topic Re: archicad 12 to sketch up, and ecotect in Collaboration with other software

archicad 12 to sketch up, and ecotect

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:31:19 GMT

Hello, I am sure this is a silly question, but i am trying to import an archicad model into ecotect to do an anaylses on it.
As of current, i always draw up my models in sketch-up 6 pro, then import them into Ecotect (as i find Ecotect a pain to draw in).

But i currently have a very detailed archicad model, of which i do not want to re draw in sketch up.

any help??

i know there is a add on to open sketch up in archicad, but i dont know how to do it the other way around, none of the available save as/export file types line up with ecotect or sketch up.

cheers,

Alex.
asaw@deakin.edu.au

Re: archicad 12 to sketch up, and ecotect

Karl Ottenstein — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 04:10:16 GMT

Export as 3ds from ArchiCAD - it opens fine in SketchUp. (You have to be viewing the model in the 3D window to have the Save As option for 3DS.)

Cheers,
Karl

Re: archicad 12 to sketch up, and ecotect

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:39:16 GMT

The best way to proceed, or at least the easiest we have found, is to export all the thermal zones and properties using gbXML with the green building studio / ecotect add-on and import data into ecotect. You will still need to define the materials, layers, ...

Additional geometry can be exported and imported in ecotect using 3ds files.

Since your model is complicated, as ours often are, I strongly suggest that you slit it in different functional layers then import, check and modify each of them one by one to keep it manageable.

Note that Ecotect is sometimes surprising when you import large models, so save the new versions often.

There is a document detailing the core of this procedure on Graphisoft.com. Try to search on Ecotect gbXML: that should point you to the add-on download and the how-to document.

Good luck