Design Options made almost everything pink/magenta

[MrSoleil]

Created two design options, saved the second one under a separate folder to keep it and accepted the first one. Some of the elements now are magenta and it's not the graphic override or anything like that. Weirdly enough, other elements weren't affected. It seems to have affected only some stories. Can anyone guess what this is? 

[James B]

This may be because the stair is "invalid", because of a top link that the stair can't match - so it can turn pink in those situations.

https://help.graphisoft.com/AC/28/INT/index.htm#t=_AC28_Help%2F140_UserInterfaceDialogBoxes%2F140_Us...

[MrSoleil]

No stair involved here. Just profiled columns and beams/walls. 

[James B]

Then it could be because those elements have a missing design option if yes then they’ll also turn pink due to this WE checkbox and control. To let you know something is invalid.

[Jan Millan · Accepted solution]

I saw a similar case recently where this situation occurred after using “Accept and Merge” in a Teamwork file.

The way Design Options work, when you "Accept & Merge" one design option, Archicad automatically deletes elements from the unaccepted options within the same Option Set. However, if some of those elements are not reserved at the time of the merge (in a Teamwork file), they may not be properly deleted. Instead, they remain in the project as "orphaned" because the user did not have the element reserved and therefore did not have permission to delete it. These elements can then be designated as "invalid elements" which would explain why they appear magenta. This color is a visual indicator from the Work Environment that typically signals something is missing or corrupted.

To confirm if your issue is related to invalid elements, I recommend going into the Work Environment settings and navigating to User Preference Schemes > On-Screen Options. Temporarily uncheck "Use uniform color to highlight invalid elements." If the magenta color disappears when you return to the model, that would support the theory above.

If they are indeed invalid elements and you don’t need them; You can reserve all and then select and delete them manually. If there are too many to select manually, you can use Find & Select. There is an option under ID and Categories > Design Option Missing that may help you select all of them at once.

[MrSoleil]

Thank you, 

They were the elements that are needed, exactly the option I wanted to keep in the file as default. 

Your diagnosis was correct, thank you! Will keep that in mind for the future workflow and advice about it to the team. 

Thank you again! 

[Jan Millan]

I haven’t attempted to recreate your situation on my end. But I can offer a possible path forward based on what I’d personally try in this situation.

1. Select one of the invalid elements you want to keep.
   Open its settings and navigate to the "Classification and Properties" tab. Under the Design Options section, check if you can assign it to the Main Model or to a valid Design Option. If that field is editable, changing the assignment might resolve the issue.

2. If it's already showing as part of the Main Model (or if the field is locked):
   Try creating a temporary Design Option Set and a new Design Option within it. Once created, assign the invalid elements to this new Design Option. In theory, this should pull them out of the "orphaned" state caused by the accept & merge that was performed without having the elements reserved. 

3. After reassignment:
   Reserve all elements, and then use Accept and Merge on the temporary Design Option to bring those elements back into the Main Model in their normal state.

Let me know how it goes if you try this, or if you discover another solution, as it may help others running into the same issue in the future.