topic Re: Transfer surface materials by Attribute Manager in ArchiCAD 23 in Libraries & objects

Transfer surface materials by Attribute Manager in ArchiCAD 23

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 01:54:55 GMT

I transferred set of surface materials from one file to another (in different computers) using attribute manager.

Firstly, a folder name 'add pars' gets created alongside the .xml file when I export the surface materials. What exactly is the use of that folder?

Secondly, the texture images linked to the materials wont get transferred although the other settings do. So I had to link the images individually in the 'surface' which is annoying. Is there a easier way to do this?

Thirdly, the orientation of these textures changed automatically even though the settings (including the angle settings in 'surface') are exactly the same. How to solve this?

Re: Transfer surface materials by Attribute Manager in ArchiCAD 23

Barry Kelly — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 02:24:16 GMT

jkushal wrote:
Firstly, a folder name 'add pars' gets created alongside the .xml file when I export the surface materials. What exactly is the use of that folder?

It seems to be XML files for each individual surface associated with the attribute that you have exported.
I don't know why it is there but I don't think you have to worry about it either - but I could be wrong.

jkushal wrote:
Secondly, the texture images linked to the materials wont get transferred although the other settings do. So I had to link the images individually in the 'surface' which is annoying. Is there a easier way to do this?

The textures are not part of the surface.
They should be in your loaded library.
If you have the same library loaded on the second machine then all should be good when you import the surface materials - the textures should link automatically.

jkushal wrote:
Thirdly, the orientation of these textures changed automatically even though the settings (including the angle settings in 'surface') are exactly the same. How to solve this?

It should be the same as above I think.
There should be no problem so long as you have the same textures in a loaded library.

Barry.

Re: Transfer surface materials by Attribute Manager in ArchiCAD 23

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 04:37:50 GMT

Thanks Barry.

Regarding my 3rd doubt, I am attaching images of the same furniture in two different computers with same settings. Unable to find why is the orientation / alignment of this texture changes.

Re: Transfer surface materials by Attribute Manager in ArchiCAD 23

Barry Kelly — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 05:07:11 GMT

Are they different objects?
One has arms and the other doesn't.

Barry.

Re: Transfer surface materials by Attribute Manager in ArchiCAD 23

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 05:19:26 GMT

Yes they were different. I am now attaching images of the ones which are same.

Re: Transfer surface materials by Attribute Manager in ArchiCAD 23

Barry Kelly — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 06:48:27 GMT

Sorry for asking obvious questions.
Are both of these chairs actually using the same surface material?
If so have you compared the surface material settings on both computers?

Barry.

Re: Transfer surface materials by Attribute Manager in ArchiCAD 23

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 07:55:50 GMT

Its the same. The only thing thats different is that one computer is using ArchiCAD 23 regular version of USA and other is using ArchiCAD 23 SOLO version of Japan. I guess that shouldnt be the issue though.

Re: Transfer surface materials by Attribute Manager in ArchiCAD 23

Barry Kelly — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 09:05:51 GMT

I am really not sure why this is happening.
The surface materials seem to be the same (certainly the same texture and rotation) but I suspect there is something wrong in that the two files have different attributes or many copies of the same attributes.
The vectorial fill in both has the same name but different number in brackets.
The number in brackets usually meant you have multiple copies of the same attribute (fill) - although this should not be affecting the surface texture.

But as those same surface materials are using different fills, it leads me to believe they are not the same exact surface material.
Have a look in the Attribute Manager to see if they have the same index number.
Maybe they do - I don't know what the problem is.

Barry.

Re: Transfer surface materials by Attribute Manager in ArchiCAD 23

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 09:25:40 GMT

That isnt the issue. Anyways thank you !

Re: Transfer surface materials by Attribute Manager in ArchiCAD 23

Minh Nguyen — Wed, 12 Feb 2020 07:28:52 GMT

Hi All,

Thank you for sharing the issue here and thank you, Barry, for your first thought about this topic!

Am I right to assume that this is a custom surface? It doesn't look like a surface from the default JPN library. If that is the case, I'm wondering if you could share us the 2 PLA files, one where you export and the other where you import the surfaces? This issue definitely needs a closer look from our Technical Support team.

Please reply either here within the post directly or through a PM and I can provide you a secure GRAPHISOFT link where you can upload your file to, if needed!

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Best regards,
Minh

Re: Transfer surface materials by Attribute Manager in ArchiCAD 23

Mats_Knutsson — Fri, 17 Apr 2020 06:47:51 GMT

mnguyen wrote:

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Best regards,
Minh

Coming back to the original topic. What is the AddPars folder useful for? I tried importing one surface from the AddPars folder but AC didn't do anything. The sum of sizes of the individual surface files under the AddPars is far greater than the size of "main" xml.

Re: Transfer surface materials by Attribute Manager in ArchiCAD 23

Minh Nguyen — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 08:51:18 GMT

Mats_Knutsson wrote:
Coming back to the original topic. What is the AddPars folder useful for? I tried importing one surface from the AddPars folder but AC didn't do anything. The sum of sizes of the individual surface files under the AddPars is far greater than the size of "main" xml.

Hi,

I hope you are doing well during these trying times!

