Libraries with Duplicate Objects

[Bill]

I've added a BimServer Library (our office library) to a project, and it's telling me that there are duplicate objects... actually, it's telling me that the Office Library has duplicate objects with itself. There are no other libraries loaded with these objects, and it's definitely referencing the same library each time...

Any thoughts as to what is going on, and how can I get it to believe that there are not duplicates?

[Barry Kelly]

When you view the properties of the duplicates you can change it to show all the duplicates and not just those that have been placed.

It sounds like you simply have the same files in more than one location of your BIM library.

Barry.

[Bill]

Thanks, Barry.

I ended up removing a third-party subset library and that deleted the duplicates... but when I went through it, I still don't see any duplicates! Either way, the error message is gone.

Bill

[NCornia]

Hi Bill,

It looks like my suggestion is coming a bit late here, but have you tried setting the Operating System to show all hidden File & Folders? I have had a case recently like this. The client brought the library folder over from a Mac to a Windows computer. Mac OS X creates meta files that are not visible by default but they are present when you bring files from a Mac to PC. The hidden files were being recognized as Duplicates.

Windows -

Other Cross-Platform considerations:


Best regards,

[R Muller]

I have the same problem, also on a Mac. Duplicate objects noted in the same library, but I can find only one of each. I searched the library based on the file name, and only one was found. Didn't find any duplicate hidden files either.

I vaguely remember reading there's some sort of (supposedly unique) number attached to library objects. Could this be what is duplicated, rather than the name of the object?

Or could it be an ArchiCAD bug??

[R Muller]

Experiments: here are the results of two contradictory experiments:

Experiment 1: My library listed four duplicate objects (4 different names). I realized two of the objects in the same folder could be the same, except that they had different names (Bench and Seat). I deleted one of the four objects listed from my library, the "Seat", and then there were only two duplicate objects left. (four minus one does not equal two!) The Seat was gone, since I had deleted it, and the Bench was no longer listed as a duplicate object although it was still in the library. So it is clear that ArchiCAD considered Bench and Seat to be the same object, even though they had different names.

Experiment 2: I selected a part from my library at random and duplicated it, in the same folder, with a different name. "Column" and "column copy". ArchiCAD did not recognize these as duplicate library parts.

My conclusion: ArchiCAD is somewhat buggy and unpredictable in its determination of duplicate library objects. It is probably not worth the effort to try to eliminate duplicates.

[NCornia]

Hi R Muller,

ARCHICAD does track objects based on a GUID (Global Unique IDentifier) and ARCHICAD identifies duplicates using GUIDs. So in your case the objects Bench and Seat have different human-friendly names but it is possible they could have the same GUID. You can check the GUID of the Seat, Bench and Column objects in question using the steps in this article:

Best regards,

[R Muller]

Thanks for your reply. I looked at your link, and my head is aching! Wow, a 72-character GUID!! It looks like trying to remove the duplicates may be a lot more work than I want to do, given current tools to assist me.

The column I tried duplicating is a file dated 1999 on my server. I assume it didn't have a GUID originally. Somehow the copy process must have created a new GUID.

The Bench and Seat are dated 2008. They must have the same GUID.

Of course I have no idea what the subtype of each of these parts is, and it would take more effort than it is worth to open the library parts two different ways, as mentioned in the article, to track this down. I have been living with duplication errors in my loaded libraries for years, and it hasn't been a real problem, so I guess I can live with it for a while linger.

Wish list: it would help if ArchiCAD could give me information on specific pairs of duplicates, with the file path for each. That way I could better track them down without going into the arcane world of library part creation.

[NCornia]

R wrote:
Wish list: it would help if ArchiCAD could give me information on specific pairs of duplicates, with the file path for each. That way I could better track them down without going into the arcane world of library part creation.

Hi R Muller,

I spent a little time searching the Wishlist areas of the forum and in my searches I could find no wishes posted by users for this kind of function. I have gone ahead and posted a wish there based on this conversation. ( ) Please go and vote if you feel this is important.

Also, I have located an existing wish in our internal database related to this and I have posted the link to this posting to give the wish more weight.

Best regards,

[R Muller]

Thank you, Nicolas. I did post a vote for the wish. It isn't a work-stopping problem, but I have been feeling guilty all these years for allowing these error messages without doing anything about them.