How to Create Expression Based Properties in Archicad - Merge Strings (CONCAT)

[@szabolcssoti2810]

Brilliant! Please do a series about this very „underrated“ topic!!!

[@CONTRABIM]

Thanks! I think I may take this entire subject into a full blown online course. There's so many ways we can setup these useful expressions up. Definitely will do a few more on KZbin for sure!

[@szabolcssoti2810]

CONTRABIM Yep, definitely! 2-3 more vids and well planned online course sounds good!

[@PrzemN]

Hey! I have been using Archicad since version 4.16 and now watching your videos I feel like I'm discovering a new program ;)

[@CONTRABIM]

That's awesome! We can all learn from each other on this program, so many different ways of using it and so many features we never try out, until we see someone else do it! Thanks for the comment

[@furtonb]

Hi John, I would chime in with the "SPLITLEFT" function too. I'm using metric units, so the number of zero decimal places might be annoying and taking up too much space. The number of decimal places are defined in the "Calculation Units and Rules" settings. It is good for scheduling, to have as exact values as possible, but it hinders readability on plans. For instance in the projects I'm usually involved, the size of the monolithic reinforced concrete beams are given as "30/40 CXX/... RC beam, bottom height +x,xx m". (For a beam that is 30 cm wide and 40 cm high) To achieve 30/40 in the annotations, I use the following expression: CONCAT ( SPLITLEFT ( STRCALCUNIT ( {Property:General Parameters/Width} * 100 ), ",", 1 ), "/", SPLITLEFT ( STRCALCUNIT ( {Property:General Parameters/Height} * 100 ), ",", 1 ) ) Note: you might need to change the "," to "." depending on your system setup (in my country we use "," for decimals). Millimeters are out of question, round to 5 cm to be sure...:)

[@CONTRABIM]

Balázs Fürtön yes the split functions are super useful as well! Your right that metric and imperial would want some different formatting here. Thanks for the comment and detailed listing on the expression!

[@CiaoCreativoArchitects]

Thank you for this John. I'm going to try and explore this topic more. Currenty I'm trying to automate a schedule where I can pull out data (wall strenght in kN) from elements (in this case walls) which represent plywood bracings. I am going to attempt this by creating a simple formula where i can input height and lenght (no thickness for now) and associate a multiplier (don't even know this is possible >.

[@KKHARCH]

thank you~!

[@CONTRABIM]

Glad you liked it! Thanks for the comment

[@conmes3077]

Thousand thx John....need more please 👍🏻

[@CONTRABIM]

Thanks! There are so many uses with Expressions, will definitely have to do more here soon! This is just a basic entry point which hopefully helps some get started

[@conmes3077]

CONTRABIM 😊👍🏻 i‘m very bad in this 🤪

[@CONTRABIM]

@@conmes3077 I added a cheat copy/paste option there at the bottom of the description in case you get stuck!

[@conmes3077]

CONTRABIM thx buddy 👍🏻

[@szabolcssoti2810]

Hey conmes, hope your 3D mouse is working well now 😉

[@zoltanszabo4242]

Thanks for the video! I'm wondering how to add a line break in a string. To use your example, have the property displayed like this: L: 6' W: 4' H: 2'-9 1/2"

[@CONTRABIM]

I'm not sure if it's possible to add line breaks. If you are creating a label for a floorplan, you could do this easily with autotext, but I don't believe their is a line break text editor.

[@zoltanszabo4242]

@@CONTRABIM That's what I figured. :( I needed the property to show in schedule. Actually this would've been a manual solution to a feature not in ArchiCAD 23: to align text to the top of the cell. As weird as it sounds, it doesn't seem to be an option. BTW: the closest I got to line breaks were adding a tab character. With limited text width that usually creates another line.

[@drewcaddy]

Hi John, great video! Is there any way to have the expression automatically update, so we don’t have to click the calculate button, or an have it show up automatically in the settings dialogue?

[@CONTRABIM]

Hi Drew, thanks for the question. The expression based value should always update automatically, but when viewing in the info box you sometimes will need to calculate it to see the results. When listing into an interactive schedule, you'll see it is always updated automatically when parameters change.

[@LuSiD]

Brilliant Thanks My lengths are coming in metres - how do I make them millimetres like the rest of my lengths....? Oh NM its in the comments thanks again

[@richy7tube]

Is there any way to get this same thing to work for a column? I can get the width & height but not seeing how I might get the length.

[@CONTRABIM]

Thanks for the question! Yes find the column parameters "Core Width" x "Core Height / Diameter" for the Profile, then add the General Parameter for Height (Vertical Length of the Column).

[@richy7tube]

@@CONTRABIM That works perfectly! Do you teach about "coding" expressions in any of your courses?

[@CONTRABIM]

@@richy7tube I've been thinking about assembling a dedicated course on Expression based properties. Thanks for your comment, it's inspiring me to take action on that quicker! It'll be included in the CONTRABIM Membership site this year for sure. Thanks!

[@yogaadi7108]

How to change font in expression editor?

[@CONTRABIM]

Hello. The font by default should be the "Arial Unicode MS" on windows, and there is not a specific option to change this font in the editor. If you find that the font has changed, likely the cause is related to the installation of a new font type on your computer, and Archicad is getting confused and finding that one instead of the right one. If this is the case, you could try removing the newly added one, and hopefuly that would reset it back to default. I know this is a known issue that hopefully Graphisoft can resolve in the next release. I've run into it a few times myself when a stylized font shows up in the editor out of nowhere, but it eventually seems to go back.

[@yogaadi7108]

@@CONTRABIM Thankyou 👍