Graphisoft®

API Development KitVersion: 18

The Modul Data - Saving Custom Data as a Section of the ArchiCAD Project File


Every add-on can save custom data into an ArchiCAD single project, teamwork project, or hotlink module. This lets the add-on programmers have a custom - unlimited length - data section in the project. The benefit of this feature is that it spares the ArchiCAD users from having to care about many separate files that belong to a project and are needed by add-ons, when the project file changes its location (by copy, paste, email, ftp, etc).

The custom section of the project file can be anything the add-on programmer desires to save for his/her add-on, but special attention is needed for the issues of maintaining this data when the add-on is active, and also, the correct byte order, if the add-on was developed for multiplatform usage.

More information on this topic can be found at the description of the ModulData Manager.

Trick: You can delete add-on data from a project file following these steps:

  1. Quit ArchiCAD if it's running.
  2. Delete or remove the add-on from its location.
    (Usually the Add-Ons folder of your ArchiCAD installation directory.)
  3. Start up ArchiCAD, and open the Project file in ArchiCAD that you want to erase the add-on data from.
  4. Locate the "ArchiCAD Temporary Folder"
    (It is on the Temporary Volume, which can be set through the Options/Preferences/Data Safety menu, Temporary Folder Location button (or the applying localized version of it.) Usually it's on the C: drive on Windows, or in the System Folder of the System Drive on the Macintosh.)
  5. Switch into the @APIData subfolder.
  6. Locate the tmp file that belongs to your add-on.
    (The corresponding file should contain the filename of your add-on at its 64th byte.)
  7. Delete the located file.
  8. Save the project in ArchiCAD.
At the next opening of the project, your add-on data will not be present. This way you can decrease the load time of ArchiCAD, test the initialization of an add-on with no add-on data present, or get rid of add-on data for add-ons you don't use any more.

Warning: The data deleted following this method will be lost and cannot be recovered!