Can I select things by their _internal_ id?

[alexliz24]

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.

[Anonymous]

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

[alexliz24]

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?

[Anonymous]

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...

[alexliz24]

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.

[Laura Yanoviak]

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.

[alexliz24]

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?

[TomWaltz]

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"

[Karl Ottenstein]

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

[alexliz24]

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.