Discontinuing GDL Object Adapter and Explorer

[Bence Kovacs]

Dear Talkers,

Recently we have revised our GDL tool portfolio and as a result we have decided to discontinue GDL Object Adapter and Explorer. For the Adapter this means that we will slowly phase it out (we will issue one last update this year), for GDL Explorer there will be no more version (the Web Control makes it redundant). These decisions do NOT affect the development of GDL Web Control and Publisher; we go on with both products (the AC9 compatible GDL Web Control is currently in beta).

See more detail in our announcement here
http://www.graphisoft.com/community/gdlexpldisc.html

Bence Kovacs
VP, Product Management

[Frank Beister]

So I hope the free sources at GS will lead the webcontrol in a more user friendly, really platform and esp. browser independant publishing tool.

[SeaGeoff]

Does this mean Graphisoft is abandoning the effort to evangelize GDL beyond ArchiCAD?

[ricki-fritz]

For the GDL Explorer, fine - like you say the web control serves the same purpose.

But the Adapter for AutoCAD?? Isn't the Adapter a great way of allowing non-ArchiCAD (ie: AutoCAD/desk) users to become more aware of the possibilities & advantages of using GDL & ArchiCAD?? Especially if GDL developers are trying to convince product manufacturers to invest in a GDL catalogue for distribution - why should they limit their potential customers/specifiers?

...or is there something new being developed that we haven't been told about???

[__archiben]

Bence wrote:
Since the announcement, the reality is the number of companies using this freely available technology has been small. In fact, too few to justify the continued long term investment required to maintain and develop this technology.

simply because graphisoft have not done enough to promote and spread the word about GDL?

i certainly hope that graphisoft have begun the licensing process (or whatever is necessary) to build in revit-like object support, because the big A is not going to have any trouble convincing manufacturers to build their products for revit.

i do not want to be playing catch-up in three years time with quirky import/export add-ons for revit objects because nobody can be bothered with GDL. smart ingredients or not.

Mike wrote:
Last One Standing
People will argue about the advantages and intrinsic superiority of intelligent modeling software, but any study of technology business reveals that the best solution is not necessarily the last one standing. Luckily, the AEC industry is moving toward intelligent modeling at a time when sharing information among software programs is becoming less of a hurdle. Staying on top of intelligent modeling developments will certainly be a profitable endeavor for members of the AEC industry.

from this article. the emphasis is mine.


~/archiben

[Bence Kovacs]

Dear All,

The Adapter WAS a great idea, but it did not fulfill the expectations. While everybody praised it (mostly AC users...) the actual usage was very low. Manufacturers can still reach AutoCAD users through the Web Control's "Save as DWG..." command. At the same time maintaining the product has proven very cost-intensive. As a result we concluded that we can use these resources much more effectively at other areas, notably at ArchiCAD development.

Best regards, Bence Kovacs

[stefan]

As much as I liked the GDL Object Adapter in AutoCAD, I never got any AutoCAD user ever convinced about it's potential...

So I understand the decision, even though I regret it.

And adding a DWG block inside an AutoCAD scene might be fine from the AutoCAD user's point-of-view (even if we know that the editability of a GDL object right inside the design project is much more powerfull).