Attribute Types

Attributes can be the following types:

• Integer

• Real

• Bool (or Logical)

• String (or Text)

• Datetime

• Ref

  This is a pointer to another element by storing its internal database reference (as Integer(2) array)

• Position

  This is a special form of Real(3) array containing 3 distances

• Direction

  This is a special form of a Real(3) array

• Orientation

  This is a special form of a Real(3) array

• Word

  This a character string of up to either 4 or 6 American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCI)I upper case character string stored as an integer which is often interpreted either as an enumerated value or as a user readable name. Words are used for the simple names and for many enumerated integer values. They are often called hash codes.

  If more than 4 (or 6) characters are entered only the first ones will be used, but without generating an error. Lower case characters will be converted to uppercase, and non ASCII unicode characters will be ignored. The word cannot contain a space. The space is one of the characters that will automatically delimit the string.

  Different attributes are limited to either 4 or 6 characters, although attribute and element type names do have up to 6. Whether 4 or 6 are allowed is an implementation issue and the older attributes existing in originally introduced in earlier databases tend to be limited to 4 characters.

  Examples of their use are TYPE of elements and attributes.

  • Modifier attributes (JUST = TOP, BOT)

  • Pline names

  • Unit field of real attributes and dimension setting attributes (PTYPE = DIST, BORE, NONE etc)

Attributes may also be arrays of simple attributes Those supported are:

• Integer Array

• Real Array

• Bool (or Logical) Array

• Text Array

• Ref Array