problems with doors

[Anonymous]

I've been having a couple of problems with doors today. The dorrs are from the ArchiCAD 8 library.
1) The first part of the problem is when I try to eyedropper an existing door. When I eyedropper a door ArchiCAD locks up.
Sometimes the ArchiCAD unlocks on its own. Sometimes I need to reboot as ArchiCAD cannot be closed from TaskManager or any other way. This also sometimes happens when I try to drag of otherwise alter a door. This problem is reoccurring and has been plauging the program since I installed version 8.
2) Today a new problem has occurred. When I opened this project today all of the doors were there but none of the trim was showing. I had spent a lot of time turning on and sizing the trim on friday. Today, monday, the trim does not show up.

Can anybody tell me what is causing these problems? What can I do to keep this from happening?

Thank you,
John

[Anonymous]

ArchiCAD locked up again and I had to reboot. When I rebooted all of the door trim was showing. This is too buggy for me. Are there any safe (not buggy) door libraries?
Thank you,
John

[Karl Ottenstein]

johncassel wrote:
ArchiCAD locked up again and I had to reboot. When I rebooted all of the door trim was showing. This is too buggy for me. Are there any safe (not buggy) door libraries?
Thank you,
John

Hi John,

Are you using doors from the updated 8R3 library on the GS US website?
http://tr.graphisoftus.com/
(the so-called August 29th version).

Not clear that the problem is the doors. Could be something else on your system.

It would be interesting if you had another computer available to try the same file on. The amount of system memory is minimal - I recommend 512MB minimum for XP. It is possible that there is some disk corruption or a graphics driver conflict. Do you have the most recent driver? Suggest that you run chkdsk on all disk partitions with options for full surface scanning and repair, then do a full defrag, etc., possibly even re-installing 8R3. (I've never had a crash or lockup with 8R3.)

If your WIBU key is in a USB hub and not a direct port, is that hub powered (by a separate transformer into an A/C socket)? (The key requires minimal power, but another device in the hub could drain power causing a hub problem and prevent the WIBU key from responding to AC.)

Just punting of course! Hope you can figure out the cause.

Karl

[Anonymous]

Using 8.1, I have identical doors in separate walls. In a concrete wall on a lower floor, my four-part 16' wide slider shows glazing, but in a studwall one floor above, the same door shows up only as a solid panel. I tried using new 8.1 doors and classic doors witht he same effect. The problem shows up in 3d and S/E -any ideas?

[Anonymous]

Okay, nevermind, i solved the problem by redrawing the walls. The old walls had been built in 8.0, and when I opened the file in 8.1, I guess something happened to the walls? Works fine now, Thanks

[lapishawaii]

Hi John,

Are you using 8.1? I have found these doors to be a nightmare. The doors lose their attributes in model view, whether it's a 3D view of a section/elevation. Most of the doors turn into flat slabs while a few lose even their frames and become a single flat slab in the wall. Most of the time (but not always) the doors will briefly regenerate if I select the dialog box and just click okay. I'm giving up on using ArchiCAD doors, they seem hopelessly bugged at the present time. The doors never print properly in PlotMaker. Theometric Software has a door and window builder that Rex strongly recommends. It can build any type of door, including the much used multiple sliding door that we use so much here in Hawaii.

Good luck,

John Black

[jp]

I am pretty sure the problem arises from the 3d operations tool. I set up a test wall with a door and a window. Everything looked fine, door panel had glass and the window shutters appeared fine. I then created an other object and subtracted it from the original wall. the door panels and window shutters dissapear. If you delete the 3d operator, or undo the 3d operation, the doors and windows go back to the correct display state. I have sent this to graphisoft for resolution. They will be looking at it this week.

[lapishawaii]

Thanks for following through with Graphisoft. For the time being I have stopped using ArchiCAD doors and windows. I was beginning to lose my mind trying to figure out what was going on. I now use Door & WindowBuilder by Theometric. This program has the wonderful ability to construct the door and window combinations that are more common here on the Islands. However, I may have jumped from the frying pan into the fire. This program tends to reset parameters and it does cause program crashes when working in 3D. The other day (when changing a window parameter) it grabbed half of the 3D model, turned it 90°, and stood that portion on end. The walls were in the horizontal plane and the slabs were in the vertical plane. I'm now thinking about having an exorcism performed in the office!

[Djordje]

lapishawaii wrote:
I now use Door & WindowBuilder by Theometric.

///

However, I may have jumped from the frying pan into the fire.

You should contact Theo directly, he is on the forum!

[david nicholson-cole]

lapishawaii wrote:
Are you using 8.1? I have found these doors to be a nightmare. The doors lose their attributes in model view, whether it's a 3D view of a section/elevation. Most of the doors turn into flat slabs while a few lose even their frames and become a single flat slab in the wall. Most of the time (but not always) the doors will briefly regenerate if I select the dialog box and just click okay.

While we have the chance to discuss doors..... I have recently been looking at work by my students of archicAD models. And frankly it brought home to me how bad the range of doors and windows is.
They innocently use the library parts provided (this is not a GDL module), but i am so ashamed at some of the renderings that i do not want to exhibit this work on the web or anywhere. Close up, it it obvious that GS still have not addressed the issue of woodgrain, and while they may have added some Graphical Hotspots as some sort of improvement for 8.x, it is shameful that they still have horizontal woodgrain on the vertical architraves. It is incredibly disappointing to take trouble over a rendering and have some of the primary library parts looking so wrong.
Before you tell me that the students should make a copy of the wood material at 90 degrees, would I be any happier then to see vertical woodgrain on the horizontal frames and architraves?
As someone who has promoted good texture mapping (eg on my flashcookbook site), I cannot understand why this error persists. i wrote a window for the Norwegian market, and knowing how prickly Norwegians are to get their wood looking authentic, i made sure that every fragment of wood, every bead even, has the correct mitring and woodgrain. it isnt difficult, and it doesnt take time to get right.