Find the next step in your career as a Graphisoft Certified BIM Manager!

XLSX export from ARCHICAD can result in corrupt files

Emoke Csikos
Graphisoft
Graphisoft

Issue

If the Energy Evaluation Report is exported using the default .xlsx file format it becomes corrupted under certain circumstances. Files of the same format can also be corrupted when saved from an Interactive Schedule.
wp-content_uploads_2016_02_export-1024x711.png
wp-content_uploads_2016_02_save-as-xlsx.png
The circumstances of this kind of file corruption are the following:
  • The operating system is Windows,
  • The decimal symbol is set to “,” (comma) instead of “.” (dot) at Control Panel -> Region -> Additional Settings -> Numbers tab either by the user or by default. This is the default setting of Windows in some languages.
  • ARCHICAD 19 is updated to build 5005.
When opening the exported file in Excel, it gives a warning:
wp-content_uploads_2016_02_error-message-1024x133.png
After clicking on ‘Yes’ Excel will try to recover the file and will open it giving this message:
wp-content_uploads_2016_02_repair.png

Cause

Due to a bug decimals of non-integer values are cut off if the decimal symbol is “,” (comma) in the given language instead of “.” (dot). These decimals are substituted by zeros, so only integers will appear in the resulting file in Excel.

Solution

This bug is planned to be fixed in the next regular update of ARCHICAD 19.

Workaround #1

  • Set the decimal symbol to “.” from “,” at Control Panel -> Region -> Additional Settings -> Numbers tab
wp-content_uploads_2016_02_Windows_Region_Additional_Settings2.png

Workaround #2 only in Eco Designer Star

  • Use file format .xls (Excel 97-2003 Workbook)

Summary

Files of which format will be corrupted depending on where they were saved from:
  saved as xlsx saved as xls
Interactive Schedule corrupted corrupted
Energy Evaluation Report corrupted OK
PHPP - OK

Still looking?

Browse more articles

Back to articles

See latest solutions

Accepted solutions

Start a new discussion!