Saving/Mapping Spacedesign attributes

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Rich Hart on July 1, 2014 at 9:39am

I mapped DC:lenx to Cost

And then save that as my project attributes:

Then all I need to do is Load from Project before making the report, and that works for me. I get the lenx value reported as my cost.

Is that similar to what you are trying to do? or is the mapping that you are doing something else?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Bernhard Hockertz on July 2, 2014 at 2:24am

I used the Map Attributes button which is in the same window:Actually your way of Mapping (%DC: [attribute name]%) doesn't work for me, whereas mapping the attributes like this works normally. I just have no way to save that setting apparently, save/load to/from project doesn't work either.

Originally I tried mapping the way you described, but when it didn't work I assumed that was not the way to do it and used Map Attributes, but now I'm confused why I get a different result when doing the same thing.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Rich Hart on July 2, 2014 at 2:25pm

In order to save SpaceDesign attributes on SketchUp components, so that when you place a component it will have a specific default attribute like Cost, you need to either learn to use the Ruby interface to place the attribute on the model before you save it as a component, or use the Create Attributes for Components dialog: 

This works by having all of the components in a local collection in one model and saving a CSV file of the attributes that you can use to change the SpaceDesign attributes for the components before you save, or resave, them as a local collection. Once this is done, when you place those components from the collection, they will have the saved attributes, but still can be over-ridden on instances of the component placed in the model.

This is explained here:

http://www.renderplus.com/wp2/wk/Auto_Generate_Attributes.htm

I just tested this, and found that I had broken this last week, when I added that fix for the Locale number and currency settings, so I posted a new version, NG02, that you will need to install before seeing if this works for you.

However, I think you what you need is a solution that will generate the attributes based on the Dynamic component attributes. Could you post a couple of components that I could use to see why mapping or simply assigning the dynamic attribute to another attribute doesn't work for you? 

You can email them to me at rich.hart@renderplus.com

Then I can place them and see why the attributes and mappings are not being saved. This is something that definitely needs to work.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Bernhard Hockertz on July 3, 2014 at 2:41am

Auto generating the attributes might work out but it's not something I want to have to teach my colleagues, especially as the mapping of DC attributes is much faster and more efficient as it does not require as much maintenance.

I have sent you an E-Mail with 2 components I used and 3 pictures detailing the steps I have taken.

(Just a small side note, on the page you linked above there is a typo, somewhere around the middle there is Exel written instead of Excel.)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Rich Hart on July 3, 2014 at 8:26am

Your DC:cost attribute works for me, without using Mappping.

Could you try these steps:

Make sure that "DC:cost" is set to be included in the report, but mark it to be suppressed so we won't see it as a column;

"Edit" the attribute "cost" and use the "Add attribute to calculation" combo box to select "DC:cost" for the calculation. And click OK.

That should put "%DC:cost%", in the calculation field. You cannot just add the text there manually, you have to do it using the Edit dialog to set the calculation, for some reason.

When I do that, I see this in the report:

Does that work for you?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Bernhard Hockertz on July 4, 2014 at 12:45am

Putting the text in manually works as well though, so I can actually skip the dialog box. it seems the only relevant part I missed out on was to put report+suppress for DC: cost.
Did you write "%DC:cost%" or "%DC: cost%"? The space makes the difference for me.

And for your 2 E-Mail replies, I tested all suggested steps and now I also can get everything to work like it should, I'm able to have the settings in my template, and in case I want to have different attribute values ready to load I can do that now too with the new version, since saving the mappings in the .sda file works the way it should.

Thanks a lot for your great support throughout these issues, I appreciate it.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Rich Hart on July 4, 2014 at 10:59am

Great!

• ▶ Reply

▶ Reply to Discussion