Zone and Door Numbers in Hotlink Module Apartments

[Da3dalus]

I would like to revisit this thread to see if anyone has mastered this workflow. This question is, how can we set up "cloned" apartments in a large building, using Hotlink Modules, such that the embedded Zones and related Doors are uniquely numbered in the host building?

Previous to now, when we created multiple instances of a Module, the Zone had to be inserted separately in the Host file, and was left out of the Source. This can be a time consuming management task where hundreds of units are present.

The ability to give each Hotlink Module instance a Master ID was created in ArchiCAD 17; however, it seems there was no way to access the information, so it was generally useless. ArchiCAD 18 got closer, but it seems that 19 finally has Zone Stamps that are ID-aware. The new nomenclature of Full vs. Compact Element ID certainly helps clarify the function. However, it's only usable when programmed into the GDL; I don't think theres any way to access the ID with Autotext.

Part of the problem is that this workflow only changes the Element ID, NOT the Zone Number (Room Number), which is what the Door Marker references to auto-number Doors. To the best of my knowledge, there is no way to make the Zone Number = Zone Element ID. Without using some custom Zone Stamps and Door Markers, it doesn't work.

So, has anyone been able to manipulate this system so that the Zones exist in each Module Source, and are automatically numbered using the Master ID? I'd be interested to hear how you made it work, and what Graphisoft could do in the future to make it easier.

[Anonymous]

We are currently trying to resolve the same issue. Does anyone have any solutions? We are having to place an individual zone for every single apartment on a 90 story tower, every time one apartment changes slightly we have to go and amend 90 zones. Incredible waste of time.

[JaseBee]

I've run into similar problems, though for one reason or another I don't think I've actually put the zones within the modules, as we are usually doing varying internal layouts as modules in a larger file that contains the parti walls and such. So the zones are in the main file.

That being said the doors in the modules did have to be uniquely identified, so the module ID is used, I have custom labels that recognises a character we put at the end of the module ID, but that's a bit redundant now as 21 has separate data fields for calling them up.

For the zone issue could you use the new 21 text label where you can just select whatever data to display and turn zone stamps off? Although I think I vaguely remember labels aren't allowed to connect to zones.

I made custom zone stamps a while ago too which change depending on the MVO's similar to how TotalZones ones work I believe, you can choose the data you want them to list.

This is one of the most frustrating aspects of archicad, figuring out a way through all the unique limitations of each tool and working around to your desired (or more usually, an acceptable) result.

Best of luck.