Visualization
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MacXRock

Anonymous
Not applicable
I downloaded the MacXRock program last week and it seems to work fine until I have to import the output file into Archicad.

I get an error message saying it doesn't recognise the file format, which seems to appear as a text file.

Anybody had a similar experience?

thanks in advance

Joel
18 REPLIES 18
Anonymous
Not applicable
What is the program and file format?
Anonymous
Not applicable
ArchiCAD 11 (Build - 1112) on a PPC Mac

the file extension doesn't show, but the Mac opens it in textedit

Can I attach it to this message somehow for people to look at?
David Maudlin
Virtuoso
Joel:

I think Matthew is asking about the MacXRock application, particularly the file type it is creating that you are trying to bring into ArchiCAD.

David
David Maudlin / Architect
www.davidmaudlin.com
Digital Architecture
AC27 USA • iMac 27" 4.0GHz Quad-core i7 OSX11 | 24 gb ram • MacBook Pro M3 Pro | 36 gb ram OSX14
Anonymous
Not applicable
Well, the program is available here: http://www.laffeycomputer.com/macrock.html

and on that website it refers to the file format as "DXF ASCII file format"

Sorry if I misunderstood.

J
David Maudlin
Virtuoso
Joel:

You can try to open the file as a library part, which also makes sense as you would be placing these rocks as objects:

1. Go to File>GDL Objects>Open Object...
2. In the Open Library Item window, change "Enable:" to DXF File
3. Browse to the dxf file, select, and click on Open
4. The file will open as a GDL library part (this may take some time, depending on the file, similar to opening a dwg file)
5. Then go to File>Save As... to save the library part with a new name into the appropriate library
6. You can now place this part in your project using the Object Tool

If this does not work, then you may need to find a way to translate the file into a format ArchiCAD likes.

Side note: based on the web page description, these objects could contain many, many polygons, which will slow down 3D generation times, so be judicious when setting the parameters of the rocks.

HTH

David
David Maudlin / Architect
www.davidmaudlin.com
Digital Architecture
AC27 USA • iMac 27" 4.0GHz Quad-core i7 OSX11 | 24 gb ram • MacBook Pro M3 Pro | 36 gb ram OSX14
Anonymous
Not applicable
Thanks for that David, it all works fine and I end up with a .GDL file, but then it won't appear in the library.

I know people out there have got this program to work for them, so there must be something I'm doing wrong…

Cheers

Joel
David Maudlin
Virtuoso
Joel:

After saving the object in a currently loaded library, you may need to reload the library for the part to show up.

HTH

David
David Maudlin / Architect
www.davidmaudlin.com
Digital Architecture
AC27 USA • iMac 27" 4.0GHz Quad-core i7 OSX11 | 24 gb ram • MacBook Pro M3 Pro | 36 gb ram OSX14
Anonymous
Not applicable
Still no joy I'm afraid.

It appears in the library manager and I add it, but then when I go to use it from the object tool, the 'other objects' file is shown empty.

Thanks for trying to help anyway David.

Cheers
David Maudlin
Virtuoso
Joel:

Rather than trying to load this as an individual part, create a new folder, save the part into this folder, go to the Library Manager and add this folder to your loaded libraries, and click "Reload", then in the Object Tool dialog box, navigate to this folder and see if the part shows up. If not, then I'm out of ideas. Hope this works.

David
David Maudlin / Architect
www.davidmaudlin.com
Digital Architecture
AC27 USA • iMac 27" 4.0GHz Quad-core i7 OSX11 | 24 gb ram • MacBook Pro M3 Pro | 36 gb ram OSX14

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