Transfer surface materials by Attribute Manager in ArchiCAD 23

[Anonymous]

I transferred set of surface materials from one file to another (in different computers) using attribute manager.

Firstly, a folder name 'add pars' gets created alongside the .xml file when I export the surface materials. What exactly is the use of that folder?

Secondly, the texture images linked to the materials wont get transferred although the other settings do. So I had to link the images individually in the 'surface' which is annoying. Is there a easier way to do this?

Thirdly, the orientation of these textures changed automatically even though the settings (including the angle settings in 'surface') are exactly the same. How to solve this?

[Mats_Knutsson]

mnguyen wrote:

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Best regards,
Minh

Coming back to the original topic. What is the AddPars folder useful for? I tried importing one surface from the AddPars folder but AC didn't do anything. The sum of sizes of the individual surface files under the AddPars is far greater than the size of "main" xml.

[Minh Nguyen]

Mats_Knutsson wrote:
Coming back to the original topic. What is the AddPars folder useful for? I tried importing one surface from the AddPars folder but AC didn't do anything. The sum of sizes of the individual surface files under the AddPars is far greater than the size of "main" xml.

Hi,

I hope you are doing well during these trying times!

Thank you for your question!

When you export the attributes, you'll get an XML file, and a folder next to it (the default name of this folder is AddPars in the INT version), that contains the XMLs of the sub-attributes.

The main XML file contains all of the main attributes, and it links to the sub-attributes relating to the main attributes in the main XML. This link is saved in the code. Since you may have many sub-attributes exported to AddPars but only one main XML, the AddPars folder can be way larger than the main XML.

AddPars also contains XMLs for the Library Parts that are used by the saved Favorites, so they are/can be created for Favorites of Zones, CW, Stairs, Railings and for Materials/Surfaces.

You won't be able to import the XMLs from AddPars folder to ARCHICAD directly, because it lacks certain value. My suggestion is to import the main XML, then import any sub-attribute that you need from there.

I hope this will answer your question. Let me know if you need any further help!

Thank you very much!

Best regards,
Minh

[Mats_Knutsson]

mnguyen wrote:

Mats_Knutsson wrote:
Coming back to the original topic. What is the AddPars folder useful for? I tried importing one surface from the AddPars folder but AC didn't do anything. The sum of sizes of the individual surface files under the AddPars is far greater than the size of "main" xml.

Hi,

I hope you are doing well during these trying times!

Thank you for your question!

When you export the attributes, you'll get an XML file, and a folder next to it (the default name of this folder is AddPars in the INT version), that contains the XMLs of the sub-attributes.

The main XML file contains all of the main attributes, and it links to the sub-attributes relating to the main attributes in the main XML. This link is saved in the code. Since you may have many sub-attributes exported to AddPars but only one main XML, the AddPars folder can be way larger than the main XML.

AddPars also contains XMLs for the Library Parts that are used by the saved Favorites, so they are/can be created for Favorites of Zones, CW, Stairs, Railings and for Materials/Surfaces.

You won't be able to import the XMLs from AddPars folder to ARCHICAD directly, because it lacks certain value. My suggestion is to import the main XML, then import any sub-attribute that you need from there.

I hope this will answer your question. Let me know if you need any further help!

Thank you very much!

Best regards,
Minh

Thanks!

[Ahmed_K]

Hi !
when copying my archicad template folder, wich contains the AddPars folder, all XML, copy process becomes veeeeery slow when it comes to addpars folder
is there a solution ?

[Minh Nguyen]

bouhmidage wrote:
Hi !
when copying my archicad template folder, wich contains the AddPars folder, all XML, copy process becomes veeeeery slow when it comes to addpars folder
is there a solution ?

Hello,

Thank you for the question and I am sorry to hear about the issue!

Could you specify a bit more on what was the workflow that make Archicad slow, step by step? Is that something we can replicate with any given file, or with your template file only?

Thank you very much!

Best regards,
Minh

[Ahmed_K]

Thank you for the quick reply !
the problem is not with ArchiCAD
the problem is with the created Addpars Folder, when i copy it into a flashdisk, or an external HDD drive to move it to another machine, the copy process of the folder content becomes very slow,

[Minh Nguyen]

bouhmidage wrote:
Thank you for the quick reply !
the problem is not with ArchiCAD
the problem is with the created Addpars Folder, when i copy it into a flashdisk, or an external HDD drive to move it to another machine, the copy process of the folder content becomes very slow,

explorer_2020-10-01_09-30-31.png

Hi,

Thanks for the screenshot!

Generally, the speed of data transfer on an USB depends on some factors:
- The transfer speed of the USB port
- The read speed of the source device
- The write speed of the target device

But in this case, the addpars folder usually contains lots of small files. I would like to quote an answer from https://superuser.com/questions/857243/why-is-file-transfer-speed-decreased-when-copying-multiple-sm...

"When transferring data, if you move one large file, you only have to write the directory entry once and then stream the data and write more or less continuously. When you have many files, you write the directory info, move to the file area and write the data, then go back and write the directory entry for the next file and then move back to the data area and write the data and back and forth. The overhead of moving back and forth adds up."

Therefore, due to the large number of files inside Addpars folder, it may took a while to transfer them to the removable drive. I suggest zipping them before copying to the external drive, as the job will be to copy one file only.

Let me know if this helps with the issue!

Best regards,
Minh

[Ahmed_K]

Thank you that works very well !
Zip the folder, and copy it to any removable device, transfer speed is logic now

[Minh Nguyen]

Glad I could help!
Have a great day!

Best regards,
Minh