A new generation of Python solutions

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone, I am beanjs, the author of the xbimer platform. I have been exploring the use of python in archicad for more than 3 years, and today I brought a new generation of python solutions to archicad.

xBIMer is a python sdk plugin designed for Archicad. It allows developers to use python to develop plugins for archicad. Since you need to install a huge IDE when using the official C++ sdk to develop plug-ins, it is not very friendly to developers. Secondly, the official only provides c++ sdk as the only choice for archicad, not as many choices as Revit. This indirectly makes it difficult for other developers to integrate into the development of archicad plugins.

xBIMer is a solution between the official C++SDK and the official Python API, and will support Archicad 22 or above. It allows developers to use python language to access the functions in Archicad's C++SDK (if allowed), such as menus, dialog and other C++ interfaces. In addition, you can also use the official python api module in xBIMer (Requires Archicad 24 or above).Using xBIMer you will not need to install visual studio (on windows system), Xcode (on macos system, mac system will be supported in the future) can develop plug-ins for Archicad. You can write the code once and run it in the Windows system and the macos system, without the need for adaptation between different systems. Not only that, the plug-ins you develop based on xBIMer can be easily extended to different versions of Archicad without the need for additional compilation and adaptation. At the same time, with the help of Python's perfect package management mechanism, you can also easily add third-party modules on the PyPi website to the Archicad plug-in.

Not only that, xBIMer has a great possibility to solve the official legacy problems, such as i18n, etc. Today I released the first release version. Although this version only provides a complete python language runtime for Archicad, it has not yet been ported to the official C++ API (this will be a future work). For me, the next job is that I must first focus on porting GUI-related APIs (DGLib, UDLIb), because I currently need this feature. If you like this project, you can check it out on github. https://github.com/xbimer. Soon I will publish some video tutorials related to xBIMer. You can subscribe to @xbimerOfficial on twitter to get the latest news. Thanks to Github, Youtube, IFTTT, and other service providers for their support of this platform.

[Karl Ottenstein]

This sounds promising, but frankly I'm not confident downloading and installing something that has full access to my ARCHICAD data file (and potentially my computer file system) from someone who does not identify themselves with their real name, location and qualifications... and with youtube links that do not work and minimal documentation / examples relevant to ARCHICAD. I would caution casual users from downloading and installing this plugin.

[Podolsky]

Well, if links will be fixed - then yes, this is really cool. I will wait until it will have more functions and will be available on MacOS.
Because we need something like that.

By the way, by making my research on Python, I've found that earlier beta version of Python on ArchiCAD 23 was able to use C++ commands, but was very slow. I wish one day to see tool that able to make fully functional plug-ins without writing and compile C++.

[Anonymous]

Karl wrote:
This sounds promising, but frankly I'm not confident downloading and installing something that has full access to my ARCHICAD data file (and potentially my computer file system) from someone who does not identify themselves with their real name, location and qualifications... and with youtube links that do not work and minimal documentation / examples relevant to ARCHICAD. I would caution casual users from downloading and installing this plugin.

At present, xBIMer has only finished building a complete python runtime in archicad and keeping it in memory for a long time. Regarding the interactive API with archicad, I have not yet ported it. I have a lot of work at the moment, so I don’t have enough time to record the video and post it to youtube. My youtube channel is youtube.com/channel/UCDZAh_-VJj_GsEXzi3KMA2Q
I am not an architect. My real profession is an IoT developer. The focus of my current work is to use Archicad in the IoT field.

[Anonymous]

Podolsky wrote:
Well, if links will be fixed - then yes, this is really cool. I will wait until it will have more functions and will be available on MacOS.
Because we need something like that.

By the way, by making my research on Python, I've found that earlier beta version of Python on ArchiCAD 23 was able to use C++ commands, but was very slow. I wish one day to see tool that able to make fully functional plug-ins without writing and compile C++.

I also hope to come soon. Because xBIMer is not perfect now.

[Karl Ottenstein]

beanjs wrote:

Karl wrote:
This sounds promising, but frankly I'm not confident downloading and installing something that has full access to my ARCHICAD data file (and potentially my computer file system) from someone who does not identify themselves with their real name, location and qualifications... and with youtube links that do not work and minimal documentation / examples relevant to ARCHICAD. I would caution casual users from downloading and installing this plugin.

