Element ID

[formula1210204]

Hi,
I am recently looking about the ID when I export the project into IFC format or database.
I am wondering can I use this string of numbers to distinguish what kind of element it is or not.
Is there any rule that how Revit generate the id?
If so, is there any document explain about it.

[eric.piotrowicz]

Element ID numbers are just Revit's way of keeping track of all the different elements in any given project. Really the only rough coorelation between elements and numbers is that elements created earlier have lower numbers than elements created later. Personally I only find them useful when trying to resolve errors in the project since it reports the ID number related to the error and I can use the Select by ID tool to zero in on the error location.