Translating engine gives same guids & viewableIDs to diferrent files of complex model - autodesk-forge

Question

Recently I was trying to implement scenario where I could link views in 3D viewer with views on original revit model.
I zipped linked files and upload them
Upload more times same zip file with changed rootFileName to provide all aspects of a model and translate all
download their manifest.jsons
link views on revit side with view in the viewer using viewableID and uniqueID of original revit view
In here I will provide real shortened examples of manifest outputs
eg file 1.
{
"guid" : "578dd62c-d5dc-8da0-1c75-aa6b0be8ba76",
"name" : "3D pohled",
"success" : "100%",
"hasThumbnail" : "true",
"status" : "success",
"type" : "folder",
"progress" : "complete",
"children" : [{
"guid" : "07e30540-b182-cd58-1c1f-eb46bc58fb9c",
"name" : "{3D}",
"success" : "100%",
"size" : 771479.0,
"hasThumbnail" : "true",
"role" : "3d",
"viewableID" : "8af1141e-a7ca-22b4-d104-d7331a1c0454",
"status" : "success",
"type" : "geometry",
"progress" : "complete",
"children" : [{
"guid" : "429ba882-f0a0-40fa-96e6-c6e02d9fc601-00022cda",
"name" : "{3D}",
"role" : "3d",
"camera" : [22586.240234, 40687.59375, 32810.621094, 54.133858, -29.527559, 16437.923828, -0.160696, -0.29039, 0.943319, 0.547078, 0, 1, 1],
"status" : "success",
"type" : "view",
"progress" : "complete"
}, {
"guid" : "9a3b544b-3c15-9304-f6f8-2c4db7a7dcb3",
"type" : "resource",
"role" : "graphics",
"urn" : "urn:adsk.viewing:fs.file:dXJuOmFkc2sub2JqZWN0czpvcy5vYmplY3Q6dGVzdGJfMTIzZWUvRkhfRmFzJUMzJUExZGFfdi4wMS56aXA/output/Resource/3D_pohled/_3D_/_3D_.svf",
"mime" : "application/autodesk-svf",
"size" : 680482.0
}
]
}
]
}
eg. file 2
{
"guid" : "578dd62c-d5dc-8da0-1c75-aa6b0be8ba76",
"name" : "3D pohled",
"success" : "100%",
"hasThumbnail" : "true",
"status" : "success",
"type" : "folder",
"progress" : "complete",
"children" : [{
"guid" : "07e30540-b182-cd58-1c1f-eb46bc58fb9c",
"name" : "{3D}",
"success" : "100%",
"size" : 7648740.0,
"hasThumbnail" : "true",
"role" : "3d",
"viewableID" : "8af1141e-a7ca-22b4-d104-d7331a1c0454",
"status" : "success",
"type" : "geometry",
"progress" : "complete",
"children" : [{
"guid" : "429ba882-f0a0-40fa-96e6-c6e02d9fc601-00022cda",
"name" : "{3D}",
"role" : "3d",
"camera" : [40927.800781, 19529.832031, 36075.765625, 54.958988, -27.723097, 16418.119141, -0.359014, -0.171787, 0.917387, 0.320998, 0, 1, 1],
"status" : "success",
"type" : "view",
"progress" : "complete"
}, {
"guid" : "9a3b544b-3c15-9304-f6f8-2c4db7a7dcb3",
"type" : "resource",
"role" : "graphics",
"urn" : "urn:adsk.viewing:fs.file:dXJuOmFkc2sub2JqZWN0czpvcy5vYmplY3Q6dGVzdGJfMTIzZWUvRkhfVFpCX1ZaVC56aXA/output/Resource/3D_pohled/_3D_/_3D_.svf",
"mime" : "application/autodesk-svf",
"size" : 7552662.0
}
]
}
]
}
as you see each time URN of file is different, still viewableID and guids are the same. This is not suppose to happen and represents a real problem when working with the information. In manifest.json is also missing information about original revit guid(uniqueid) from which view it was generated, which is needed to uniqely identify view on revit side.
I think it is a bug and needs to be solved and also adding revit view guid into output manifest would help a lot. Because name property is not unique enough, the other guids has no practical use.
Any help would be greatly appreciated

Answer 1

The ids will be the same if they are translated from the same file (i.e. the unique ID used by Revit on its views), regardless the file name. So if you have a .rvt with a view, duplicate this file with different name, translate them both, they will have the same id on that view.
EDIT October 17, 2016
We have updated the translation engine in 9/26/2016 and the viewableID in the bubble is the same as the UniqueId of a Revit View, for both 3d and 2d. That way you can use the viewableId to implement your feature feature.

Answer 2

It is reasonably well known that Revit elements' "unique" ids are not, in fact, true GUIDs. Two copies of a file will have exactly the same "unique" ids for the elements in those files (they are not re-generated on a save-as operation). The purpose of the Unique id in Revit was to provide a mechanism to facilitate worksharing where element ids are not "stable" and may change during a reload latest event where element ids from the central conflict with local Element Ids.
Here is some information from The Building Coder about this topic:
http://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com/blog/2014/04/element-id-export-unique-navisworks-and-other-ids.html#3
In terms of your specific question: "How can i identify, uniquely, the views in revit when traversing manifest.json?" I would suggest that you might (if you have the ability) add the Revit filename as part of the name of the exported view which you have uploaded and translated. Tease that back out of the URN to determine which view you actually have.
If that doesn't work, maybe you could help us better understand this statement:
Upload more times same zip file with changed rootFileName to provide all aspects of a model and translate all
what is this attempting to achieve? different implementations on the viewer side of the same view data? And if so, maybe you can tell us more about exactly what you're trying to ultimately achieve and we can offer some more specific suggestions.