strawbale23 wrote:
GDL just cant do that free form stuff, its the big downside to using it as a 3D modeling platform far as I can see
At what point will GS make the jump to a more powerful user friendly way of creating BIM models? As long as they are chained to GDL the future of AC is a limited one.
Is GDL really this limited or is it just the way it has been implemented by GS??
Now that I've used the shell tool quite a bit, I'll offer some thoughts and opinions as well as on the discussion at hand.
While it is a great step forward for GS in AC, I have to agree with other assessments that in its current form it s limited and a not what I would call a complete freeform tool. The lack of Lofting capability, sweeping on single rails or bi-rails as well as the inability to create surfaces from boundary curves or lines stand out most glaringly for me. And the extrusions and rules that it has right now are limited to what you can do within simple curves and straight lines as paths and sometimes even profiles - which in essence doesn't make them true Extrusion and Rule capability.
In terms of workflow, I have to say I found it a bit awkward and unintuitive using the shell tool.
A big part of the problem is the fact that you have to keep switching between 2D and 3D windows - due to the inability of the 3D window to display 2D linework at all, as well as the inability of the 2D windows to correctly display the created 3D forms (and don't even get me started on the faceted curves instead of smooth curves and surfaces).
I had similar problems when they introduced the Curtain wall tool which in theory was a great concept, but in practice and the way GS implemented it, was and still is, in many ways, a nightmare to use given just how complicated they make it to do the simplest things with it. There's also the fact that you can't design or work on your curtain wall in elevation profile or in the elevation window (i.e in 2D) which is how you actually would design a curtain wall or a building facade - unless you use that restrictive grid in the Curtain wall settings dialog. And if you have to use non-rectilinear custom panels with an elaborate organization or design, then forget about it.
I realize that a lot of this has to do with the difficulty of trying to introduce a new tool like this (or the Curtain Wall Tool) into ArchiCAD which already has problems insofar that 2D Window/3D window separation is concerned (And you can clearly see why they were compelled to introduce reference planes and guidelines in the 3D window as a result, in this version) as well as the inherent limitations of the (dare I say it: antiquated) GDL engine and 3D kernel.
Which brings me back to the point of discussion.
I think GDL is limited regarding how much you can do with it, but I also think a large part of the problem might have to do with how GS has not only implemented it but how it generally implements new tools to work with it.
Rumour has it that GS has no plans of updating ArchiCAD's 3D engine or kernel (and by extension GDL) anytime soon since it's deemed as too prohibitive a task in terms of the cost to them.
That's a fair point, but then you have to realize that at some point you'll begin running into brick walls when you try to over-extend an already aging or badly aging and severely limited engine and 3D kernel by trying to make it do things it was never meant to do nor originally developed to do.........20 years ago.
Unfortunately for GS they are now trying to introduce these new tools so late in the game after other software developers (Rhino3D, C4D, Max, Maya, even AutoCAD) as well as their competitors have already had them for the longest time now and have already found the most intuitive ways of making them work in their software and to allow their users to work with them without getting migraines. Even Vectorworks has more intuitive and easy to use NURBS tools and functions than ArchiCAD has in its Shell tool.
But then again, who knows? Maybe we're only just seeing half of the Shell tool in its current form, and like some of their recent other "new features" in previous versions, they'll complete it in the next version of ArchiCAD with more functionality and flexibility.
But as for right now, I get the impression that I'll be better served by still sticking the to software I'm already accustomed to using at the moment for creating free-form shapes with (Rhino3D and Maya in my case) and leave the struggles and battles to trying to integrate or import those forms back into ArchiCAD or maybe fine some other way of getting the 2D linework back into the documents.
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