topic Re: Zone number in door marker - Which zone is prioritized? in Project data & BIM

Zone number in door marker - Which zone is prioritized?

Bilkins — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 09:18:33 GMT

Hi,

I have set up my project so that each door is given a unique number based on the zone number of the zone they are placed in.

I have several layers for different zones - NFA, GFA, NIA etc. are all on separate layers.

The doors should use the zone number from the zone of each individual room.

But because the gross area of each apartment sometimes overlaps with other zones, f.ex. net area of corridors, the doors end up with the wrong number.

Is there any way do decide a priority of which zone should be read as the "related zone"?

Or is the related zone randomly assigned?

I've used these expressions for generating the door number, with automatic inclusion of a custo running number if there are more than one door per zone.

Operating system used: Windows 11

Betreff: Zone number in door marker - Which zone is prioritized?

Stefan L_ — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 12:02:17 GMT

@Bilkins schrieb:

Is there any way do decide a priority of which zone should be read as the "related zone"?

GS' point of view is "One zone to rule them all!", multiple zone sets for different purposes ist evil.

You might get away with moving the gross zones to their own Design Option and switch it off

I never tried that, but I'd expect the door numbers to be reliable only with the appropriate Design Option Combination.

Re: Zone number in door marker - Which zone is prioritized?

Bilkins — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 13:27:01 GMT

Thanks @Stefan L_, although that's disappointing.

You often want several different types of zones visible in drawings, so hiding zones isn't an option, unfortunately.

My workaround for now is to hide other zones while working, then change the expression to a custom value to "lock" it before unhide the zones, but it's not very elegant.

Re: Zone number in door marker - Which zone is prioritized?

Laszlo Nagy — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 01:49:23 GMT

You can create a Design Option Set for each set of Zones (you use Design Option Sets instead of Layers for each group of Zones). Each Design Option Set would contain one Design Option. Then, you could create Design Option Combinations that would display those Design Options in those Design Option Sets in any desired combination. The trick is not to create a single Design Option Set and create within it Design Options for each Zone group, because at any time, you can display only a single Design Option of a Design Option Set. But if you have multiple Design Option Sets, one Design Option within each Design Option Set can be concurrently displayed so you can display all zones if you want, if you do it this way.

Re: Zone number in door marker - Which zone is prioritized?

Bilkins — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:58:44 GMT

Sorry @Laszlo Nagy , but I'm not sure that I understand the logic.

Even if each zone was on a different design option, I would still want them turned on and visible in the plan drawing.
Wouldn't the door marker anyway pick any zone as it's related zone, independent of both layer and design option?

Or is there a way to force the door marker to be linked to a design option?

Re: Zone number in door marker - Which zone is prioritized?

Kristian Goodsell — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 06:41:19 GMT

The easiest way to manage this one is layer priorities.
We run all of our overall zones on a different layer priority to our walls containing the doors, door markers and room name zones.

Re: Zone number in door marker - Which zone is prioritized?

Stefan L_ — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 08:34:01 GMT

@Kristian Goodsell schrieb:

The easiest way to manage this one is layer priorities.

This won't help - altough (@GRAPHISOFT) it would be the logical way to seperate things.

When it comes to the "from zone / to zone" logic of doors, 'the oldest zone in database' wins.

The "Intersection Group" has no effect (BTW: it's not a priority in the sense of 'the more, the stronger').

You can easily check that by Cut&Paste the actually shown zone out and in again.

Before: Door to 'Blue Grass', which is the 'oldest' zone

Cut (after CTRL-R for update): Door to 'Orange Circles', now the oldest zone

Paste back:

After (CTRL-R again): Door sticks to Circles, now the 'older' zone.

If Design Options enter the scene, this logic is extended to 'the oldest visible zone wins':

- -

The DO of wall and door has no effect (visibility aside):

Conclusio:

If more than one zone set is visible, the oldest is shown.

One can make zones 'the oldest' by Cut&Paste the other zones.

But beware:

- this can be done over multiple storeys including labels; but in sections/elevations: POOF!

- this changes AC and IFC IDs and Issue tracking and what not...

Thanks for letting me check this. 🤓

Re: Zone number in door marker - Which zone is prioritized?

Lee Hankins — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 17:34:41 GMT

I use a series of Fill Types to denote GIA, NIA and deductible which can all be scheduled to give the correct figures for this exact reason. Zones on zones never seems to work. I created a separate fill type for each and separate Layer. I’d be happy to share it if it’s of interest.

Re: Zone number in door marker - Which zone is prioritized?

Laszlo Nagy — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 23:58:09 GMT

Like this: