotten

Now my tasks are:

Reindexing the favorites
Reindexing the graphical overriding styles, if possible
I have a tool that reindexes the ArchiCAD library for the attributes we use (to avoid, like, windows having a concrete or wooden glazing) and i have to export my data for that tool
(This issue is kind of solved in the ArchiCAD 28, but in a wrong way. My approach bases on that, like every attrib (like, surface) is mapped from one value to another (like, 10 -> 25), everything that was, like 10 (let's suppose that this is the ArchiCAD factory glass material) becomes 25 (suppose that this is my material).

all in all, i have such a customized system 🙂

Re: How to reindex attributes (best practice)

GabrielGG — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 11:28:20 GMT

I Found interestig your concept as it has some things in common with what I'm trying to do .. my post is here in case you want to have a look at it ... .

I've been trying to edit the XML files with scripts but could not manage to get them work again, if you have some detailed tricks I would be happy to know them.

To solve the problem with the missing attributes it'S always possible to correct them creating an attribute with the missing index-Nr. and afterwards deleting it and replacing it with another. This way will be relinked except for Layer-Combinations, Pen-Sets and sometimes also lines.

I modified the Library-Mapping values lately and for our solution worked well.

Gabriel

Re: How to reindex attributes (best practice)

Sam Karli — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 20:51:15 GMT

Hi,

I haven't been dealing with this for a while, but in general this is an attribute .xml skeleton. It has some internal logic.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no" ?> <AttributeFile Mv="1" Sv="2"> <PlatformSign>22359</PlatformSign> <RegisteredAttributes> <NumberOfRegisteredAttributes>1</NumberOfRegisteredAttributes> <Attributes Type="Layers"> <RefID>1279351090</RefID> <Layer Idx="1" Name="Archicad Layer"> <OdbObj Mv="2" Sv="0"> <OdbRef> <guid>D02A8E4D-93C2-4AB5-BBDF-7D6492907D59</guid> </OdbRef> <CreaTime>25542</CreaTime> <ModiTime>25542</ModiTime> </OdbObj> <Name>Archicad Layer</Name> <Index>1</Index> <Flags/> <ModiTime>1164398284</ModiTime> <RegMemoTable MemoNumber="0" Mv="1" Sv="0"/> <ReadOnly>false</ReadOnly> <ConnectionClassId>1</ConnectionClassId> </Layer> </Attributes> </RegisteredAttributes> <Folders> </Folders> </AttributeFile>

Some basic stuff:

At first, folders can be left out. If the xml importing works without <Folders>, one can start editing it.
<NumberOfRegisteredAttributes> must be equal to the number of the <Attributes> (Here 1, "Layers").
<Layer Idx="1" Name="Archicad Layer"> - here, value of Idx must be equal to the value of <Index> and value of Name must be the same as value of <Name>.
<OdbRef>/<guid> must be unique.

As far as i remember these are the rules that are needed for reading a syitactically correct attribute .xml.

Regarding the usual problem of indexes of parameters Archicad Generic Library's objects, I wrote another program in python that could be fed by an .xlsx spreadsheet describing conversion rules. The sheets describe various parameter types, like Pens and Surfaces, Strings etc, and a rule is used if

a parameter's name
a parameter's value
or an object's name
or any combination of the three above were met, then set the parameter to a new value.

So using this You can say to the script that

change every Pen 12 to 14
change every LineType parameter of the object "Door 27" to 5 thus the "Door 27" will be drawn all by the LineType 5 by default
change every "gs_trim_inside" to 0 thus switching Casing Inside off

The AC28 changed this but Graphisoft managed to create another overcomplicated system, so I modified this script to create the .json the same way.

I'm considering developing this program into a paying solution and market it later.

However this last modification was left in the company I've been laid off, so in a case of a new need i have to rewrite this.

Re: How to reindex attributes (best practice)

Sam Karli — Sun, 19 Oct 2025 19:58:46 GMT

(I think I forgot to make my prevous post as a reply so this is only for seeing it)

See my answer down below.