ACA Space & Tag: Custom Property Field(s)

[Jake_CAD]

Is there a way to add a custom property field to Spaces that can be shown via an associated custom space tag?

Eg. A space with the following properties;

(Standard Property) Name: General Teaching

(Custom Property) Abbreviated Name: GT

[David_W_Koch · Accepted solution]

Absolutely.  Add your new property to an appropriate Property Set Definition [PSD] (you could modify an out-of-the-box PSD, if you are comfortable with that - be sure to back it up! - or create a new one if you prefer).  In this case, you would want a Manual, Text-type property.  Create a custom Schedule Tag that has an attribute definition in the View Block that references your new property and you are good to go.

I do not know how familiar you are with the detailed steps in doing the above, so feel free to post back asking for more detail on any parts with which you need additional assistance.

In the attached file, I was lazy and just added a property called AbbrName to the out-of-the-box SpaceObjects PSD.  The file is in imperial units; my apologies if you use metric.  Property names of properties that you plan to display in a Schedule Tag should not have any space characters in the property name or in the name of the PSD, as both need to be included in the attribute definition's Tag property, and that cannot have spaces.

Likewise, I was lazy and duplicated the out-of-the-box Aec8_Room_Tag Multi-View Block definition and its Aec8_Room_Tag_Basic_P View Block (after fixing the alignment of the two attribute definitions in the View Block), renamed the copies, changed the Tag of the attribute definition to SPACEOBJECTS:ABBRNAME, edited the Aec8_Room_Tag_Abbr Multi-View Block definition (the copy) and swapped in the Aec8_Room_Tag_Basic_Abbr_P View Block for the Aec8_Room_Tag_Basic_P View Block, for both the General and Reflected Display Representations, assigning the same View Directions (only Top is checked in both Display Representation).

For the sample file, I used the out-of-the-box Room Tag tool to tag the sample Space with the out-of-the-box tag.  I copied that tag and put the copy below it, then used the Properties Palette to change the Definition property to the abbreviated name version (Aec8_Room_Tag_Abbr).  I had to select the Space and, on the Extended Data tab, enter "GT" for that Space's AbbrName property value, to get what you see in the image below.

[R_Tweed]

@David_W_Koch 

I hate to hijack this thread but,  when I saw this post I was hoping you would reply with a formula using vbs that would parse the string and remove the first character of each word.  Is that possible?

[David_W_Koch]

Yes, it is.  But not at 6:32 pm local time on a Friday as I am trying to get out of the office.  😉

[David_W_Koch · Accepted solution]

@R_Tweed 

Well, it is not Friday evening anymore, so I guess I have run out of excuses.

Here is one possibility.  It takes the space name in the Name automatic property, strips any leading or trailing spaces, then adds one space at the end to get the last "word" in the room name to process.  The LTrim in the first statement of the Do loop takes care of the possibility that there could be multiple spaces between "words."

rmName = "[Name]"
rmAbbr = ""
rmName = Trim( rmName ) + " "

Do
	rmName = LTrim( rmName )
	rmAbbr = rmAbbr + Left( rmName, 1 )
	rmName = Right( rmName, Len( rmName ) - InStr( rmName, " " ))
Loop Until InStr( rmName, " ") = 0

RESULT = rmAbbr

The [Name] item in the first line has to be a properly created reference to the Name property, by selecting it from the Insert Property Definitions box at the lower left corner of the Formula Property Definition dialog.  I made this in the out-of-the-box SpaceObjects Property Set, imperial content, AutoCAD Architecture 2025, but it could work in a separate Property Set that applies to Space objects.

[Jake_CAD]

That is certainly a much more considered answer than I was expecting - Thanks @David_W_Koch! 🙂