Wishes
Post your wishes about Graphisoft products: Archicad, BIMx, BIMcloud, and DDScad.

Better Dev documentation and tutorials

Darwuhr
Enthusiast

Hi there,

I would like to start developing add ons for in-firm use, but for someone that is not in the software development industry it's pretty difficult to learn the Archicad API. I have already started making GDL objects for my personal use, but would like to improve and make add ons to help my workflow and add functionality to the software. Because of that I wish that Graphisoft improves the documentation and examples of the API adding better explanations and more tutorials.

My wish is based on the fact that I believe there are a lot of people in the AEC industry with good ideas but, as they are not in the software dev industry, lack the knowledge to implement the API.

6 REPLIES 6
Darwuhr
Enthusiast

After the release of Archicad 26 I have gotten to the conclusion that a lot of features I would like to be implemented in the software are not on the GS road map, nor are wanted by the user community.

I therefore wish even more for better API documentation and examples in order for us simple users to be able to create the tools we need. Maybe even enlarge the API accessibility to Archicad functions.

Not all users want the same things, need the same things, neither can Graphisoft implement all of the requests. Then let us do it ourselves, for me as a singular user, for us as a community and for you Graphisoft. 

 

Please, fellow AC users, join this thread and show how much we love this software and want to help improve it. I ask the admins to join the discussion too.

I share your view @Darwuhr however exciting coding in Python / GDL for Archicad can be, if!! you can get it right, it's HARD to learn a new "language" / mindset like this. Especially doing all that (with no guarantee of success) while maintaining our real daily work. R&D like this takes a LOT of time. Most users won't even try because of how abstract coding is for us or it's simply not viable to do so.

 

In such cases, the best option is to team up with clever people (developers, talented coders) that can do the coding part for us and we can still get what we aim for. At least that could be a start and we learn some coding skills along the way. This would definitely make our journey easier.

 

Regards
Francois Swanepoel
Everything happens in Archicad since v6.5 (2000) ‌
Hiking, Motorbiking, Good food, Gr8! Beer & excellent conversation 😉
#MadeByDyslexia is my unfair advantage – expect curious ideas, creative big thinking & small typos.
<> www.fusionBIM.co.za <> www.Scirrus.co <> www.BIM2fusedVR.com <> (new) Anatomy of Archicad Course

Balancing everyday work and learning how to code can be pretty cumbersome. But, I personally see this as something I would like to do. Since my Uni days where I have learnt the basics of coding, I have always wanted to do more but never got the chance or a project that would keep me going. Now that I have foud Archicad, I think I could join those passions.

Getting a team of developers is not what I am aiming for, this can be done now too. I am talking about simplifying or explain better the API with more learning materials and tutorials for us commong users. I have met a lot of people in the industry, both engineers, as myself, and architects that can code and even use it for their work, so there is a lot of potential additional functionality for Archicad with this user base if this wish is accepted. And I want to emphasize, the users that make the addon will take advantage, the common user that will have more options and added functionality will take advantage (even open source projects could be started!) and Graphisoft will take advantage by letting others add what they have not the time for.

If the GS developers can't accomodate all the wishes, user involvement is crucial if we want a complete software for all AEC disciplines.

Absolutely @Darwuhr we are sharing the goal to do more via APIs & coding for Archicad and we also share the same struggle with the learning. I fully support your wish. Simplified learning for general user levels will definitely help to bridge the gap for those starting out. I like your idea about starting open source projects. This could be a good way to share & receive knowledge.

Regards
Francois Swanepoel
Everything happens in Archicad since v6.5 (2000) ‌
Hiking, Motorbiking, Good food, Gr8! Beer & excellent conversation 😉
#MadeByDyslexia is my unfair advantage – expect curious ideas, creative big thinking & small typos.
<> www.fusionBIM.co.za <> www.Scirrus.co <> www.BIM2fusedVR.com <> (new) Anatomy of Archicad Course
scottjm
Expert

The API documentation is abysmal and unstructured and the GDL reference guide is not much better.  Once you work out allot of the shorthand they use (eg j1 + 2*j2) it starts to make more sense, but starting off it’s completely bewildering. 

I have tried multiple times to attempt the Maze API tutorial but get stuck very quickly  with the confusing instructions, and I am fairly competent at coding concepts. 

A solid collection of examples with source code and code snippets that could be built off would go a long way. 

Scott J. Moore | Fulton Trotter Architects | BIM Manager, Associate, Architect
Since AC13 | Current versions AC23.7000 & AC26.5002 | BIMCloud Basic | Python, GDL, VBA, PHP, SQL, CSS
Certified Graphisoft BIM Manger (2022)
Win 10, i9-9900K, 32GB, Quadro P2200, 500GB NVMe

@scottjm wrote:

The API documentation is abysmal and unstructured and the GDL reference guide is not much better. 


This is true. One of the problems with the API is the lack of explanations. Even if you have some solid knowledge of coding, the task of understanding how they structured the API is overwhelming, especially beacuse they use lost of define statements and structs. We need a better starting point for first-time developers that want to contribute even with the smallest of addons.