PARAM-O

[Gordana Radonic]

Hello everyone,

Have you started using PARAM-O? What are your impressions, experiences so far? Any examples to share?

I am curious to hear what do you think about it.

Kind regards,
Gordana

[Karl Ottenstein]

Mjules wrote:
Is this a free wall, karl?

I don't know what you mean? It is a free download - download it and play with it 🙂

[Martin Jules]

Karl wrote:

Mjules wrote:
Is this a free wall, karl?

I don't know what you mean? It is a free download - download it and play with it 🙂

Sorry, Karl! I should have said free-form wall.

[David Shorter]

I would guess that its an object (which really defeats the object of the exercise) sorry about the pun.
Also before we go back to feet and inches a level of accuracy better than 10mm is needed.

[Anonymous]

Karl wrote:

Not yet. I hope it is at the top of their priority list. The argument is that GDL and the internals of ARCHICAD are all metric, however the fact that we can actually enter feet and inches (FFI) while coding GDL itself makes that kind of irrelevant. Seems to me that PARAM-O should honor the working units and allow entry in whatever the current working units are.

I hope so too. What is the expected workflow for US users? Convert metric for use in PARAM-O or Grasshopper, ArchiCAD, Rhino connection? I have only spent a few minutes on PARAM-O but I already know it will be easier to integrate into our workflow because the script components use the same terminology as archiCAD. I know you can do anything in the world with grasshopper but to me, that's kinda what makes it so hard to learn, imo

[Steve Jepson]

Karl wrote:

LowFalutin wrote:
It seems like my model units in param-o are in SI / Metric units. Is there a way to use param-o in feet and inches?

Not yet. I hope it is at the top of their priority list. The argument is that GDL and the internals of ARCHICAD are all metric, however the fact that we can actually enter feet and inches (FFI) while coding GDL itself makes that kind of irrelevant. Seems to me that PARAM-O should honor the working units and allow entry in whatever the current working units are.

Yes. And it would not hurt to have more units of measure available as Calculation Units in the program without having to use any expressions/coding.

[Steve Jepson]

Gordana wrote:
Hello everyone,

Have you started using PARAM-O? What are your impressions, experiences so far? Any examples to share?

I am curious to hear what do you think about it.

Kind regards,
Gordana

My first observation about PARAM-O is that unless I can import geometry into the PARAM-O modeler, I am not so enthused with it as I would be if it could do that. I assume plans are underway to make that possible ?

[Podolsky]

My opinion that PARAM-O is quite limited in term of modelling capabilities. PARAM-O is generating GDL script, that later ArchiCAD is reading.
Knowing GDL well - it's possible to achieve much faster better results. But only if you know GDL well.

But it's good tool to start learning GDL.

[runxel]

Podolsky wrote:
My opinion that PARAM-O is quite limited in term of modelling capabilities. PARAM-O is generating GDL script, that later ArchiCAD is reading.
Knowing GDL well - it's possible to achieve much faster better results. But only if you know GDL well.

But it's good tool to start learning GDL.

But the code Param-O generates, feels a lot like the code we got out of those 2000-ish visual website generators, since it is littered with XFORMs and what not. Hard to comprehend, so not the easiest thing to learn GDL with.

[Podolsky]

I might say this way:
For me GDL is just great tool. I was able to extend standard ArchiCAD possibilities with just GDL code. I can agree that there are some limitations, that would be nice to extend, but still so many great things is possible to do with GDL. I can write the code much faster and better than using PARAM-O.
But.
There was a lot of critics about GDL programming - like it's hard etc. Especially when Revit appeared with families. So, PARAM-O it's a compromise for them, who afraid pure coding and remains Dynamo or Grasshopper. A little bit commercial move...

If PARAM-O would extend standard GDL possibilities - I might say - yes, this is really really needed. But unfortunately not. With PARAM-O impossible to do many things, that gives pure GDL coding. At least if PARAM-O would have feature when user can "draw" shapes in 3D like in any 3D modeller (like it was in Visual GDL or ZoomGDL). Maybe this feature will appear in upcoming versions.

[Steve Jepson]

Steve wrote:

Gordana wrote:
Hello everyone,

Have you started using PARAM-O? What are your impressions, experiences so far? Any examples to share?

I am curious to hear what do you think about it.

Kind regards,
Gordana

My first observation about PARAM-O is that unless I can import geometry into the PARAM-O modeler, I am not so enthused with it as I would be if it could do that. I assume plans are underway to make that possible?

To answer my own question - we already can get other geometry/models into PARAM-O -- so long as it is converted into an ArchiCAD object first. No problem. We already have good tools for doing that.