Saving converted Sketchup objects as ArchiCAD Objects

[Anonymous]

This is my first post here, so pardon me if this has already been discussed. I have run across a problem and thought I would check here to see if anyone else has had this issue.

In the office where I work, people have been downloading Sketchup objects and importing them into ArchiCAD for their various projects. I realized that a lot of time is being waisted by various people searching and downloading objects when someone has likely already done the work for them- if only we shared objects within the office.

I have followed Shoegnome videos to learn how to make Sketchup objects fully customizable Archicad objects. I customized several objects to, among many things, read proper surface material names and have good, generic materials pre-assigned that only need further customizing if the individual user wants to do so.

Where I've run into issues is saving these newly created, customized ArchiCAD objects to a folder on a server within the office for office-wide use. When the objects are imported from the server into another ArchiCAD project, all of the customizations that I have previously done to the objects are ignored. I discovered that the objects only show the correct edits in the file they were created in.

I did find that by copying and pasting the objects into another file, rather than importing them from the folder they are saved to, works just fine. So the issue seems to be with saving the customized objects to a folder on a server.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

[matjashka]

Welcome to the forums!

Where I've run into issues is saving these newly created, customized ArchiCAD objects to a folder on a server within the office for office-wide use. When the objects are imported from the server into another ArchiCAD project, all of the customizations that I have previously done to the objects are ignored. I discovered that the objects only show the correct edits in the file they were created in.

Could you please be more specific? I don't know how familiar you are with ArchiCAD so it's a long shot, but it sounds like you might have some unresolved duplicates or libraries are not properly linked, OR, you have multiple versions of an object with the same object name, but saved under different file names.

There are basically two ways to handle GDL object placement: embedded and linked libraries. While the embedded is fast and convenient, linked libraries give you the chance to distribute all modifications from a single source (a file server or the more specialized BIM server). If you mix up embedded and linked libraries, you have to make sure that you remove the embedded objects that you're now trying to link.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the response. I've been using ArchiCAd for 2 years now and am pretty comfortable in most aspects, but this is a first trying to convert/create/save objects.

Basically, this is my workflow, which maybe helps me be more specific:

-Import sketchup object
-Convert to morph
-Save as object (Libraries and Objects>Save Selection As>Object)
-Load newly created object from the location where I saved it (in a folder on the server)
-Edit parameters of object (surface names, materials, 2D symbol) by Libaries and Objects>Open Objects
-Close window, click save.

Maybe this is where I'm running into problems according to what you are saying. Perhaps there is an issue when I re-save the object?

[matjashka]

OK. Let's take the following scenario: you want to create a new object and save it on a local server in your office.
There are multiple ways to do this but let's follow a simple path. Let's make sure that you have a "clean slate" file open with only the ArchiCAD 18 library attached and no embedded objects and then:

1) You select your Morph and Save Selection As Object.
2) When prompted for location to save, you choose File in a selected folder and pick a Folder on your server, the same one where you keep your custom library parts available to your coworkers. Make sure that you check the Create New Object at the bottom of the Save dialog box.
3) You go to Library Manager, add the Folder as your custom library and finally Reload all the libraries so your project will load your custom object(s) for the first time.
4) In ArchiCAD, find your new object in the dialog box and place it in your file (ArchiCAD will usually automatically select the object you've just created).
[EDIT] 4A: Select the custom object you just placed in your plan view.
5) Open it for GDL editing by clicking File > Libraries and Objects > Open Object.
6) Make your changes and press Ctrl+S to save.
Now, when your coworkers have the Folder linked as a library, after they reload it, they will also see the changes you've just made.

You may learn other procedures, for example, opening the object straight from the server, if it's not loaded in your current project, but the above procedure will ensure you only have ONE copy loaded (there is no embedded copy). With a BIM server you have to include an extra step to reconcile the file server libraries with the BIM server libraries and then reload into your project, but that's a different approach.

I hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Matt. I followed your steps with a new object from scratch and it seems to work.

I don't have a lot of time to experiment a ton right now and will be out of the office for a bit, but this seems to do the trick and I look forward to getting more involved with it when I return.

I may have questions regarding the BIM server when I get to that point, but I think I'm set for now.

Thanks- huge help!