Thank you for your question!

When you export the attributes, you'll get an XML file, and a folder next to it (the default name of this folder is AddPars in the INT version), that contains the XMLs of the sub-attributes.

The main XML file contains all of the main attributes, and it links to the sub-attributes relating to the main attributes in the main XML. This link is saved in the code. Since you may have many sub-attributes exported to AddPars but only one main XML, the AddPars folder can be way larger than the main XML.

AddPars also contains XMLs for the Library Parts that are used by the saved Favorites, so they are/can be created for Favorites of Zones, CW, Stairs, Railings and for Materials/Surfaces.

You won't be able to import the XMLs from AddPars folder to ARCHICAD directly, because it lacks certain value. My suggestion is to import the main XML, then import any sub-attribute that you need from there.

I hope this will answer your question. Let me know if you need any further help!

Thank you very much!

Best regards,
Minh

Re: Transfer surface materials by Attribute Manager in ArchiCAD 23

Mats_Knutsson — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 11:50:07 GMT

mnguyen wrote:

Mats_Knutsson wrote:
Coming back to the original topic. What is the AddPars folder useful for? I tried importing one surface from the AddPars folder but AC didn't do anything. The sum of sizes of the individual surface files under the AddPars is far greater than the size of "main" xml.
Hi,

I hope you are doing well during these trying times!

Thank you for your question!

When you export the attributes, you'll get an XML file, and a folder next to it (the default name of this folder is AddPars in the INT version), that contains the XMLs of the sub-attributes.

The main XML file contains all of the main attributes, and it links to the sub-attributes relating to the main attributes in the main XML. This link is saved in the code. Since you may have many sub-attributes exported to AddPars but only one main XML, the AddPars folder can be way larger than the main XML.

AddPars also contains XMLs for the Library Parts that are used by the saved Favorites, so they are/can be created for Favorites of Zones, CW, Stairs, Railings and for Materials/Surfaces.

You won't be able to import the XMLs from AddPars folder to ARCHICAD directly, because it lacks certain value. My suggestion is to import the main XML, then import any sub-attribute that you need from there.

I hope this will answer your question. Let me know if you need any further help!

Thank you very much!

Best regards,
Minh

Thanks!

Re: Transfer surface materials by Attribute Manager in ArchiCAD 23

Ahmed_K — Wed, 30 Sep 2020 17:25:03 GMT

Hi !
when copying my archicad template folder, wich contains the AddPars folder, all XML, copy process becomes veeeeery slow when it comes to addpars folder
is there a solution ?

Re: Transfer surface materials by Attribute Manager in ArchiCAD 23

Minh Nguyen — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 07:44:37 GMT

bouhmidage wrote:
Hi !
when copying my archicad template folder, wich contains the AddPars folder, all XML, copy process becomes veeeeery slow when it comes to addpars folder
is there a solution ?

Hello,

Thank you for the question and I am sorry to hear about the issue!

Could you specify a bit more on what was the workflow that make Archicad slow, step by step? Is that something we can replicate with any given file, or with your template file only?

Thank you very much!

Best regards,
Minh

Re: Transfer surface materials by Attribute Manager in ArchiCAD 23

Ahmed_K — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 08:31:29 GMT

Thank you for the quick reply !
the problem is not with ArchiCAD
the problem is with the created Addpars Folder, when i copy it into a flashdisk, or an external HDD drive to move it to another machine, the copy process of the folder content becomes very slow,

Re: Transfer surface materials by Attribute Manager in ArchiCAD 23

Minh Nguyen — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 08:46:28 GMT

bouhmidage wrote:
Thank you for the quick reply !
the problem is not with ArchiCAD
the problem is with the created Addpars Folder, when i copy it into a flashdisk, or an external HDD drive to move it to another machine, the copy process of the folder content becomes very slow,

explorer_2020-10-01_09-30-31.png

Hi,

Thanks for the screenshot!

Generally, the speed of data transfer on an USB depends on some factors:
- The transfer speed of the USB port
- The read speed of the source device
- The write speed of the target device

But in this case, the addpars folder usually contains lots of small files. I would like to quote an answer from https://superuser.com/questions/857243/why-is-file-transfer-speed-decreased-when-copying-multiple-smaller-files/857246

"When transferring data, if you move one large file, you only have to write the directory entry once and then stream the data and write more or less continuously. When you have many files, you write the directory info, move to the file area and write the data, then go back and write the directory entry for the next file and then move back to the data area and write the data and back and forth. The overhead of moving back and forth adds up."

Therefore, due to the large number of files inside Addpars folder, it may took a while to transfer them to the removable drive. I suggest zipping them before copying to the external drive, as the job will be to copy one file only.

Let me know if this helps with the issue!

Best regards,
Minh

Re: Transfer surface materials by Attribute Manager in ArchiCAD 23

Ahmed_K — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 09:06:51 GMT

Thank you that works very well !
Zip the folder, and copy it to any removable device, transfer speed is logic now

Re: Transfer surface materials by Attribute Manager in ArchiCAD 23

Minh Nguyen — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 09:17:19 GMT

Glad I could help!
Have a great day!

Best regards,
Minh