Can Windows Explorer Details include RFA details?

[barrie.sharp]

Windows explorer already has a good filter system in place (Windows 7 especially) and you can save the searchs. This is a perfect solution to exploring libaries and already works well for photos. The only problem is that Revit attributes don't show up on details. Being able to filter by category, host type, parameters etc. would be very powerful for any user.

I don't have experience with the windows shell so the question is this:

Can detail columns be added to explorer relatively easily by a programmer?
Does AutoDesk need to include the details in their file format or can a plugin extrapolate the data for windows to use?

The tools are already there in the OS, it would be a case of joining the dots. Hopefully someone could write a bit of code to this end but I'm sure it's harder than it sounds. However, I wanted to put this out there in case someone did already know how.

[ws]

I suspect that even if you could add custom columns to Explorer views the detailed information you would like to index within Revit families is probably compressed and not easy to extract. There is plain text information at the start of a family file but it is only general stuff on version, paths and names.

If it was simple to customise Explorer I doubt people would go to the trouble of creating such as http://www.kiwicodes.co.nz/FamilyBrowser.aspx

[barrie.sharp]

If it was simple to customise Explorer I doubt people would go to the trouble of creating such as http://www.kiwicodes.co.nz/FamilyBrowser.aspx
I think that a dedicated browser that works inside Revit will always provide more value so even if it was simple to customise explorer, it would only be of value to AutoDesk due to minimal development.

Is it a case that AutoDesk can add details to their file format and windows will read it directly from the file. When you add columns in explorer, there are many options/details you can choose e.g. focal length, date taken, dimensions, bit depth, camera model, ISO, Latitude, Longitude, Altitude etc. For sorting photographs, you have everything you need. The question is, does Windows have all of this precoded or does it read file details and add them to the system or is it all registered in the format dll. Revit already has to tell windows how to create preview thumbnails so perhaps details can be included in that dll. If someone knows this to be true, it would indicate that adding it as a wishlist item would be worth while giving users native flexibility for free (included in the exorbitant price of Revit).

[ws]

The picture data is a special case where the EXIF data saved with most digital photographs is relatively easily read (it's what you see in Adobe Bridge and other picture viewers/editors).

If you right click on a Windows 7 Explorer folder icon and choose Customize from the tabs there is a drop down list option 'Optimize this folder for.' and the options are General Items, Documents, Pictures, Music and Videos, and I guess this is where the options for displaying the EXIF data are enabled.

[barrie.sharp]

I did just find this on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Explorer

I think that is what I was asking about. So AutoDesk can just add the functionality, Windows is set for it. Probably part of the .net framework.



Search, organizing & metadata
...The Details pane also allows for the change of some textual metadata such as 'Author' and 'Title' in files that support them within Windows Explorer. A new type of metadata called tags allows users to add descriptive terms to documents for easier categorization and retrieval. Some files support open metadata, allowing users to define new types of metadata for their files. Out-of-the-box, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 supports Microsoft Office documents and most audio and video files. Support for other file types can however be added by writing specialized software to retrieve the metadata at the shell’s request. Metadata stored in a file’s alternate (secondary) stream only on NTFS volumes cannot be viewed and edited through the 'Summary' tab of the file’s properties anymore. Instead, all metadata is stored inside the file, so that it will always travel with the file and not be dependent on the file system.