topic Re: Can I select things by their _internal_ id? in Libraries & objects

Can I select things by their _internal_ id?

alexliz24 — Fri, 26 May 2023 09:35:06 GMT

It's all in the subject line, people. I can Find by ID, but I haven't figured out how (if at all possible) I can look for, say, a door, by entering its Internal ID.

Any tips more than welcome. Thanks.

Re: Can I select things by their _internal_ id?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 May 2007 13:16:45 GMT

I don't believe so. Why do you want to?

Re: Can I select things by their _internal_ id?

alexliz24 — Mon, 21 May 2007 14:28:27 GMT

I'm just saying, suppose you have a project with 50 doors, all IDed DoorType1 because they're all the same specification. But you still need to have a way of identifying a particular one of all those 50 identical doors and tell a partner that for this particular instance of the door model, you need to modify a tiny detail of it.

Internal ID referencing would make that possible.

After all, why not make this available to the Find function?

Re: Can I select things by their _internal_ id?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 May 2007 14:45:52 GMT

alexliz wrote:
Internal ID referencing would make that possible.

I'm not sure about that, let say you erase this by mistake and put a new one there. Then you got a new internal id.
The only way to do this thing right is to have a new id. If your standarddoor id is D01, then this door could have D01A? To work with an software internal ID, then you got way too much problems. Don't deal with the beast...

Re: Can I select things by their _internal_ id?

alexliz24 — Mon, 21 May 2007 14:56:03 GMT

I'm not sure I understand the objection. Let me go back to my example of 50 doors. Each one has its own unique IntID, and they all share the same ID since they are identical to each other.

Now, I need to talk over the phone to a colleague about a particular one, the one with IntID "35000". I can tell him, "Put '35000' in the Find field and have ArchiCAD zoom in on the found door. This is the one I was talking to you about."

Or, if that's not possible, I can tell him, "Go to the 6th storey of the project, east quadrant, third room on the left off the main corridor. See the bathroom door." Or, "Go to Zone 14 on the 6th storey, and starting from the right-most window, count three doors clock-wise." Etc. etc. etc.

I prefer to be able to address elements by their internal database primary keys (i.e. the Internal ID). It's a positive ID of anything.

What happens if I delete a door during the project design? Nothing at all. I will just use the Internal IDs of existing elements. I won't care what the IntIDs of past elements have been. I only care about existing ones.

Re: Can I select things by their _internal_ id?

Laura Yanoviak — Mon, 21 May 2007 15:58:07 GMT

alexliz wrote:
...and they all share the same ID since they are identical to each other.

Huh -- I guess this is one reason why the US standard is for each opening to have a unique identifier, usually associated with the room number of the secured side of the door.

Re: Can I select things by their _internal_ id?

alexliz24 — Mon, 21 May 2007 17:38:36 GMT

Admin: would it be possible to add a poll on this one?

Once again the issue is: would it be beneficial/dangerous to enable Find by Internal ID?

Re: Can I select things by their _internal_ id?

TomWaltz — Mon, 21 May 2007 21:27:30 GMT

alexliz wrote:
Admin: would it be possible to add a poll on this one?

Once again the issue is: would it be beneficial/dangerous to enable Find by Internal ID?

I think this would only be useful if there was a way to control the internal ID.

I really doubt the contractor wants to deal in hexadecimal. "Door number 4A6F0" and "wall number C739AB"

Re: Can I select things by their _internal_ id?

Karl Ottenstein — Tue, 22 May 2007 02:55:50 GMT

I find this request to be so unique that I doubt many others would find the need for it.

It is much more then just Find/Select, Alex...as the internal ID is not exposed anywhere in the user interface, so you would have to modify the info box, tools, etc to show it.

Unless you must give all similar items the same ID, then use Element ID Manager to give them all unique IDs and you have your solution.

Further, unless you intend that your collegue will only work in the 3D window (not reasonable for huge models), then doing a 'find' by ID only won't find the door (e.g.) that you want anyway...you would still need to tell someone what story to go to, at least.

You cannot add a poll to an existing thread (unless yours is the first and only post)...but in any case, all polls belong on the various 'wish' forums. Feel free to start one and give a link to it here.

Cheers,
Karl

Re: Can I select things by their _internal_ id?

alexliz24 — Tue, 22 May 2007 05:48:19 GMT

Nah, it's alright, I'm convinced...

Karl: I've been using the ID Editor to do just what you say. I still risk, though, having an element with an identical User ID to another element, esp. after a copy procedure, even by another project team member.

