AttMan Tip: When Attributes Shouldn't Be In Use.

[James Murray]

Attribute Manger is supposed to tell you when attributes are in use. This it does. But it can sometimes tell you attributes are in use when they aren't.

You've confirmed all the actual elements in all the windows, but you still have checks in the AttMan.

There are couple of semi-legit reasons for this which you can work around:

• Default attributes of tools are 'in use'. Change the tools' defaults to 'neutral' attributes (General material, Air Space fill, Archicad layer, etc). The active layer palette helps with this. I also keep a set of very boring Favorites around for this purpose.

• Attributes of current Favorites are 'in use'. Delete the Favorites.

But then, sometimes, atts are shown in use though there's definitely, positively, no element or tool with those settings.

Here's what I found: Select all the elements. Ungroup. Undo (the groups come back). Open AttMan and observe the properly unchecked, unused attributes. Purge away.

It seems the attributes of deleted group members are somehow being remembered.

Note: I figured this out as I was developing a method for purifying standard detail modules, small files. I haven't investigated it at project scale.

HTH,

[Anonymous]

Interesting. Thanks, James. The boring tools (favorites) tip is good too.

[James Murray]

More:

This trick is impeccable for layers (probably the most important thing), but I'm still hitting a snag with linetypes. So here's another tip.

Create a project file, based on your template, but with all the attributes taken out. Set all the tools to "boring", like the favorites described below. Make sure the favorites are either boring or non-existent.

Merge the suspicious module or project into this empty project. Now when you go to the AttMan, you will have only the attributes that are really in use by the geometry. Then you can re-save the module, and it's as clean as it can get.

[Link]

Hi James

Thanks for the information. The whole process of stripping a file down seems much buggier than it used to be. To add to your comments FWIW I have noticed that the Active Layer trick doesn't necessarily work with elements on the masters. That is, if you turn Active Layer on, (some) elements on masters will show up as having their layers unused in the Attribute Manager.

On a related note, even though Complex Profiles are included in the Attribute Manager, materials and textures and linetypes of complex profiles don't seem to transfer with the Attribute Manager. That is to say that if a complex profiles' attributes aren't already included in a file, they won't be brought in simply by bringing in the complex profile.

And I guess you've noticed the new hard wired fills don't even appear in the Attribute Manager any more!

Cheers,
Link.

[Rob]

in addition I think that any fills, linetypes etc defined internally by loaded GDL objects will be checked as used no matter whether they are placed in the project or not.

[__archiben]

James wrote:
Change the tools' defaults to 'neutral' attributes (General material, Air Space fill, Archicad layer, etc). The active layer palette helps with this.

. . . don't forget to include the 'Accessories' commands and some add-ons in that operation too . . .

~/archiben