topic Converting stairmaker objects from Ver 11 or older in Libraries & objects

Converting stairmaker objects from Ver 11 or older

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:06:33 GMT

I'm working on a drawing (someone else's) which started life in Ver 11 (or possibly before that) and has been saved under Ver 12.

All the stairs show up as blobs, but when I try to reload the gsm files from the project file, these are grayed-out (presumably because they were created under an older version).

Is there a way to fix this, or do I have to reconfigure the stairs under ver 12?

Keith

Archicad Ver 12 on Mac OSX 10.4.8

Re: Converting stairmaker objects from Ver 11 or older

Erika Epstein — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:14:00 GMT

There are some improvements with stairs in 12.
Are your AC11 stair library parts loaded?

Re: Converting stairmaker objects from Ver 11 or older

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:24:26 GMT

Hi Erika

Thanks for picking this up - I inadvertantly uploaded to the wrong section.

The AC11 stair library parts are loaded - at least they show up in Library Manager as "other objects" under "Active Libaries".

However, as I say, if I attempt to reload them from file, the .gsm files are grayed out in the list.

Re: Converting stairmaker objects from Ver 11 or older

Erika Epstein — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:41:52 GMT

I just double checked. I am able to find and place the original stairs created in 11 by looking for them in the STAIR tool.
However I did make new stairs for this project in 12 because of design changes.

Re: Converting stairmaker objects from Ver 11 or older

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:06:01 GMT

I have to confess, I'm not really familiar with Stairmaker.

However, when I select the "blob", the Object Selection Settings dialog box tells me that this is 'Stair 10', and I have "selected 1" and "editable 1". But in the preview window the message reads: "Not available in the loaded libraries".

So how can I load it?

Any help would be welcome.

Keith

Acad 12 on Mac OSX 10.4.8

Re: Converting stairmaker objects from Ver 11 or older

Erika Epstein — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 18:15:27 GMT

Attached is a screenshot of the STAIRMAKER tool settings box.
Note project library contains stairs made in AC11. I can load them and place them.

HTH

Re: Converting stairmaker objects from Ver 11 or older

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 12:12:55 GMT

Got it, thanks Erika.

I was in the Object dialog instead of the Stairmaker dialog.

Duh!!

- Keith

Re: Converting stairmaker objects from Ver 11 or older

owen — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:35:34 GMT

Keith wrote:
The AC11 stair library parts are loaded - at least they show up in Library Manager as "other objects" under "Active Libaries".

However, as I say, if I attempt to reload them from file, the .gsm files are grayed out in the list.

There should be no problem loading AC11 stairs in AC12 - we do exactly this to maintain a common AC11/12 Library for templates in offices who are still using both versions. All objects from older AC versions can be loaded in subsequent versions (just not the other way around).

Just wondering why the stairs are showing up under 'Other Objects'? Are they in a library or are you loading them individually from another location?

I have to refresh my memory on the details but sometimes objects show up here even though they are not actually loaded. Try putting them into one of the libraries loaded with the file and see if the problem persists - you should not need to replace them on the floor plan.

Re: Converting stairmaker objects from Ver 11 or older

Erika Epstein — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:24:53 GMT

owen wrote:
Just wondering why the stairs are showing up under 'Other Objects'? Are they in a library or are you loading them individually from another location?

I have to refresh my memory on the details but sometimes objects show up here even though they are not actually loaded. Try putting them into one of the libraries loaded with the file and see if the problem persists - you should not need to replace them on the floor plan.

I agree. Put them in a folder that can load as a library.

Re: Converting stairmaker objects from Ver 11 or older

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:56:56 GMT

Thanks for your advice guys.

It's become clear that my problem arose a) from not my not realising that stairmaker objects are different from ordinary library-part objects and b) from there being a general lack of understanding in this office of how libraries load. For example, when opening a drawing to edit, the library manager may or may not appear. If it does appear, most of us automatically click on 'Done', since we don't know at this stage what libraries are required or not required for this project. Then, if all is not well, to try and 'fix' the library parts after the fact.

I feel that Archicad Help is not as clear on this as it might be.

In this case all the stair parts were actually already in a folder, but when the blobs appeared, I tried loading each one individually - hence the list under 'Other Objects'.

It doesn't help that some projects we work on go back to version 7, and get opened in later versions without first archiving the libraries.

Time to go and do some homework, I think!

Keith

Re: Converting stairmaker objects from Ver 11 or older

Erika Epstein — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:56:27 GMT

Keith,
There have been many discussions about Library management here if you do a search.

This is old, but still applicable.

http://www.graphisoft.com/archiguide_archive/ArchiGuide_Online_6o/issue03/libmgnt.html

Essentially you should see
- Archicad Library AC12 [current version] loaded from each computer
- Project library [on the server. Includes custom objects specific to this project only such as stairs. I keep them in their project folder]
-Office Library [on server, includes bought and custom made objects used on multiple projects]
- Libraries needed for this project but not typicall for other projects such as older AC library versions for projects started in earlier ACs. These can be downloaded
here Click on Library Archives
HTH