Graphisoft Community (INT) Forum Project data & BIM Layer / Layer Combinati…
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PROJECT DATA & BIM
About BIM-based management of attributes, schedules,
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Layer / Layer
Combination matrix
spreadsheet
2015-07-21
06:43 PM - last
edited on
Anonymous
2023-05-30
07:39 AM by
Rubia Torres
I am trying to update my template to ArchiCAD 19. Over many
versions and many years of working on a wide variety of
project types and scales my layer set and combinations list
has ballooned into a crazy beast. Rather than build from
scratch I am hoping to pare down and clean up what I have. I
stumbled upon this image of a layer / combo matrix that
would be a divine gift in helping me see what I got and help
me roadmap my way out of pack-rat hell. Anyone have a clue
how this was done? The visual lock and visible eye symbols
are so much nicer that the text versions that I have so far spit
out. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
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Link 2015-07-21
Graphisoft Partner 11:00 PM
I have not seen any way of doing this automatically, but
would certainly like to find out how if there's a way. It would
need to be some kind of awesome add-on!
I just do it manually which is a painstaking process!
Cheers,
Link.
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FORUM
2015-07-22
Anonymous
12:45 AM
KNOWLEDGE BASE
Manually Link, yikes! Get notified
THIS
BUILDING BOARD
TOGETHER about
new
Through attribute manager if you select all layer replies
combinations in the Attributes of the current project:
DEVELOPER HUB side (left
panel) Subscribe to topic
Make sure Include Layers is selected inPRODUCT
the middle
HELP
Then push them By Index to the Current File: side (right
panel).
Then do a save as .xml.
Open Excel and then open that xml file.
You will find rows and rows of layer combination info. They
hold all the info you're after.
eg 1-2-22359-16-Layer Combinations-1_1 Site Demolition-1-2-
0-629E2753-3AA0-4C05-AE0E-856CD9265B17-1_1 Site
Demolition-1-0-1-0-0-1-1-166-1-1
I used '-' to show the column separators.
That 166 is the index code (attribute number) for my concrete
dimensions layer (listed in that xml table with the 166)
and from memory the 3 numbers preceding that are the lock,
shown, wire frame.
If you're good with excel lookups, you can make that grid,
with graphics and all, pretty easily. I'm terrible with excel so I
had one of our wiz's make it for me.
Wish I could find it now though!
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Link 2015-07-22
Graphisoft Partner 01:07 AM
Well by manually I mean after exporting to Excel. I don't know
Excel well enough to to take it any further!
Hopefully someone can find the magic bullet! Please!
Cheers,
Link.
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2015-07-22
Anonymous
12:15 PM
Thanks for the reply link. Thats exactly what I have in mind.
Bummed with the thought of matching your painstaking
effort. Cheers
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2015-07-22
Anonymous
02:43 PM
Kristian tried your method....boy what a mess. I am a one man
office and unfortunately not an excel wiz. Need to go check
the ArchiCAD wish section. This is definitely a weak aspect of
the program.
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2018-06-11
Eli Chiasson Booster
01:21 PM
Link wrote:
I have not seen any way of doing this automatically, but
would certainly like to find out how if there's a way. It would
need to be some kind of awesome add-on!
I just do it manually which is a painstaking process!
Cheers,
Link.
I agree ArchiCAD would be improved by a graphical matrix
view of layers and layer combinations.
I did not find it too bad to use Excel to filter through an XML
output of the attributes file:
1. Open the exported attributes in Excel. Rename the
worksheet "DATA" (for the sake of this example, but can be
anything).
2. Create a second worksheet.
3. In the new worksheet, list the Layer Index numbers in the
first column ("A"), Layer names in the second column ("B") and
Layer Combinations in the first row ("1").
4. In each cell of the matrix, paste this formula:
=INDEX(DATA!$N:$N,MATCH($A2&C$1,DATA!$M:$M&DATA!$C:$C,0))
Breakdown:
MATCH(es) the Layer Index value in column A and the
Layer Combination name in Row 1 with the values in the
DATA worksheet, columns M (layer index) and C (layer
combination name), respectively.
On finding a match for both, reports the value from the
DATA worksheet, Column N (has the flags for layer
on/off where 0 = on, anything else is off, I believe).
I used Conditional Formatting for the entire matrix to
make a cell with "0" (Layer is on for that Layer
Combination) grey fill with matching grey text. All other
cells are white with white text.
Capture.PNG
29 KB
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Laszlo Nagy 2018-06-17
Community Admin 02:38 AM
Eli,
With this Excel solution, is it possible to make changes to this
matrix, then save is and an XML file and import it into
ARCHICAD, overwriting the current Layer and Layer
Combination settings?
That would be a useful workflow.
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2018-06-19
Eli Chiasson Booster
01:03 PM
Laszlo,
It may well be, but that's beyond my abilities in Excel.The
formula in each cell of my matrix only collects data from the
data (XML) worksheet. To push changes back to the data
worksheet is a solution that would need programming, which
maybe someone could do with VBA.
The fact it seems like a problem that requires a programmed
solution is why I suggested this be implemented directly in
ArchiCAD.
LaszloNagy wrote:
Eli,
With this Excel solution, is it possible to make changes to this
matrix, then save is and an XML file and import it into
ARCHICAD, overwriting the current Layer and Layer
Combination settings?
That would be a useful workflow.
0 Likes Reply
Laszlo Nagy 2018-06-19
Community Admin 01:39 PM
I see, thanks for the clarification.
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