Trying to Move To AC from Revit

[Anonymous]

I am trying to move over from Revit 8,9,10 to AC 10,11 and am struggling to find any smart parametric objects that are free and posted by users. The depository has almost nothing . Is it that GDL is to restrictive for the beginner/average user? With my three year experience in Revit their are thousands of smart families (objects) and they are very easy to create if one can draw they can create objects. Thousands of families are provided free on RevitCity. Any suggestion on where to look for USA based objects? For the most part I like using AC 11 , but finding that it very restrictive when it comes to parametric objects.

[Djordje]

What is it exactly that you are looking for?

Look here:

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=16673

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=9296

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=16673

...

Also, take a look into the manual for the short tutorial how to make objects. About page 231 or so ...

[TomWaltz]

When it comes down to it, GDL is a programming language. You can draw/model elements and save them as objects, but to make them parametric you have to learn enough of the language to make the changes you want.

A lot of people I've seen have resisted wanting to learn GDL and the ones who do learn it see it as a professional skill to make a few bucks on... hence the small number of free parametric objects out there.

[Anonymous]

Interesting post that I hope the future thinkers at Graphisoft are contemplating...most users are not programmers, and would dearly love to have a toolset that allows them to visually build their object of choice.

In ArchiCAD 9 some kind soul(s) put GDL Toolbox on the web for free. Sadly it was never updated to 10 & 11.

And at the ArchiCAD pricepoint I still resist having to pay $$$ for add-ons, and being locked into their upgrade cycle et al.

So Graphisoft, if you could address this in 12 we would really appreciate it!!

[Anonymous]

For the most part I do like AC, it is faster to move around in on larger projects Revit is slow. Not sure if I am going to stay with AC since the objects are very limited and out of the box It is difficult do do a BIM project in total (the hole idea is object based). I have probably purchased an additional $2000 + in objects and add-on's. Graphisoft has a good product but in competing with Revit with GDL as it stands will be their downfall . I have been keeping lists of the pros and cons of both and will soon finish that effort and will see who benifits in my own opinion.

[TomWaltz]

I think it's kind of funny because GDL is so powerful as a feature but only a few people out there really ever get to take advantage of its full capabilities because it's a programming language instead of a widely-usable feature.

I am surprised to see the young architects who take to programming pretty quickly, though. It's possible that in 10 years the two skills may not be so separate (I've seen a lot of Autocad users learn LISP for the same reasons)

Personally, I try to shun 3rd party addons as much as possible (largely due to versioning/upgrading hassles) in favor of writing custom GDL. It puts upgrades and bug correction under my control, not someone else's.

[Anonymous]

I agree with that and If I stay with AC my goal is to learn GDL, several years ago I did some basic programming. Also I have been looking for good bood but no luck, also trying to locate GDL Cookbook any Ideas?

[Anonymous]

ok, so this may be a stupid question, but how long does it take to learn GDL? Obviously this will depend on the users' abilities, the required level of learning and so forth, but roughly? and where and how does one accomplish this? are there any online tutorials etc? anything for free? (us folk in the 3rd world have a hard time paying 1st world prices for tution...)

[TomWaltz]

You can really only get it in PDF from the author. It was really good in it's day, but it was last updated for Archicad 6.5.

I would recommend the "Intro to Object Making" book from tr.graphisoftus.com under "Archicad-Related"

[Anonymous]

Mark wrote:
ok, so this may be a stupid question, but how long does it take to learn GDL?

I'm still learning...