Libraries & objects
About Archicad and BIMcloud libraries, their management and migration, objects and other library parts, etc.

Library organization of objects

SimpleTwig
Participant
Is there a way to reorganize the folders and objects in AC17 library?

To be specific I was hoping to group things together so their easier to access and don't require so much digging around in folders (understanding that they are placed in spec order), for instance, putting all Bathroom fixtures and accessories together, or all kitchen items together. It appears that the library is now in a 'pack' that can't be opened called 'Object Library 17.lcf'

Others that bug me are doors, like a revolving door in it's own folder, the 2 bi-fold doors, metal doors... not exactly hard to find if they were all in one folder.

Also, were does one put custom objects I've created? Should I just place a folder in the ArchiCAD 17 Library folder to make them load properly?

Thanks.
SimpleTwig
AC17 on Mac OS 10.7.5
Processor: 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7,
RAM: 16GB 1333MHz DDR3
12 REPLIES 12
Anonymous
Not applicable
This article gives further information on favourites and visual legends -

http://www.aecbytes.com/tipsandtricks/2006/issue13-archicad.html

As Eduardo says, using one of the above methods allows you to keep your library up to date with the hotfixes, but also preset all the parameters correctly for each library part.

I believe there is/was an add-on available that creates a custom 'toolbar' to access the visual legends. Unfortunately I can't remember what it was called! ...Anyone?
Anonymous
Not applicable
Peter wrote:
I believe there is/was an add-on available that creates a custom 'toolbar' to access the visual legends. Unfortunately I can't remember what it was called! ...Anyone?
I remember now; it was called 'BIM Fast' available from -

http://www.atila-diffusion.eu/index.php?page=complement
Barry Kelly
Moderator
SimpleTwig wrote:
The other issue is the default settings on many of the objects are also wasting lots of time.
This is a big problem with 'universal' libraries.
What suits on user may not suit another whose template has different pen colours, fills, etc.

As discussed you either need a visual legend of objects that have been set as you want them, or set u a lot of favourites, or edit the library (so effectively you have custom library parts) and never update it again until you really need to.

Personally I go the custom library route but then I am quite happy programming in GDL.

A new problem that stops the editing of library parts is the licensing of objects now in 16/17.
When set as 'public domain' then all is good because you can edit the objects - changing the default pen colours, fills etc., or even editing the scripts if you really want to.
However if the license is set to any of the other option then not only are the scripts hidden (which I have no problem with) but the parameters are hidden as well so you can't even change the default pen colour to suit your own template.
You have to resort to favourites or the visual legend or just edit them every time you place them.
I can understand objects needing protection if people are trying to make money from selling them but we should be able to tweak the parameters to suit our own particular setups.
Rant over!

Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11