Checking and managing Opening Connections

[zsoka biro]

I've been looking for a solution to check and to manage opening connections, and failed to find a better one than clicking on each opening and manually doing it. Does anyone have a better idea?

My problem in a nutshell:

Openings connected to elements they don't actually intersect with cause performance problems. This is an old topic, that stems from the SEOs, however the issues that it's causing has evolved to a new level with refurbishment projects becoming more of a standard.
Our workflow for refurb projects starts with building a solid base model of the existing core of the building, including main openings. As a parallel process we are developing our concept on a "dummy". When our concept is ready to be merged into our core model the existing elements will be sliced up for parts of them are to be demolished: resulting in numerous unwanted opening connections with a negative impact on performance.

 

Looking for a solution:

Ideally Graphisoft should provide a solution to this problem as soon as possible.
With how pressing this matter became lateley, I've started to research all possible ways to speed up the process of opening checking. My way of thinking was: if I would be able to extract a list of connected elements for each opening, I'd be able to run a reversed collision detection on them (in this case the lack of a collision is the issue). So far I failed to find any solution to create that connection-list, even having looked into both Python API and JSON API.

[runxel]

While I second your demand, I fail to grasp how your workflow looks like. Would you mind reiterating on that? Because I've never heard something similar before.

[zsoka biro]

Our workflow for modeling a refurbishment project:

1. Early Planning stage
   1. Team A is working on a concept proposal using whatever method they are the most efficient with: Rhino / Sktechup / 2D drawings in ArchiCAD
   2. At the same time Team B is modeling the existing building in a clean ArchiCAD file based off of historical documentation / surveyor data. This is the BIM model that we want to use on the long term.
      
2. "Fusion" stage: Team A and B work together. Their first goal is to integrate the the proposed design in the model Team B has created. As a result of the concept, some existing elements will be partially demolished. For that, we cut those existing elements in pieces and edit the renovation status as needed.
   

   Left part = existing, middle part = to be demolished, right part = existing. As a result of the "cut" actions all openings are connected to all 3 wall pieces.

[runxel]

Thank you so much for the deeper explanation. Now I got you!

It's truly a bit bad that the operators are still active after splitting the geometry....

In any case a good start would be to be able to schedule SEOs and openings with their relative constituents.

[Laszlo Nagy]

I took another look at this. I can confirm that if you have an Opening in a Wall, and you split the Wall, the Opening will still be linked to both pieces, even the piece the 3D body of which it no longer cuts. I will report this to GS HQ.

[thesleepofreason]

Isn't that how it should work? The opening has a explicit relationship to a element and if the element is split into two the relationship should prevail. Right? It is however inconsistent with how SEO works so you could report that. 

The real issue here is that there is no way to easily manage and overview all opening and SEO relationships in a model.

[Laszlo Nagy]

Maybe it could be optional. When splitting an element, Archicad could check for this and give the user a choice to keep the associations or delete them.

[thesleepofreason]

Possible but it seems as a unnecessary load on the software or the user. I think it would be better solved by a connection manager which shows all connections in the model with the ability to check for connections where the target and operator doesn't intersect - making it possible for the user to easily clean up unwanted connections. Being able to centrally see and manage connections would also have benefits beyond the user case.

It should also be noted that the user case arises from lack of a proper way to handle change and alternative designs - there shouldn't really be an issue of three walls to begin with.

[Csaba Horvath]

Thanks for the report. The problem is bigger, than it looks. It works the same with the slabs just like with the walls. The slabs have usually multiple openings which connections will be multiplied through the cut of the element. In mid-large projects this phenomena coused in our office immediate crashes of ArchiCAD if the story should be opened where these slabs are represented. In this case the only (pretty timeconsuming) solution is, if in 3D-view each slab-piece is checked one by one. 

[Tuan Tai Truong]

We've developed an Add-On based on the Archicad API to manage connections within a 3D model. This tool allows us to identify and visually check connections where no intersection is detected.

Using this Add-On, we've been able to identify numerous problematic connections and understand their origins. For one particular project, we reduced the total connections from 2300 to 1800 meaningful connections. As a result, the project's performance improved noticeably.

However, there are still some limitations:

1. The Add-On doesn't work correctly with openings involving elements scheduled for demolition.
2. The Archicad API lacks a function to disconnect elements directly.
3. AND It's challenging to determine if the target element is the primary element (pinned) of an opening. Because delete the connection means delete the opening.

We've also developed a similar Add-On for managing Solid Operations. Here, identifying "problematic connections" is more challenging due to the lack of intersections between the operator and the target. To address this, we resorted to using bounding boxes, which did not always yield reliable results.

Based on our experience, I suggest that Archicad should prompt users immediately when a connection is established, asking if the connection should be maintained. Additionally, an Opening Manager/Solid Operation Manager would be beneficial for providing a comprehensive overview of these connections.

Attached are some photos illustrating our findings and the Add-On in action.