Attribute Concept for an Archicad Practice Template

[GabrielGG]

Hello,

I've watched this video by @scottjm   and several others by @Nathan Hildebrandt  many times recently as I'm developing a concept for a new Archicad template for the practice where I currently work. I would like to ask for your opinion on our Attribute concept.

Here are the links to the video and a community article about it:

Video tutorial: Understanding Attributes and Attribute Pollution 

https://www.digital.skewed.com.au/media/webinars/archintensive-2023-dark-side-attribute-chaos

Thanks to @scottjm and @Nathan Hildebrandt for the content. I highly recommend everyone watch these videos and explore many others on the same YouTube channel. They are unvaluable.

To provide some context, the practice I'm working at has grown rapidly from approximately 20 to 100 employees. The current Archicad template is not suited to the size of our office or the number of projects we are handling, and it's difficult to scale. That's why we've decided to create a new template with a long-term perspective.

I call the concept "The Attribute Trap," and it's quite simple:

• The Archicad template in each country defines how to set up attributes in compliance with local regulations. We will adopt this approach for our practice's attribute system and remove all standard Archicad attributes.
  • I still need to test if there might be issues with the standard values of Archicad tools. If so, I will see if I can redefine these standard values for everyone in our practice. I'm also considering keeping the standard "line" and "hatch" attributes of Archicad, but testing is necessary.
• Our practice attributes will start at index 10,000, with all indexes before this number left empty. The practice indexes will run up to 20,000 (or another number that suits our practice's requirements). I chose 10,000 indexes for our standards because I like to think long-term.
• After index 20,000, the project-specific attributes will begin. These are created by the project team when no standard attributes are defined for a specific need or special workflow. To mark the start of these attributes, there will be an attribute at index 19,999 called "Start of Project Attributes" or something similar. This way, any manually created attribute will automatically be indexed after the last existing index.

What I aim to achieve with this concept:

• Any attributes from old projects or Archicad standards that are copied or hotlinked will be placed in the range of 0 to 9,999. We use indexes up to 2,000 for differentiating internal processes.
• Any workflow that creates new attributes in the first free indexes (such as Master GDLs, modules with conflicts, or improperly done IFC imports) will create those in the range of 0 to 9,999.
• In the future, when the template is in use, all project-specific attributes that might be copied will be placed in index 20,000+ with a gap to the existing project index number. If the project we are copying to has not created many attributes yet, or it will be placed in 0 to 9,999 if the attribute index already exists.

This approach makes it much easier to clean up attributes because you just need to sort them by index. One of my biggest challenges right now is managing the master GDLs that are infiltrating our practice through projects.

I still have some open questions to Test and address:

• What will happen to the standard parameters in the tools and library parts in Archicad, and how can I distribute the necessary changes throughout our practice? (Favorites are less attractive until they can be distributed "not manually" but "from the administrator for everyone" in the office.)
• The Attribute Library: I've reserved 10,000 indexes for our standards because I plan to have many predefined attributes. As we have a wide portfolio of project types, I tend to keep these in a separate file that is locally saved, read-only, and accessible to everyone in the office. This allows them to import what they need as I develop it in the background, adding attributes as we identify needs over time.

I am currently navigating through Archicad attribute theory, and I hope that if we implement this, time will show it to be a meaningful concept. However, before starting, it's always good to have some debate and gather different perspectives on it.

Thank you to everyone interested in this theoretical debate.

Gabriel

Operating system used: Windows 11

[Nathan Hildebrandt]

Removing the OOTB Attributes will cause more chaos in your practice than benefits. Personally I maintain the following OOTB attributes. 

• line types
• fills
• surfaces 

I keep the OOTB attributes for those but rename them to align with my naming strategy. The reason for keeping them is because all of the library parts from OOTB together with library parts you download reference these attributes. I played around with ideas like this back in Archicad 9 and quickly changed the way I worked when I realised I made life harder for people. 

I will have a look over your video but the issues I raise above truly need to be considered in building your template attributes. Because I rename the OOTB attributes it made sense for me to continue my attributes immediately after the OOTB ones. I don’t skip through to a fixed index number. I understand your theory behind it but I can guarantee in a practice of 100 team members you will find it incredibly hard to keep on top of everyone in every project. 

regards 

Nathan