topic Re: is there a browser for the gdl files? in Libraries & objects

is there a browser for the gdl files?

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 15:23:09 GMT

in time i have gathered a prety big amount of gdl objects, and the point is ... i'd love to find the duplicates, perhaps reorganize the directory structure, etc. is there an aplication that would alow me to preview gdl files? cos' opening in archicad one by one is a total head ache. so... just wondering ... could anyone help...?

Re: is there a browser for the gdl files?

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 16:35:14 GMT

comma wrote:

i'd love to find the duplicates, perhaps reorganize the directory structure, etc. is there an aplication that would alow me to preview gdl files? cos' opening in archicad one by one is a total head ache.

Back in the good old days...

ArchiCAD 5.0 came with a plug-in to Cumulus ( http://www.canto.com/pro/ ) which sounds like just what you might need. I don't know if you saved Previews with the objects you created but all of the ArchiCAD objects have them.

Let us know what you think

woodster

Re: is there a browser for the gdl files?

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 16:48:28 GMT

Just thought you might be interested in this (from the Cumulus Read Me that came with 5.0):

About the connection between Cumulus and ArchiCAD 5.0

For years, ArchiCAD users have been limited to using the standard directory dialog box when searching for a particular library part. Now Graphisoft and Canto opened the doorway to a much more effective browsing method through the Cumulus image database.

To make the components work, do the following:
1. Read carefully the Cumulus license agreement.
2. Copy the content of "Cumulus Filters" folder into "File Filters" folder of your hard disk.
3. Start Cumulus Browser.
4. Choose New from the File menu. If you get a warning about program linking switched off, just click Cancel.
5. Choose Catalog from the Record menu.
6. Select the "ArchiCAD Library" folder and click the Catalog button. Cumulus will now build an image database using the preview pictures within the ArchiCAD library parts. When you get a dialog box reporting errors, just click OK. These are the GDL macros which have no preview image.
7. Start ArchiCAD if it is not running yet. In the Load Libraries dialog box, remove all other libraries from the list of active libraries and activate the "ArchiCAD Library" folder.
8. In the Object Settings dialog box, click on the library part name. In the pop-up menu, choose "Select Library Browser".
9. In the next dialog box, click Select Other, then select your running Cumulus from a Chooser-like list. Click OK in both dialog boxes.
10. In the Object Settings dialog box, choose the "Choose Other Object" command from the pop-up menu. ArchiCAD will display a window that tells "Waiting for Cumulus".
11. In Cumulus, choose any library part image then click OK in the floating window. ArchiCAD will come to the front and the Object Settings dialog box will show the library part you picked in Cumulus, ready for use.

woodster

Re: is there a browser for the gdl files?

Ben Odonnell — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 17:35:31 GMT

Whilst Woody's method seem much more through, you could run a quick SQL query.

What you will need to do is, load all of your librarys then go to your calculate menu---->SQL---->Query.
Once you have your query window up simply type in the following

SELECT location, preview_jpeg
FROM libraryparts

The result from this query will give you the exact path and an image of your library part, the image part of the query will not show up if the object has no preview image.

HTH.
Cheers.
Ben

Re: is there a browser for the gdl files?

Djordje — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 17:55:14 GMT

Provided all the parts have the preview pictures, you can chek them via standard Windows Explorer. The icons of the lib parts are the previews, and if you right click on lib part, choose Porperties, then Info&Preview tab, you will see the large preview.

Then, there is GDL Explorer ...

Re: is there a browser for the gdl files?

Laszlo Nagy — Fri, 11 Mar 2005 10:54:08 GMT

Ben wrote:
Whilst Woody's method seem much more through, you could run a quick SQL query.

What you will need to do is, load all of your librarys then go to your calculate menu---->SQL---->Query.
Once you have your query window up simply type in the following
SELECT location, preview_jpeg
FROM libraryparts
The result from this query will give you the exact path and an image of your library part, the image part of the query will not show up if the object has no preview image.

HTH.
Cheers.
Ben

I wonder if it would be any better to modify this a bit like below:

SELECT name, location, preview_jpeg
FROM libraryparts

This way the first column would list the file names, which would allow one to see the duplicates, as these would be listed next to each other.

Re: is there a browser for the gdl files?

Ben Odonnell — Fri, 11 Mar 2005 10:56:59 GMT

Laszlo,
You are indeed right. It would be much better. You get the name of the object as well

Re: is there a browser for the gdl files?

Laszlo Nagy — Fri, 11 Mar 2005 11:06:01 GMT

No, it does not seem to work the way I hoped. Even it lists the name in the first column, it sorts them by location. So this may not be a good solution.

Re: is there a browser for the gdl files?

Ben Odonnell — Fri, 11 Mar 2005 11:38:11 GMT

Laci,
May be you could drop Karl Ottenstein a PM and ask him how to sort them. I know that he is very proficient in SQL querys.

Or may be Karl, if you happen to read this thread, may be you could give us quick run down on how to sort data?

Cheers.
Ben

Re: is there a browser for the gdl files?

Anonymous — Fri, 11 Mar 2005 12:10:18 GMT

BTW, I was more pointing out that ArchiCAD once came with the capability than giving instructions on how to do it. I just found the old read me of interest.

And, suggesting that maybe Cumulus 6.5 (it was 2.0 then) deserves a look.

woodster

Re: is there a browser for the gdl files?

Ben Odonnell — Fri, 11 Mar 2005 12:25:38 GMT

woodster wrote:
And, suggesting that maybe Cumulus 6.5 (it was 2.0 then) deserves a look.

Absolutely,
Have to take the time to have a look at it. It sound like a very interesting product.

Cheers.
Ben

Re: is there a browser for the gdl files?

Karl Ottenstein — Fri, 11 Mar 2005 22:13:38 GMT

Ben wrote:
Or may be Karl, if you happen to read this thread, may be you could give us quick run down on how to sort data?

The "ORDER BY" clause (lower case is fine) says how to sort the data. You can sort ascending or descending and by more than one field.

SELECT name, location, preview_jpeg
FROM libraryparts
ORDER BY name

will give you the list sorted ascending by name, as you wanted. 😉

Karl

Re: is there a browser for the gdl files?

Ben Odonnell — Sat, 12 Mar 2005 09:34:41 GMT

Karl,
Fantastic. Thank you very much for showing us that. Simple really, but when you are not an SQL expert not so easy.

Again thank you.

Cheers.
Ben