Adding parameters to placed objects

[Anonymous]

Hi.

Is there a way to add/change specific parameters of already placed objects and at the same time keep their existing values (as they differ)?

[Barry Kelly]

Just to clarify with an example.

You have an existing door in you plan with a 1 hour fire rating.
You want to swap this for a different door with a 2 hour fire rating.
So you select the object, open the settings dialogue, find the new door and CTRL+ALT click it.
You will get the new door with the original objects size and a 1 hour fire rating because that is what you passed onto the new object.

This is what should happen - so long as both objects have exactly the same parameter for fire rating.
If the parameter has a different name in each object then they will not affect each other.

The only other time that parameters will not be passed from one object to another (even if they are exactly the same) is if the object script has been edited and the parameter transfer button has been locked for particular parameters.
If the lock is on then there will be no parameter transfer.
See attached image.

Barry.

[Anonymous]

Im going to try to clarify what I want with an easy example.

I got 3 doors. Door 1 and Door 2 are the same object with differing values. I have placed one Door 1 and one Door 2 in a wall.

Door 1: Basic door 17 without fire rating value
Door 2: Basic door 17 with fire rating value 90
Door 3: Modified Basic door 17 with 2 new parameters. (I created this door by selecting Door 1 and open object)

Now I want Door 1 and Door 2 to have the 2 new parameters meanwhile keeping all of their existing values.


Barry, I have tried to create a modified door with the parameter for FireRating with a U in the display column of the GDL object parameters but it still overwrites that value...

[Eduardo Rolon]

For whats it worth, in this case my workflow would be using Schedules to coordinate this type of information. The reasoning is that this is not 3D data and the easiest way to be sure that the settings are correct is to go thru the items.

[sinceV6]

Ah! Well. The problem then is the order in which you are selecting them or what objects you want the values changed.

AC will transfer the values of the last selected object (while keeping in mind everything that has been said about types, parameter name, etc). In your example, if your last selection is the door#1, without fire rating, you'll see that its values are shown in the door settings dialog box. When selecting another door using Ctrl-Alt-Click those are the values that will be carried over.

If that the case, the door that has the parameters you want to keep must be the last selection (if you are selecting using a window selection, you could shift-click to deselect that one door and then select it again to make it the last active selection), make sure that the parameters you want to keep are shown in the dialog box (edit any if necessary) and only then select your other door.

In case you want to change both door#1 and door#2 to door#3 and keep each fire rating value for both, it cannot be done with a single click as it would be very very hard to create a logic when a user selects different objects and wants to change some of them and not the others while keeping values for some, or knowing what values of what selected objects should be considered.

In this case, you can use the amazing Find&Select. You'll be able to drill down to find the doors (or any object) that has the same values you want to keep, change those, and then find&select again the ones with different values; or like Eduardo said, use schedules to group the objects with the same values and then use the "select on floor plan" option to change them.

Hope that helps.

[Anonymous]

SinceV6, yes I wanted to change door #1 and #2 with one click while both of them kept their specific values. Unfortunately this doesn't seem possible. For me it seems quite logical the possibility to be able to only add gdl parameters to already placed objects without amending anything else, but I guess this is not how GDL scripting works in AC.

If you have about 50 or even more different kind of doors (different values) it is quite time consuming to use a critera method such as a schedule or Find & Select to add these new parameters. It's on my wish list to be able to do this with one click

[Barry Kelly]

A wrote:
Door 1: Basic door 17 without fire rating value
Door 2: Basic door 17 with fire rating value 90
Door 3: Modified Basic door 17 with 2 new parameters. (I created this door by selecting Door 1 and open object)

So long as you open the script for 'Basic Door 17' and add 2 completely new parameters and simply save that object (not 'save as') then all your doors will have the new parameters with values set as you saved them in the object.
None of your other parameters will be affected - even if you adjust their default values in the object script.
The only thing that will affect them will be if you delete the parameter - then they will disappear from all objects.

So you have a parameter 'fire-rating' in your object.
Door 1 is placed and value = 0
Door 2 is placed and value = 90

You open the door script and add 2 new parameters (say 'door_strength' and 'door_weight').
Save this object and door objects 1 & 2 in your model will now have these 2 new parameters and the fire rating values will be unaffected.


If you are doing a 'Save As' and creating a new door object then placing this object as a new door 3 then you can not transfer the new parameters into doors 1 & 2 without replacing them with the new door object.
You must select door 1 on its own and transfer the parameters (CTRL+ALT) in the object settings to the new door object.
The fire rating will transfer across as 0.
Then select door 2 and swap that for the new door object and its fire rating will remain 90.

When swapping object in this way you must do it one at a time if they have different values set.

Barry.

[Anonymous]

I undertstand. My issue was that the door object was in the lcf library so I wanted to use 'Save As'. Good to know for next project. If you know in advance that you are going to use some objects which you will have many different parameters/values for e.g. doors, windows etc...might be good to use a object that is not inside a lcf library. Or it would be a nice feature to make it possible

[Barry Kelly]

If you are going to modify existing GS objects then you are best to "Save As" with a new name in a new library.
That way you can use them in addition to the standard objects but there is no danger of losing them if you ever update the standard library - which does happen occasionally - or of course when you upgrade to the next version.

Barry.

[Anonymous]

Or you could use ifc if it's text based info you want to attach and schedule. Avoids changing gdl and you can get consistency across door type for instance. Not sure how ifc reacts to syringe though...

[Eduardo Rolon]

hfs55 wrote:
Or you could use ifc if it's text based info you want to attach and schedule. Avoids changing gdl and you can get consistency across door type for instance. Not sure how ifc reacts to syringe though...

+1 on using IFC