Yes or No answer from You will do...

[Anonymous]

Hi All.... this is a 'is it possibe' and 'what is involved' question from a non-user (but strong believer) of Archi-Cad.

I just need a few 'key terms' to research further for a client that uses ArchiCad.

On a LAN (not WAN), we have a SQL Server 2005 database with a (large) list of "Room Numbers", "Departments" and "Room Template Types" Names as text info in Tables (Views).

To simplify - lets talk about an "external table" list of 'Room Types' with one column only.

-> Is it possible to have a 'Pull Down List' of 'Room Types' for the user to choose within the 'Room Tag' for the Zone or a Room?

When the list of 'Room Tags' and Zones are exported from Archi-Cad, then validation can happen afterward.

Have you heard of this being done?

KonMan.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Yes, this is possible. The drop-down list is a VALUES list in GDL and can be populated dynamically in a custom zone stamp. There is no SQL Server interface, so you would either have to export the table into a text file (CSV or tab-delimited, or XML) that can be read by GDL. With effort ($$), one can use the GDL Dev Kit to create an input/output add-on that could retrieve the SQL data. Haven't heard of anybody actually doing that though.

Karl

[Ignacio Azpiazu]

Depending on how large your office is and how many people could potentially profit from using the system, how large and complex your database is and how integrated you want it to be with your planning/design CAD files, and how large your buildings are or how repetitive and systematic is what you do even if the buildings are not that large, it might make sense to take a look at Kimon Onuma's web-based planning system http://www.onuma.com/products/ -- the 'Accounts' approach is very reasonably priced, and can be extremely powerful and useful depending on the conditions above. The whole thing works with Revit too, so this is not an ArchiCAD-only thing.

[Anonymous]

Karl - Thanks for the reply.
Does the list have to be specifically imported into the Archicad model/file or can Archicad 'point' to the CSV file?

Items will be added to the list - If I can just place the CSV file in a pre-determined network location, can Archicad read this list when it is needed/loaded?

Ignacio - an interesting aproach and product - I will read more into it...

Regads,
Konrads.

[Anonymous]

Or a standalone programming possibility http://www.trelligence.com/affinity_archicad.php

Although they started with ArchiCAD recently they seem to be focusing their efforts on the dark side