Tips and Tricks Edition 43:

Window / Door ID Management

In this Select Tip & Trick we look at a workflow to enable the user to quickly label elements and if need be, organise the ID’s of elements into a sequential order.

The first step is to set up the Label Tool to produce the desired label. In this example, we will need the label tool to display Elements ID’s.

Double click on the Label Tool to access its Default Settings dialog, then click Property Label found under the Type and Preview tab.

If you would like to have the ID encapsulated by a frame, click in the tick box next to Frame.

Scroll down to the Custom Settings tab. Under the General Settings option, choose Element ID from the drop down menu.

Next, navigate the Label Geometry settings option by clicking the right arrow, or the drop down menu which currently displays the text, General Settings. 

Choose a Frame Shape, then specify the offset from the centre of the window to the frame of your ID label.

If you would prefer to not have a line connecting the ID label to the window, uncheck the option for Leader Line. 

Click OK to proceed.

Select all windows in the current view by clicking on the Window Tool, then hit Control A on a PC or Command A on mac OS.

From the menu bar, click Document > Annotation > Label Selected Elements

You may have some labels which have appeared on the wrong side of the wall. If that’s the case, select all the offending labels by clicking them individually while holding down the shift key. Once selected, hit Control T or Command T to bring up their Selection Settings dialog. In the Custom Setting > General Settings section, click in the tick box next to Flip Label. If you require more manoeuvrability of the placed label, this can be achieved by changing the Label Orientation from Parallel to Custom, via the button to the left.

You may notice that certain windows have the same ID. A unique ID can be applied to each element using the workflow described in the next section.

Deselect the ID’s by hitting the Escape key on the keyboard and select all windows in the view using the same method as before. Next, bring up the Window Selection Settings dialog by hitting Control T or Command T.

Under the Classifications and Properties tab click into the ID field and type a single letter, such as A. This changes the Element ID of all windows to a uniform character, resetting the system.

Click OK to save changes and exit out of the dialog.

While holding down the Shift key on the keyboard, select the windows one by one, in the sequence you wish them to be labelled.

Next, open the Element ID Manager by clicking in the menu bar on Document > Listing Extras > Element ID Manager.

The Element ID manager allows you to set ID’s based on predefined criteria. Click on the radio button next to Unique ID for Each Element. Ensure that Element ID is located under the Selected Criteria column. Use the Add and Remove buttons to move criteria between the Available Criteria set and the Selected Criteria set. 

Click on the ID format button to continue.

Use this tab to change the value of the ID components to match your company’s documentation style. The Number of Characters row stipulates how many characters can be included in the field, for example specifying 4 here will result in 0001. The Type value is a drop down menu which specifies what the field does, Text will result in static text being placed where as a Counter will produce a number count.

Click Change ID’s to continue.

The Element ID list will now appear, showing you the newly created Element ID’s and the number of instances each ID occurs in the model.

Click OK to continue.

You have now ordered the ID’s of the windows in a predetermined sequence.