Attribute mismatches, an app to find them all

[_c_]

About a year ago I switched to Archicad. I was immediately confronted with the problem of attribute mismatches in projects that span more than one file. My first Archicad project had 10 files and I really struggled to keep things tidy. Not least because I didn't really understand the dynamics of where all these attribute problems were coming from. The enlightenment was a video by Scott Moore's of Fulton Trotter Architects, which I cannot recommend highly enough. See thread: https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Project-data-BIM/Video-tutorial-Understanding-Attributes-and-Att...

The next problem was not so much fixing the attribute mismatches, but finding them.

The attribute manager is of no help here. And that's not all. There are mismatches that are really deep and not even visible in the Attribute Manager, such as skin thickness within composite definitions.

The amount of time you spend searching for and fixing attribute mismatches is not just huge, it is endless. Because they will mismatch over and over again. Given a source file (the "right" file) and any number of comparison files (that must become like the source file), you can have following mismatches:

• Name mismatch: Same attribute index in source and comparison file, but different name
• Index mismatch: Same attribute name in source and comparison file, but different index
• Missing in source: Both attribute name and index don't exist in the source file
• Missing in file: Both attribute name and index don't exist in all files
• Content mismatch: Deep differences within associated attributes, such as thickness for individual composite skins, pens, offsets within vectorial fills and more.

At this point I wrote a utility to at least do the search fast by parsing the xml files from the attribute manager. This is intended as an analysis tool for the BIM manager, who can then create simple Excel files with instructions for the BIM coordinator. I know that Archicad will do something at one point, but I need this now, so, there it is for others too.

The app is now a viable Beta and currently supports English and German. Whoever is interested in helping testing it, is very welcome and will obviously become the finished app free of charge. I cannot take many testers (I am doing this in my free time from a real job as BIM Manager), but whoever wants to test can write me a private mail.

I will cherish the feedback of experienced Archicad users, specially questions in usage (which will help setting up a QA section).

More infos here:

https://www.cad-bim-manager.com/tools_ac_attributes_compare.htm

App running on 3 attribute files, overall 44MB of data: finds all deepest differences in 16 seconds

 

and can output this excel file for others to fix the issues one by one:

 

[scottjm]

If you are struggling with cleaning up an attribute disaster this tool is going to be essential to help you sort things out. 
Amazing work @_c_ !

[PeterPetersen]

I was just about to start programming a tool for attribute comparison, when I came across your post - looks great, would be very happy to see how it works! 

[_c_]

Thank you so much both of you! The tool is actually finished, only missing some sort of basic licensing system. I just changed office and have little time...

I am now doing clean IFC utilities, hopefully you'll like them. Stuff to brute-force IFC just to save time, errors and boundless cumbersomeness in the ifc translators. This will all be free, since I use IfcOpenShell.

Best

_c_

[PeterPetersen]

After some short but intense testing I can confirm the tool works great - a must have for any team working on large projects with multiple files. 

[JeffH]

Can also confirm this tool is great for those multiple file projects!!

amazing job.

Now i feel completely overwhelmed with the issues this flagged in our 2 templates i thought were decently in sync.