topic Re: Properties for specific elements in Collaboration with other software

Properties for specific elements

stefan — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 16:28:14 GMT

With the new (nice) Property System in ARCHICAD 20, we can define custom property sets with ease. We can limit to certain object types (walls, slabs etc), but not further. This means that a manufacturer which adds a property set for e.g. central heating system, will have its properties propagated to all "objects", including most of them which are not related at all.

You can define a custom set of properties for GDL objects (their parameters) and you can define custom IFC Properties and add them somewhere in the Project Hierarchy and on an object-by-object base.

But this seems not the case with the AC20 Property System

(That said: it behaves quite like Shared Parameters in Revit)

Re: Properties for specific elements

Laszlo Nagy — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 20:21:41 GMT

Is this a statement or a question?

Actually, Properties are made available for Element Classification values, not element types. There are about 15 construction (3D) element types in ARCHICAD, however, there are over 50 Element Classification values. They are based on IFC Element types. You just need to set an element to a certain Element Classification value and all Properties made available for that specific Element Classification value will be available for the element.
For example, you can set the Element Classification value of one Slab to "Slab", another to "Ceiling", another one to "Covering", yet another to "Plate", etc. and they each will have different Properties available for them as defined in the Property Manager Dialog.

Re: Properties for specific elements

stefan — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 21:26:27 GMT

Thanks for the clarification. Good tip about classifications. It indeed was sort of a question 😉

The reason I ask, is that I'm working for a manufacturer of materials and systems for drywalls (I think that is the correct term). When I link their custom properties to "walls", every wall in the project all of a sudden has these properties. I then tend to leave the values empty, as a default value would propagate to many elements which don't need this value.

It would be nice to be able to limit the properties to specific object types.

When we are growing towards a (large) set of standard properties, many objects will have many properties which they may not need.

Re: Properties for specific elements

Laszlo Nagy — Fri, 10 Feb 2017 08:26:11 GMT

Yes, this is true, there is currently no way to assign these Properties to only certain types of Walls, if there is no Element Classification value that fits that purpose. Hopefully GRAPHISOFT will provide some method of achieving this in the future.