topic Re: Connecting an external editor to Archicad to edit the scripts in GDL

Connecting an external editor to Archicad to edit the scripts

dushyant — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 07:03:52 GMT

Hi

Does anyone know if there's a way to connect an external editor (like visual studio code) to Archicad, to edit the scripts of an object? This is to have syntax highlighting, better keyboard controls (like vim) and for a dark background soothing to the eyes.

I know the script can be copied into an external editor and then pasted back into the script window in Archicad, but it's not practical when you have to keep testing the effect of frequent changes in the script.

Thanks.

Re: Connecting an external editor to Archicad to edit the scripts

Jochen Suehlo — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 07:57:00 GMT

- GDLnucleus: https://gdlnucleus.com/
- GDLsublime: https://github.com/runxel/GDL-sublime

Re: Connecting an external editor to Archicad to edit the scripts

dushyant — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 10:17:54 GMT

Joachim wrote:
- GDLnucleus: https://gdlnucleus.com/
- GDLsublime: https://github.com/runxel/GDL-sublime

Thanks Joachim. I tried GDL-sublime and could convert to HSF. But when I try to convert it back to GSM, it is not happening. It does say it finished converting, but the file does not get changed. Have you used this tool? Can you help with this?

Re: Connecting an external editor to Archicad to edit the scripts

runxel — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 10:54:22 GMT

Hi dushyant, I'm the author of GDL-Sublime.
For the conversion process the HSF folder needs to have the same name as the GSM.
Also note that errors in the GDL sometimes can lead to an abortion of the LP_XMLConverter, so nothing gets changed. The extension can't detect if the converter has terminated succesfully or aborted, so it still says "Finished".
If you show the console you will have a more verbose statement on what happened.

But I have to admit that I have converted to VSCode. Mainly because of the well made Git integration, whereas Sublime tries to sell an extra, overpriced client. Also they didn't fix many long standing bugs. Sublime Text 4 has released a few weeks ago, but I had not time to dive into it and probably won't.

There is an VSCode extension made by Graphisoft; it's okay-ish, but not really polished and lacks some of the stuff I did in my extension.

E.g. the GS extension doesn't provide any help on the conversion process.
If there is some interest I will share my setup.

Re: Connecting an external editor to Archicad to edit the scripts

dushyant — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 12:25:45 GMT

Hi runxel,

Thanks for your message. It converted to GSM successfully after I renamed the HSF data directory same as the GSM file, and kept it in the same location as GSM.

I have a query:
What is the actual workflow in this scenario to go about developing in GDL and testing with Archicad? Yes, I got the GSM updated. Now do I have to again open object in Archicad to have it updated? I'm not sure if a local directory can be linked as a library in Archicad.

I checked out Graphisoft's GDL plugin for VSCode. I has syntax highlighting and some code-completion. I could not find if it can convert b/w HSF <-> GSM.

So are you moving Sublime's GDL plugin to VSCode? I liked your syntax highlighting in Sublime. But VSCode is my primary editor at the moment and would prefer something of this sort in there.

While I was trying to figure out the conversion with the extension in Sublime, I tried Graphisoft's conversion-tool via the command-line and was able to produce the GSM:

.\LP_XMLConverter.exe hsf2libpart E:\customObjects\test\hsf E:\customObjects\test\generated.gsm

I only need a way to have the object updated in Archicad automatically after conversion, without the need to re-open it.

And yes, please share how you go about it, with your setup/workflow.

Thanks a lot!

Re: Connecting an external editor to Archicad to edit the scripts

Lingwisyer — Fri, 02 Jul 2021 03:25:45 GMT

I assume it would be the same as editing an object in a different AC instance, you don't need to reopen, just reload the relevant library.

Ling.

Re: Connecting an external editor to Archicad to edit the scripts

dushyant — Fri, 02 Jul 2021 05:22:21 GMT

Hi Ling,
So how do you set up a local directory with GSMs in it as a live Archicad library?

Re: Connecting an external editor to Archicad to edit the scripts

Barry Kelly — Fri, 02 Jul 2021 05:28:00 GMT

dushyant wrote:
Hi Ling,
So how do you set up a local directory with GSMs in it as a live Archicad library?

Any folder that contains GSM objects can be loaded as a library.
It doesn't have to be an LCF file.

Barry.

Re: Connecting an external editor to Archicad to edit the scripts

dushyant — Fri, 02 Jul 2021 06:21:34 GMT

Hi Barry,

I added a local directory as a 'linked library'. Thanks. I thought it should have been one of these: pla, ppa, pca, lcf, libpack.