Tom: why hex? I thought the INT ID is just numeric strings. They are on mine, at least. In any case, if it's unique and you enter it in the Find field, why do you care what it contains? Just enter the ID, whatever it is.

Re: Can I select things by their _internal_ id?

TomWaltz — Tue, 22 May 2007 12:16:17 GMT

alexliz wrote:
Nah, it's alright, I'm convinced...

Karl: I've been using the ID Editor to do just what you say. I still risk, though, having an element with an identical User ID to another element, esp. after a copy procedure, even by another project team member.

Tom: why hex? I thought the INT ID is just numeric strings. They are on mine, at least. In any case, if it's unique and you enter it in the Find field, why do you care what it contains? Just enter the ID, whatever it is.

Where are you seeing internal IDs? Are you doing API work?

Re: Can I select things by their _internal_ id?

alexliz24 — Tue, 22 May 2007 13:00:55 GMT

Here's a screenshot from my project. The Internal ID of the door shows in black, it's the "24820" part of the Label. I've got dozens of doors/windows in the project, all numerals, no hex whatsoever.

And, no, I'm not doing any API work.

Re: Can I select things by their _internal_ id?

TomWaltz — Tue, 22 May 2007 14:56:16 GMT

Why do you think that's the internal ID?'

Last I knew, the internal IDs were 8 to 12-digit hexadecimal values.

Re: Can I select things by their _internal_ id?

alexliz24 — Tue, 22 May 2007 15:40:36 GMT

I am a little surprised about all these objections to non-hex strings possibly being the Internal IDs. Anyway, I downloaded the two label markers provided on this forum by Srinivas (http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=88478), and re-configured them to use the glob_intid instead of glob_id parameter.

I assume that glob_intid is the Internal ID of the door/symbol. Am I wrong?

Re: Can I select things by their _internal_ id?

TomWaltz — Tue, 22 May 2007 15:52:10 GMT

I've dealt with internal IDs at the program level before (for an add-on I wrote through the API), and they were in hex.

It's possible that the GDL engine uses base-10, but it's a little surprising that they would be differently formatted than other elements.

Personally, I'm not sure why you are so interested in searching for values you cannot control. There are lots of things in Archicad that you can access at the programmer level (either through GDL or the API) that might have a limited used for normal users but would be much better served either through a complete new program function or improvements to an existing one.

It seems to me like what you really want is for Archicad to manage your door IDs in a way that makes them unique throughout the project (so you never have two of the same door number) and allows you to manage them yourself (probably using some numbering format or logic, such as basing them on an overall counting system or basing them on the room they are in).

Being able to Find by Internal ID would not give you any of these.

Re: Can I select things by their _internal_ id?

alexliz24 — Tue, 22 May 2007 16:22:56 GMT

I don't know why they are not in hex; I tried also with walls: go into Label Default Settings, select the Wall element, then 'Internal ID' from the drop down menu to the right. Then select any wall, click on its 'Label Elements' checkbox in its settings, and up comes a number - no hex letters.

I also don't quite get your concern about anyone's wanting to use the Internal ID. After all, it's offered in the elements' info boxes, isn't it? It's even available in the Global Element Parameters in the Set Up List Schemes dialog. Why should GS make it available to the 'normal' user if we're not supposed to use it?

You are right about the reasons why I want to use the IntIDs. Ideally, I am thinking (but am open to suggestions/corrections) I should be able to create lists/schedules listing both Internal IDs (so we can guarantee that we are addressing elements in a unique way, not mistaking anything for anything else) _and_ User IDs (so we can devise an ID system whereby every _type_ of door shares the same User ID, for grouping purposes). Of course, other parameters could be used for analyzing data; library part names, widths and heights, or even their combinations, could easily serve the purposes of data analysis and break points (i.e. list-by parameters). It just seems odd to me that a fine parameter such as the Internal ID is, may be inaccessible for the reverse work of selecting (and possibly zooming into) a particular element.

Thanks for sticking by.

Re: Can I select things by their _internal_ id?

TomWaltz — Tue, 22 May 2007 18:47:54 GMT

alexliz wrote:
..., it's offered in the elements' info boxes, isn't it?

Where is it visible in an Info Box?

It's even available in the Global Element Parameters in the Set Up List Schemes dialog. Why should GS make it available to the 'normal' user if we're not supposed to use it?.

I was under the impression that it was available in the Listing functions for linking with an external database via ODBC, something about 3 people on the planet know how to do. Not exactly a "normal" user task.