How to edit default settings of Library Object (doors, windows etc.) in GSM file

[TucaTuca]

Help!

I want to edit a door from the "Archicad Library 26" to change its pen settings to match our office standard. I did this by duplicating a door, saving it into my custom office library, opening the .gsm file, clicking on "Parameters" and changing the default pen numbers. This mostly works, but my issue is that some of the parameters are greyed out and some that I need are not even listed. For example I can't find the parameter to set the pen for the door frame in section.

My goal here is to create an office standard library based on selected objects from the "Archicad Library 26"

but customised accordingly. I'm hoping to eventually control the default settings of all of these objects through a BIMcloud library that would be loaded into our office template.

Is this the right way to do this? I know that Revit can easily do this but can Archicad?

[Barry Kelly]

You can do it this way but I would not recommend it.

Every time the library is updated (either a library update or each new version of Archicad), you will have to go through and edit each and every object again.

The greyed out parameters are 'locked'.

To unlock them you will have to comment out the parameter script or sometimes the master script.

Then you can edit the parameters, but you must remember to un-comment the scripts.

But be careful not to un-comment the lines that are deliberately commented out.

You can easily mess things up doing this.

Much better to amend your template to use the default pen colours, fills, line types, etc.

This is my recommendation.

Or set up favourites with the settings you want, but there will be a lot of favourites - one for each library object.

Barry.

[TucaTuca]

Hi Barry, thanks for the very clear and helpful response!

Sounds like I'm on the wrong path and will avoid touching the .gsm files. 

As for your two recommendations, thank you, but I am disappointed (with Archicad not you!) if these are the only tools available for CAD management. 

Pen Sets - Are you saying that one should never stray too far from the Archicad defaults? For example: pen #19 has to be white and if you change it you're screwed. Sure you can change your Pen Set's colours and thicknesses, but if you cannot change the default pens used for individual parameters then Archicad is really restricting you.

Favourites - I don't mind creating lots of favourites, as you mentioned. But as a manager I don't see the advantage of favourites if they don't update across projects. My understanding is that they are only embedded locally? Additionally, favourite settings are not linked to instances of objects. For example: if I edit the settings of a favourite, someone now has to use the eyedropper and individually update every instance of it to apply the new change.

It seemed like BIMcloud libraries could have accomplished what I want, but since I cannot safely edit the parameters of the objects in the library then they are also not helpful... 

I'm really at a loss here on how to manage multiple projects in an office using Archicad, so any further ideas would be much appreciated. I do have a little bit of faith left that it can be done!

[Barry Kelly]

If you want to use the default Graphisoft library objects, then you will want to keep the standard pen colours, line types, fills, complex profiles and building materials.

Study the library objects and see which ones they use.

Pens, line types and fills are the most important and generally only a few are used.

These you will want to keep the same, the rest you can change and add your own.

When my company started some 20 odd years ago, we set up our own template and had someone customise a library for use.

So it all worked (and still does work) just fine.

But now if I want to use any default Graphisoft objects, I have to go through and amend them as mentioned before.

The same applies for any 3rd party objects if they are made using Graphisoft standards.

These are impossible to edit if their scripts are locked, so I try to avoid 3rd party objects.

So if you want to go completely 'of grid' and use your own template and objects, you can do what ever you want.

Favourites can be imported into any file at any time, but no they are not controlled from a central source.

I keep the favourites in my template up to date and import those into any file when I want to renew them.

One day we hope to have this 'centralisation' of favourites and attributes.

And amending a favourite will not update any placed instances.

A lot of people would like this 'instancing' of elements, but there are ways around this already.

Select all 'same' elements and adjust in one go, or use hotlink modules which are essentially instances anyway - just not editable in the way many would like (i.e. editable from within the same file from a placed instance).

Barry.

[TucaTuca]

Thanks again Barry, once again very clear and helpful.

Sounds like Archicad simply can't accomplish (without learning how to script) what I'm used to doing quite easily with Revit. Sad.

Stay tuned for more questions from me as I learn how to use favourites haha

[Peter Baksa]

Hi,

There is another option: https://gdl.Graphisoft.com/tips-and-tricks/how-to-replace-parameter-values-in-xml-format

This can be done without scripting. The replacementdef file contents will be mostly reusable for future library releases.