It does not auto-refresh the object after changing the GSM though. You need to reload the library, which takes more than a few seconds as it seems to reload all the connected libraries. So is this the bargain we have to make in order to use an external editor? Or is there a way around it?

It's definitely faster when you save the changes in the opened object in Archicad. You see instant changes in the placed object without any reload. If only the built-in script editor had syntax-highlighting & a dark background ...

Thanks all for your help.

Re: Connecting an external editor to Archicad to edit the scripts

Barry Kelly — Fri, 02 Jul 2021 07:31:44 GMT

dushyant wrote:
It does not auto-refresh the object after changing the GSM though. You need to reload the library, which takes more than a few seconds as it seems to reload all the connected libraries. So is this the bargain we have to make in order to use an external editor? Or is there a way around it?

I would assume so, but I have never used an external editor purely because it seems like extra steps.

dushyant wrote:
It's definitely faster when you save the changes in the opened object in Archicad. You see instant changes in the placed object without any reload. If only the built-in script editor had syntax-highlighting & a dark background ...

Can you copy & paste the script from the external editor into the open object in Archicad?
I have no idea, but if you can that may be faster.
So simply use the external editor as an editor, and not to save the object.

I am not worried about the dark background, but I would certainly love syntax highlighting.
And auto-completion of commands would be pretty good.

I often wonder what those creating objects at Graphisoft use.
Their objects are quite complicated.
Do they only use the GDL editor or an external editor?

Barry.

Re: Connecting an external editor to Archicad to edit the scripts

dushyant — Fri, 02 Jul 2021 08:12:14 GMT

Hi Barry,

Yes, the scripts can be copied between the external editor and Archicad's script editor. Not a very comfortable thing to keep doing while you're trying to debug or tweak some values.. Anyway, will make do with it

Yes, now that you mention it, I wonder what dev-environment they use at Graphisoft to build their objects.

And I would also like to know the dev-setup of other users here in the community. So please share

Thanks!

Re: Connecting an external editor to Archicad to edit the scripts

runxel — Fri, 02 Jul 2021 13:29:51 GMT

Great to hear you managed it, dushyant!

dushyant wrote:
What is the actual workflow in this scenario to go about developing in GDL and testing with Archicad? Yes, I got the GSM updated. Now do I have to again open object in Archicad to have it updated? I'm not sure if a local directory can be linked as a library in Archicad.

As Berry has mentioned you can just link any folder into the library.
Yes, you have to reload the library after, but I've set that command to an easy reachable keystroke and for me it rarely takes more than second to reload the libs.
In the future we could send a command via the Python connection which will automatically reload the libraries.

dushyant wrote:
I checked out Graphisoft's GDL plugin for VSCode. I has syntax highlighting and some code-completion. I could not find if it can convert b/w HSF <-> GSM.

Like I said, it can't.
I made a custom setup where this works, I will share this in a later post.

dushyant wrote:
So are you moving Sublime's GDL plugin to VSCode? I liked your syntax highlighting in Sublime. But VSCode is my primary editor at the moment and would prefer something of this sort in there.

No. I had already a lot of stuff ready, but GS beat me to it. At the moment I have no time to make a competing (but better) product. Instead I hope that GS will man up and just open source this thing already. No clue why they did not already do this. It would help everybody.
Also the next big step, speaking in technical terms here for a second, would be to create a Language Server (LSP is a technology Microsoft invented). This Server can parse the code and is much more robust than the stuff used right now. At the moment syntax highlighting is done by big big ugly Regexes. And those are slow and ain't not smart. A server could easily e.g. detect if a variable is bound to be a string or numerical value, and then can say to the editor "please color this differently". It's very powerful, it's the future.

I wonder what dev-environment they use at Graphisoft to build their objects.

I wonder, too! For a while there was a screenshot of Sublime Text with my extension on the GDL online reference.

Re: Connecting an external editor to Archicad to edit the scripts

dushyant — Fri, 02 Jul 2021 14:54:47 GMT

Hi runxel,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

I think it's taking time to reload libraries at my end because the template I'm using has some BIMcloud libraries which also get updated every time. (Perhaps I could work with the default Archicad template for object building.)

Yes, it makes sense to not invest time into creating another VSCode extension for GDL when Graphisoft has started one. And it would be great to let the public contribute & develop it further. It was interesting to learn about 'language servers'.

There were certain requirements of the GDL-Sublime extension that I discovered, including the one you told about the HSF directory to be of the same name as the GSM. I also found that the GSM file needs to be alongside the HSF directory for the conversion from HSF to GSM to work, even if the exported GSM goes to another location. (Not sure why HSF to GSM conversion requires the GSM file.) Maybe these notes could be added in the 'ReadMe' of GDL-Sublime.

Thanks.