Element Number

The Element Number field in Layer exposes uneditable metadata. Each element has a unique, non-reassignable number, used in annotations and for updating elements via spreadsheet imports.

Zach Soflin

Sep 24, 2024

The Element Number field exposes the element’s metadata and cannot be edited.

Every element when created will have an unique element number starting with 1 and continue for each subsequent element. When elements are deleted, their unique element number is still kept in the archive of the element and therefore can not be reassigned.

For example, if you created element 1, then created and deleted element 2, the next element number used will be 3, regardless of how many elements currently exist in the category.

When you place dot annotations on drawing views, the number shown will be the Element Number.

The element number is also one of the options with our Spreadsheet Import Tool that you can map to, to update existing elements.