Video tutorial: Understanding Attributes and Attribute Pollution

[Karl Ottenstein]

Something that absolutely every Archicad user needs to really grasp is the notion of Attributes (Pens, Line Types, Surfaces, etc) and the many ways that your project can become corrupted and fail to display as intended.

Due to a post in another forum, I just became aware of an absolutely outstanding short video tutorial created by Scott Moore of Fulton Trotter Architects in Australia.  It is rare for me to come across a video that is as perfectly done as this one to visually illustrate, with clear well-paced audio and examples, all of the many Attribute issues that have been discussed over the past 25 years in countless threads by dozens of users... but which, until this video, have never been collated into a single presentation.  All current knowledge is perfectly summarized in Scott's video ... along with several issues that I've not seen raised before.

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

The end of the tutorial will make sense to Python/data nerds and is not essential for most users to understand...other than that it is possible to programmatically manipulate attribute XML files.

I hope that every BIM Manager will watch the video... and really, that every user will also.  (And, I really hope that every Product Manager at Graphisoft HQ watches if they haven't already... so that the archaic attribute management that has not changed in 30-ish years will get revamped sooner than later.)

Congratulations @scottjm for an absolutely superbly done presentation!

[_c_]

Sure, I am very glad to share with you!

Really, the minimum, since I did the app after being inspired by your video, which helped me totally.

The app runs on Mac, must still do a Win version. Let me know privately your mail address....

[Karl Ottenstein]

Just waking this topic up so that more people will watch Scott's video - especially after what I consider a somewhat confused presentation today on the Building Together event on attribute management where the speaker talked about doing it to keep things "tidy".  (Benedek does seem like a great guy ... but I think he was perhaps juggling trying to explain the real issues and not being negative about Archicad or too critical of Graphisoft.  Scott has no such 'political' restrictions on his presentation in the linked video.)

Attribute management and corruption is not about being "tidy"... it is about getting project views and documents that are either right or wrong... and at worse create a liability for your firm because what is delivered is not what was intended due to attributes from different files displaying in totally different ways.

I'm quite surprised that Graphisoft broadcast the presentation on Building Together as it reveals to potential customers the biggest flaw in using Archicad for large projects... with no real solution.   Hopefully, a true centralized attribute management system will arrive with AC 28, as it really cannot be delayed any longer.

[Nathan Hildebrandt]

I was hoping for a new solution in the presentation, sadly I was left wanting.

[GabrielGG]

There is a very good tool to edit XML in a Visual way without Programming skills.

IT's very Simple and Cheap if you wand to buy a license, it's call XiMpLe.

Its a Visual XML editor in Table form. It allows you to Copy-Paste from excel to the tables and you also can multiply existing attributes and edit the contents to create new ones (for example you create a list in excel and copy it to the xml.

I've used it intensively as I've been working in a new Attribute concept.

It also allows you to compare two XML files, and you get the differences marked with colors (good for checking two XML files from two projects.

maybe will also be usefull for @scottjm 

here the link

XiMpLe - XML Editor - Homepage

You need to install Chocolatey in PowerShell first and then install the program within PowerShell. The installation instructions are not very clear. Note that this is for Windows only; Mac users cannot install it.
Chocolatey Software | Chocolatey - The package manager for Windows

[GabrielGG]

double published, please Moderators ...  delete