topic Re: Linking archicad with vb.net in Archicad C++ API

Linking archicad with vb.net

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Aug 2023 14:38:20 GMT

friends,

i am looking for a way to link archicad with vb.net or visual basic.

i searched talk forum but unable to find. pls help me on this matter.

thanks in advance

ars

Re: Linking archicad with vb.net

Karl Ottenstein — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 04:02:09 GMT

The fact that your search turned up empty is your answer. 😉

Seriously, what is it that you want to do? The ODBC driver makes quite a bit of the database available (read-only!) to any external program, including VB if that's all you want. If you want to write add-ons, then I don't know of anyone who has pulled that off with VB.

Karl

Re: Linking archicad with vb.net

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 04:10:45 GMT

Thanks karl,

actually i have created some 3d models in autocad with vb. Since graphic disply in autocad is not looking nice, i want to use archicad.

i hope there is some way to do so.

ars

Re: Linking archicad with vb.net

stefan — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:22:41 GMT

arshakya wrote:
Thanks karl,

actually i have created some 3d models in autocad with vb. Since graphic disply in autocad is not looking nice, i want to use archicad.

i hope there is some way to do so.

ars

You could:
- import your model in ArchiCAD (= static)
- learn GDL and recreate your VBA script with GDL so it becomes a native ArchiCAD object.
- learn C++ and create an add-on in ArchiCAD.

It might be possible to create an ArchiCAD add-on that communicates in some way or another with a VBA macro in AutoCAD, but I doubt that it will be trivial.

Re: Linking archicad with vb.net

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 07:31:57 GMT

thank you very much for your suggestion karl.

i will think on that in near future.

anil

Re: Linking archicad with vb.net

Ralph Wessel — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:41:04 GMT

arshakya wrote:
actually i have created some 3d models in autocad with vb. Since graphic disply in autocad is not looking nice, i want to use archicad.

I'm guessing you have scripted the 3D models with VB because you require some dynamic or interactive behaviour from them? If so, I echo Stefan's suggestion to rewrite the scripts in GDL.

If the model is static, then just export it from AutoCAD and import into a GDL object.

I have successfully developed a solution for driving ArchiCAD from a VB application, but Stefan is right again - it isn't trivial. There is no "official" way of doing this.

Re: Linking archicad with vb.net

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 02:38:59 GMT

Are you saying that you are writing add-ons using vb.net?

Re: Linking archicad with vb.net

Ralph Wessel — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 07:16:47 GMT

Marcus wrote:
Are you saying that you are writing add-ons using vb.net?

No - I've developed an add-on which enables and external VB application (or any other kind for that matter) to control ArchiCAD from the outside, both to read from and write to the project database and to guide the user through various processes. This same principle might also be applicable to the question put by Arshakya.

Writing add-ons with VB might be technically possible, but I think it would be easier to get to know C/C++.

Re: Linking archicad with vb.net

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 07:24:09 GMT

That sounds interesting. I've written a VB.Net app which connects to the drawing using the ODBC driver for scheduling purposes which works quite well.

This web page has always interested me......
http://download.graphisoft.com/ftp/techsupport/documentation/developer_docs/APIDevKit61/APIHTMLLibrary/Level2/Non_Visual_CPP_Development.html

...it seems to suggest VB addons are a possibility??

I am going throught the pain of learning C++ at the moment.

Re: Linking archicad with vb.net

Ralph Wessel — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 07:32:06 GMT

Marcus wrote:
That sounds interesting. I've written a VB.Net app which connects to the drawing using the ODBC driver for scheduling purposes which works quite well.
This web page has always interested me......
http://download.graphisoft.com/ftp/techsupport/documentation/developer_docs/APIDevKit61/APIHTMLLibrary/Level2/Non_Visual_CPP_Development.html
...it seems to suggest VB addons are a possibility??

Yes, it does seem as if VB add-ons are technically possible, but I haven't explored the avenue. C++ is my preferred language in any case.

The ODBC isn't useful in many cases because it doesn't provide write operations and it is Windows-only.