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About model and data exchange with 3rd party solutions: Revit, Solibri, dRofus, Bluebeam, structural analysis solutions, and IFC, BCF and DXF/DWG-based exchange, etc.

Translator bug in 8.1?

Anonymous
Not applicable
I submitted a reply to another thread, but feel I need to start a new one on this topic. I am having trouble importing DXF files into AC 8.1 from Maya. I was able to do this with relatively no problems in AC 8, but after a fresh install of 8.1, SOME of my models will import into AC without problems, and some will not, with the same translator. Anyone have any info on this, or maybe a workaround?
23 REPLIES 23
Anonymous
Not applicable
well. i got it to import into AC, but i had to use deep exploration to convert to DXF, then open as a gdl object, the only problem i have now is its a wireframe even tho it is in shading mode, any body know how to get around this?
Dwight
Newcomer
This means that your deep explorations failed to expose the surface descriptor. You got the nodes, but AC can't tell how to "face" the objects.

Some possibilities:

Try reversing faces in Maya - don't cull backfaces - and make sure that the volumetric data is actually being exported.

Do you have the statement "MODEL SOLID" in your GDL statement somewhere?
Dwight Atkinson
Anonymous
Not applicable
Thanx, ill try your suggestions, but im not too educated with GDL, actually i was about to start another thread asking how to save a DXF file and be able to have adjustable settings, whereas now allss i have is a bunch of uneditable lines in the object settings
Dwight
Newcomer
That is just it - DXF - the Doesn't Xerox Fully format can't be a perfect copy because DXF is just a bunch of dots - connected! Then another code instruction says what triangular planes are surfaces.

Dumb.

There is no way to edit this intuitively but you can figure out what nodes are what and alter their vaues, but usually a DXF script is long and cryptic. Better to learn a little GDL, say, at the upcoming ArchiCAD University West in March than invest lots of time in DXFing.

What kind of objects are you importing? I assume that they are curvy-durvy?
Dwight Atkinson
Anonymous
Not applicable
yes, lol very curvy durvy, lots of french curves on a radious, wireframed glass vases, glasses, candleholders, and other decorative household fufu stuff not found in my home .
So, your saying even tho i save a dxf file out as gdl it is not editable? maybe i read your response wrong. i am wondering if the GDL cookbook is something i need to touch on?

ArchiCad University West, where is that being held?
Dwight
Newcomer
Hahaha.You are such a joker!!!!

You actually expect a computer to recognize a DXF "Data cloud" and turn it into sensible GDL scripting!!! That would be smarter than even GDL guru David Nicholson-Cole and Trus Joist GDL expert Sean McMurtry put together!

In view of the fact that, what with the lousy holidays over and that foot of snow we got here last week in British California is rapidly being washed away by the spring rains, I am swinging rapidly from a "Depressed at Christmas" phase into a "nothing can stop me" manic phase, so let me wise you up a bit. After all, who needs sleep?

GDL is beautiful because it uses perceptive routines to describe geometric form. It excells in making simple geometry like bookshelves where simple blocks can be parametrically scripted to change in size and number, but GDL is weaker when making tents and plant materials although the MESH and COONS command can make sophisticated curving things - it is just harder to graphically edit them - trial and error is how it gets done. GDL uses an imaging engine to execute objects and does not merely recount a series of nodes as does the DXF format.

As for turning sensual forms into GDL, the application ZoomGDL can make freeform model shapes result in an editable GDL script, but if the geometry of the form is too wacky, the translation will revert to a TUBE command that is very difficult to understand - almost as bad as a DXF file. If the underlying object is not geometric, then the likelyhood of ot being editable in GDL is reduced.

For instance: three years ago while GDL guru DNC and I were in Irvine on a course, the offices we had camped in were 3D modeler persons who took actual objects and turned them into 3D computer models by using a 3D scanner. Some geek was doing a Renault car. What a mess! They got the form correct, but it was just a bunch of nodes on a surface. It was laborius and intuitive how the geek decided what was glass and what was gasket. It took days. And the file was enormous, but exact.

In a way, the DXF form you obtain is just that: a form - when brought into GDL, the DXF script is merely encapsulated inside a GDL script that controls model appearance and materials. I also believe that a DXF 3D file can be stretched and re-sized in GDL by using MUL commands.

The challenge is the interpretation of shape. Whle DXF provides a surface mesh made of nodes and polygon data, it lacks edge masking information and smoothing data. The file structure simply doesn't support it. You can go manually through a list of DXF-generated nodes and add masking information - you can go through a DXF file in a GDL script and organize it, too, but you might as well argue with a cat for all the good it will do. This is intuitive - no one is going to write an automated routine to interpret this file.

Creating ArchiCAD objects means that everything has meaning in GDL - and is therefore rational - many of the things we create in our minds don't necessarily translate into built form logically.... that is why GOD made the TUBE command.

Can you show us what you are trying to achieve in Maya? It might not be that hard using the mesh tool in ArchiCAD.
striped domes.jpg
Dwight Atkinson
Dwight
Newcomer
And now that I study your message - I see that you are doing REVOLVES - eaisly achieved in ArchiCAD with Profiler and with the inexpensive Cigraph Add-On ArchiForma
Dwight Atkinson
Anonymous
Not applicable
revolves are the simple matters, no problem there, nope, its the scrolling wireframe that is wrapped around the revolved surfaces, check out an image.
wireglass_dielectric_03.jpg
Anonymous
Not applicable
and this