I've written many posts over the years regarding Keynotes, and I continue to send my wishlists to Graphisoft. I have experimented with both Properties and Classifications as a source for Keynote descriptions, and I've found that either would work. Currently, my template uses Properties, but they use an Expression to automatically number the Keynote based on the Masterformat (USA) division, which is an available Classification. Though it's in there, it's unworkable. Neither of these is the problem.
The real issue is the limited Criteria parameters for the Schedules. Extracting the Keynote Legend is problematic because:
1. I only want to create a separate Legend for each Layout (or could be by Drawing or View) showing those items that are visible and noted. There is no way to filter Schedules to do this automatically. This is possible using old AutoCAD's Database Extraction tool, for heaven's sake!
2. Keynote information resides in the element being noted, not the Label. There is no way to Schedule Labels; they are not available. If there was a logical indicator as to whether an element was labeled, it would work. So, there is no way to automatically know if an Element's Keynote Label actually exists or not. You may be scheduling elements that have no note, which is wrong.
3. Schedules are unaware of what Layout, View, or Drawing an element appears in. A filter criteria similar to Changes, which ARE Layout-aware, would be needed to identify where the element is. Otherwise, you can only create a legend of all of the Keynotes in the whole project; not very practical or helpful.
4. A Property could be used (with an Options List) to manually choose which Drawing/Layout the Keynote appears on. However, there is no way to connect that to the visibility or the Label, which would generally be identified by Layer. It's too easy for a User to show a Label on the Ceiling Plan, but the Keynote shows up on the Floor Plan Legend. There needs to be more connection between Properties and Label visibility.
5. None of this accounts for Keynotes that are informational, and do not point to one specific Element. A Keynote like, "Connect wall to foundation at this condition in this way", would need to arbitrarily be in either the Wall or the Foundation, and then that element could not have it's own identifying Keynote. Ability to Schedule independent Labels would be helpful, or we could create "dummy" Objects.
6. Keynoting Sections and Elevations is a further conundrum. For instance, elements from the East and West Elevations show up in my North Elevation, in profile. I only want Keynotes shown on the North face of my building to be Scheduled. They should only be noted in the appropriate View where they are labeled, which is subjective. To make matters worse, 2D Objects placed in a Section/Elevation are not schedulable at all.
7. If there is a desire to use a consistent numbering system throughout the Project, so that no two Keynotes have the same number, a sequential number register or other such system would be needed to cross-check. The expressions would need to read/write (PUSH/GET) from a central database, which might be available in GDL, but not Property Expressions.
8. None of these scenarios provides a simple way to create a master list of standard/starter Keynotes for an office. Favorites can be embedded with Keynotes, but this may not account for variations.
I've used MasterScript's Total Keynote system, but it's tricky to use correctly, and most of my staff can't figure it out; plus, it's outdated. CADImage/Central Innovation has a Keynote tool, but it's very pricey for many users.
At one time, a local US company called Undecillion create and AutoKeyNote system, using a separate Object, tied to the old Calculate menu Listing functions (Property Objects, Keys, and Descriptors). They stayed coordinated through TXT files placed in the Library. It was way too complex, and stopped working due to some change in later ArchiCAD versions. There is some vestige of that left, but I don't think Graphisoft is still supporting that database structure. That's unfortunate, since the next step in BIM evolution is complex database interaction. Perhaps JSON and Python APIs, or Grasshopper, can be used to produce something better?
Chuck Kottka
Orcutt Winslow
Phoenix, Arizona, USA
ArchiCAD 25 (since 4.5)
Macbook Pro 15" Touchbar OSX 10.15 Core i7 2.9GHz/16GB RAM/Radeon Pro560 4GB