Libraries & objects
About Archicad and BIMcloud libraries, their management and migration, objects and other library parts, etc.

Missing Library Object report

Brett Brown
Advocate
Hi, How can I get rid of this object missing error? It is definitely loaded. Why isn't there a path after the object name?

Bolt 2.JPG
Imac, Big Sur AC 20 NZ, AC 25 Solo UKI,
8 REPLIES 8
Anonymous
Not applicable
Hello,

Does the loaded object have correct AC version (not too new)?


--
Regards, Juha
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
Brett wrote:
Hi, How can I get rid of this object missing error? It is definitely loaded. Why isn't there a path after the object name?
There is only a path when you select an object that is a duplicate - it lets you see where each duplicate is found. In the case of missing objects...if there was a path, it wouldn't be missing. 😉

How do you know that "Bolt 2" is loaded? The fact that it is missing indicates that it is not. If you go into your Object Tool Settings, can you find Bolt 2 using the 'Find" option?

Are in in AC 12 and is this an object that you created? If so, then you have a GUID problem...

Cheers,
Karl
One of the forum moderators
AC 27 USA and earlier   •   macOS Ventura 13.6.6, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
Brett Brown
Advocate
Karl wrote:
The fact that it is missing indicates that it is not.

Now you have me really confused.

Yes I can find it with the "find" library parts. Will search posts on GUID.

Thanks
Imac, Big Sur AC 20 NZ, AC 25 Solo UKI,
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
Can you select the Object and use the Open Object command to open it for editing? If it opens try to resave it and lets see if that helps.
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Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
Brett wrote:
Karl wrote:
The fact that it is missing indicates that it is not.
Now you have me really confused.

Yes I can find it with the "find" library parts. Will search posts on GUID.

Thanks
Sorry for the confusion.

In context ... that it was missing indicates that it is not loaded. The fact that you find a Bolt 2 object when you 'find' library parts in the Object Tool Settings indicates that indeed you have run into the new behavior of AC 12 which ignores the name of library parts and only uses the GUID.

That means that you have placed some Bolt 2 objects that refer to a library part with a different internal identification number (GUID) than the Bolt 2 object which is actually loaded.

Look through this Wiki article:
http://www.archicadwiki.com/GUID?action=show&redirect=GUID+in+ArchiCAD12

in particular this quote:
Wiki wrote:
is there any feature loss?

The short answer is yes, there is.

Let's say for example that someone created a chair from 5 slabs and saved as a new .gsm but later renamed it and saved a new chair from 6 slabs with the same name so that the elements did not need to be changed one by one on the floor plan. The placed elements were matched to the new chair object by name, and the result was as the user expected.

From version 12 forward, the new element will have a new GUID, the textual name will not play a role any longer. The same scenario above would result in the placed chairs still referring to the 5-slab chair (even though it has been renamed).
So, what you need to do is find all instances of "Bolt 2" in your project using Find & Select. Here's the nightmare that you may run into: some of those may show up as bolts, and others as bold dots (missing object).

Find & Select finds my NAME, even though ArchiCAD does not work by name. Yeah, it is a bit crazy...

So, once you locate the missing dots for Bolt 2, select them (as many as convenient), go into Object Settings and select the Bolt 2 that is loaded to switch to the loaded version. If the object is placed by anchor or has parameters, that will not be enough. Instead of just selecting the Bolt 2 that you see, you will need to inject (cmd-option) into the thumbnail of the Bolt 2 in the lower left corner of the Object Settings dialog to transfer the parameters of the missing objects into the loaded object. Then OK out of the dialog and the change will be complete.

If this is a 3D element, you'll have to open every story to find them all. If it is a 2D element, you'll have to open every viewpoint on which you might have placed it - including sections, details, worksheets, etc.

Again, this 'new' behavior in 12 means that you can have a whole bunch of different objects called "Bolt 2" which AC distinguishes behind the scenes via the GUID ... but which we users cannot distinguish while we're working. So, it is important with your own objects to edit and Save (and not Save As - even if over-writing the same part, or rename, etc) to maintain the GUID and avoid what you are seeing.

I think that if GS felt the need to make the internal changes in 12 that eliminated name-matching, they should have provided a means in the user interface - including Find & Select and the Object Settings Dialog - for us to manage the kind of problem it seems you've run into and which is described in the quote above.

Good luck - let us know how you resolve this.

Cheers,
Karl
One of the forum moderators
AC 27 USA and earlier   •   macOS Ventura 13.6.6, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
Brett Brown
Advocate
Thanks for that explanation Karl. Seems the Library problems have been made worse with AC 12, instead of being simplified. Hope i'm wrong about this.

Actually Juha gave me a clue with the versions of the object. I searched the hard drive for Bolt 2 and had about 5 of them. Some were different versions. So I replaced the one I was loading with the latest one and thankfully the "missing" disappeared. Thankyou Juha.

Sorry for wasting your time Karl, hopefully you explanation will help others.

On a similar note with the Library, I made a truss out of slabs etc and saved as an object. Then deleted it. Then I kept getting the "missing" every time I loaded that project. There is no instances of the object in the project. I just restored it to get rid of the library error. Is there a process more than just deleting out of the Library, to get rid of it altogether?
Imac, Big Sur AC 20 NZ, AC 25 Solo UKI,
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
Brett wrote:
On a similar note with the Library, I made a truss out of slabs etc and saved as an object. Then deleted it. Then I kept getting the "missing" every time I loaded that project. There is no instances of the object in the project. I just restored it to get rid of the library error. Is there a process more than just deleting out of the Library, to get rid of it altogether?
Missing objects are not just those that are placed in a project - they include the default settings of any of the tools. So, if the Object Tool was last used with your truss, it will show as 'missing'. Just select some other object out of the standard library with the Object Tool before saving your file and that will go away. (Happens for all object-related tools: window, door, skylight, wall end, label, zone, etc.)

Glad you fixed the Bolt 2 issue the easy way. 😉

Cheers,
Karl
One of the forum moderators
AC 27 USA and earlier   •   macOS Ventura 13.6.6, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
vistasp
Advisor
Thanks for the insight on how GUID works, Karl. Looks like GS needs to iron out the wrinkles a bit. However, I do think they're heading in the right direction with unique identifiers for an object.

For the moment, I'll happily continue with AC10
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