How to add properties to a room style ?

[Angayo]

The context is that I want to retrieve information about rooms using schedule tables. I defined a space style Rooms_ and can get area information of the rooms into a table. I was able able to partially identify the rooms. E.g. I select the five kitches from a floor, name them kitchen simultaneously and they are identified as kitchen in the table. However floor and appartment information is missing.

One way to add that information is probably by using zones, which I haven’t looked into yet. Another way is to add properties to the rooms or the room style. Again the Autocad help is deficient. The procedure described in ‘To Attach Property Set Data to Styles and Definitions’ doesn’t work.

It fails on stop 5 (after clicking Property Sets) as the Add Property Sets button is greyed out. I investigated the property set I want to add, named Rooms, applies to Objects (because that is what I had been told to use). So I defined a new property set, named RoomLocation.

I added the two properties to the set.

Under ‘About Property Set Definitions’ the help says : “The value of a manual property associated with a style is the same for every object.”, which is false, since it is contradicted later in the same article and I have a counter-example, so it probably means something else than what it says. What I am supposed to fill in all the fields I don’t know.

So I could add the property set to my space style Rooms_.

As visible in the picture below, the rooms have those properties now, but they can’t be edited.

So I can’t add them to the schedule table.

[Keith.Brown · Accepted solution]

Style based property sets contain the same information for each instance of that style.  If you have a manual definition in a style based property set and change it then it will change for all instances of that style.  This is true whether you are using spaces, slabs, stairs, etc.  It is literally the definition of a style based property set.  If you want that information to change even though the rooms have the same space style then you need to add an object based property set definition.  It will allow you to change the information on a per object basis.  Again this is literally the definition of an object based property set.

If you need to modify the manual property of a style based property set definition then you need to click the edit button next to the PROPERTY SETS FROM STYLE section on the Extended Data tab of the propperty palette.  This will bring up a dialog that will allow you to change the manual properties of a style based property set definition.  You can also use the PROPERTYDATA command and then use the EDIT option to select the space.  You can then edit the manual property sets.  Again, please be aware that any changes that you make will be made on each instance of a space that implements that style.  You mentioned above that this was false.  It is absolutely true and you can test it by inserting two spaces of the same style and making a change on one of the spaces.  The other space will also reflect that change.

[Angayo]

Thanks for your explanation. It seems to work now.

Apparently the difference between style-based and object based property sets had escaped me. My Rooms property set applied to objects and therefore the manual properties do not have the same value for all instances. The program uses ‘Applies to’, while the help talks about ‘based on’. This discrepancy should be corrected IMO. Even better would be to write a detailed description of the Style Manager.

Indeed, the values of the style-based property set RoomLocation can be changed by pushing the correct button and indeed, it is useless for the values are the same for all instances.

The procedure from the help ‘To Attach Property Set Data to Styles and Definitions’ that I relied on was the wrong one. I relied on it because to me Rooms_ was a style that applies to objects, to which I had to add properties. The help article ‘To Attach Property Set Data to Objects’ does indeed exist, but it doesn’t do what I want. It would be useful it explained that one need a property set that applies to objects in the first place and then refers to an article on how to do that.

What does work is to just add properties to the property set ‘Rooms’ that applies to objects. On the Properties panel --> Extended Data tab these fields then appear under PROPERTY SETS --> Rooms and can be edited. PROPERTY SETS are apparently those that apply to objects. 

[robincapperw]

I see you have it working, but suggest you consider getting the Level value from the project properties "Level". Then would be correct based on the level assigned to the construct that is hosting the room.

[Angayo]

How does one get the Level value ? The drawing is Xrefs referring to an Autcad conversion from probably a Vectorworks drawing. So it is mostly constituted of (poly)lines.

In the drawing with the Xrefs, in the Project Navigator, Project tab, there is only one level, named 0.

[David_W_Koch]

If you are working with the Drawing Management feature (Project Browser and Project Navigator), and your drawing files are part of a project, then you would need to include a Project Property in your Property Set.  For that to work, the project has to have the Levels defined within it and then the Construct files that include the Spaces have to be assigned to the appropriate Level.  If there is only one Level, "0", and all files are assigned to it, then adding a Project Property will not provide any useful data, as all would show on Level 0.

[Angayo]

OK, thanks. So no level value for me.