1. User's Guide
  2. Working with Nodes
  3. Adding and Inserting Nodes
  4. ID Function

ID Function

The ID function enables you to automatically generate node names using sequential numerical IDs and node prefixes. For example, a set of nodes can be created where each of them have a name like Org000xxx, where:

  • Org is the node prefix and can be any desired character string.

  • 000xxx is the sequential ID and increments by 1 starting at 1.

These system preferences must be enabled for the ID function to work:

  • AllowNextIDGeneration must be set to True.

  • AllowNextIDKeyCreation determines the level of user that can create new ID keys.

To use the Next ID function, type a prefix in the node name field and click ID.

  • If the prefix already exists in the system, then an ID value is returned that is one greater than the last ID previously generated.

  • If the prefix has not been used before, then an ID value of 1 (with the appropriate number of leading zeros) is returned.

The total length of the ID (excluding the prefix and including any leading zeros as necessary) is determined as follows:

  • The hierarchy properties IDLengthLimbProp and IDLengthLeafProp can be set to point to node-level properties that specify the desired ID length for the specified node.

  • If the IDLengthLimbProp and IDLengthLeafProp properties are not set, then the length of the next sequential ID is used without leading zeros.