GDL bitmaps in Virtual Building Explorer

[David Collins]

I've been experimenting with the seven day trial version of the VBE. I'll save some general (mostly favorable) comments and wishes for another post: here's a specific issue that's puzzling me.

I've found that bitmap textures located with vert/coor statements in GDL objects do not translate properly into the VBE. See attached image. The Top image in ArchiCAD OpenGL and the bottom image is VBE.

The picture frame is a custom GDL object with a jpg photo created with DEFINE MATERIAL statements and located with Vert/COOR statements. This comes into the VBE strangely distorted and, I believe, linked to the global origin.

Oddly, the back wall is a standard ArchiCAD tile bitmap which has been rotated in ArchCAD using the "Align 3d texture" command, so these internal VERT/CoOR statements do export properly into the VBE.

And as a side issue, not shown in the screenshot, the ArchiCAD library objects that employ bitmap images, such as "carpet 12" and "picture 12" lose the bitmap image altogether in the VBE.

Can anyone shed any light ? Perhaps my GDL needs some tweaking?
Here's the subroutine that defines the photo in the frame:

!********************************

200: !do the photo panel


DEFINE TEXTURE 'ringpictxt1' 'ringers1.jpg',
A, B, 1,0

ringphototxt=IND(TEXTURE,'ringpictxt1')

DEFINE MATERIAL 'ringpicmat1' 24,
0.5,0.5,0.5,
0,61,ringphototxt

MATERIAL 'ringpicmat1'

BODY -1
prism_ 5, 0.005,
0,0,15,
A, 0, 15,
A, B, 15,
0, B, 15,
0, 0, -1


BASE
VERT 0,0,0
VERT 1,0,0
VERT 0,1,0
VERT 0,0,1
COOR 256+2, -1, -2, -3, -4
BODY -1


RETURN !*************************************************

[derekjackson]

Hi,
we've just come up against this problem ourselves - has anyone found a satisfactory solution yet?

We've made a load of bespoke GDL objects for use in our models but have discovered that none of the textures export to VBE - very frustrating!

[Piotr Dobrowolski]

it is probably because You used texture definition instead "picture" comand.
guessing...
try with the picture object that is inside library - it should go ok to the VBE (or not).

Best Regards,
Piotr

[derekjackson]

No luck - I've only used the Picture command so far - haven't tried defining a texture yet. The Picture Object in the library also doesn't export properly.

Anyone know if Graphisoft are planning to sort this anytime soon? Or have they found a workaround?

[David Collins]

derekjackson wrote:
The Picture Object in the library also doesn't export properly. ?

Wasn't this solved in version 13? (Haven't yet found time to upgrade, myself)
See:
http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=29228