At present, xBIMer has only finished building a complete python runtime in archicad and keeping it in memory for a long time. Regarding the interactive API with archicad, I have not yet ported it. I have a lot of work at the moment, so I don’t have enough time to record the video and post it to youtube. My youtube channel is youtube.com/channel/UCDZAh_-VJj_GsEXzi3KMA2Q
I am not an architect. My real profession is an IoT developer. The focus of my current work is to use Archicad in the IoT field.

If this does not do anything yet related to ARCHICAD, why did you start this thread and make posts suggesting that people download it in other threads?

I propose that this thread should just be archived for now and that you post again when you have something that is fully useful and of interest to this community. As a newcomer to Archicad Talk, starting a new thread about something that is not (yet) useful is a strange way to join the community 🙂

[Anonymous]

Karl wrote:

beanjs wrote:

Karl wrote:
This sounds promising, but frankly I'm not confident downloading and installing something that has full access to my ARCHICAD data file (and potentially my computer file system) from someone who does not identify themselves with their real name, location and qualifications... and with youtube links that do not work and minimal documentation / examples relevant to ARCHICAD. I would caution casual users from downloading and installing this plugin.

At present, xBIMer has only finished building a complete python runtime in archicad and keeping it in memory for a long time. Regarding the interactive API with archicad, I have not yet ported it. I have a lot of work at the moment, so I don’t have enough time to record the video and post it to youtube. My youtube channel is youtube.com/channel/UCDZAh_-VJj_GsEXzi3KMA2Q
I am not an architect. My real profession is an IoT developer. The focus of my current work is to use Archicad in the IoT field.

If this does not do anything yet related to ARCHICAD, why did you start this thread and make posts suggesting that people download it in other threads?

I propose that this thread should just be archived for now and that you post again when you have something that is fully useful and of interest to this community. As a newcomer to Archicad Talk, starting a new thread about something that is not (yet) useful is a strange way to join the community 🙂

The reason why I don't encapsulate the C + + API is that I don't have enough time to separate the code from my business project, but that doesn't mean I won't do it. The current version is not functional enough. On the one hand, it is released because some developers have such requirements. I will give a solution when I release this version. On the other hand, I believe that all people want to have a simple way to solve complex problems. Xbimer is the simple way. Soon I will write a new article to explain what xbimer can do. And how to coordinate the relationship between architects and plug-in developers through xbimer. I believe not all architects will use the official C + + SDK for plug-in development.

[Karl Ottenstein]

beanjs wrote:
The reason why I don't encapsulate the C + + API is that I don't have enough time to separate the code from my business project, but that doesn't mean I won't do it. The current version is not functional enough. On the one hand, it is released because some developers have such requirements. I will give a solution when I release this version. On the other hand, I believe that all people want to have a simple way to solve complex problems. Xbimer is the simple way. Soon I will write a new article to explain what xbimer can do. And how to coordinate the relationship between architects and plug-in developers through xbimer. I believe not all architects will use the official C + + SDK for plug-in development.

It sounds like you are confirming that there is no point to discussing Xbimer here until it is more functional. Again, I wonder why you joined Archicad Talk and brought this up here?

[Anonymous]

Karl wrote:

beanjs wrote:
The reason why I don't encapsulate the C + + API is that I don't have enough time to separate the code from my business project, but that doesn't mean I won't do it. The current version is not functional enough. On the one hand, it is released because some developers have such requirements. I will give a solution when I release this version. On the other hand, I believe that all people want to have a simple way to solve complex problems. Xbimer is the simple way. Soon I will write a new article to explain what xbimer can do. And how to coordinate the relationship between architects and plug-in developers through xbimer. I believe not all architects will use the official C + + SDK for plug-in development.

It sounds like you are confirming that there is no point to discussing Xbimer here until it is more functional. Again, I wonder why you joined Archicad Talk and brought this up here?

OK, I'll move the topic of xbimer to other products. Thank you for your advice.

[Podolsky]

Karl, leave this treat please.

It's great to see that someone is developing such a complicated and needed part for ArchiCAD.
If Graphisoft has a problem with third part developers - please contact developer directly and find out, what is going on. Finally invite them into official Graphisoft team - maybe that will be useful collaboration for both.

And one more thing - Graphisoft also publishing things, that is not developed properly yet. What really official Python SDK can do? Almost nothing. Change ID's.