Modeling
About Archicad's design tools, element connections, modeling concepts, etc.

Saving a custom surface to a file

kittonian
Beginner
I am wondering if there is a way to save a surface I've created to a file, much as you can do with with an object. I do not wish to upload it and share it on the BIM Components portal, just have it for our own company's internal usage.

I have been Googling and reading everything I can find but so far have come up empty. Is this possible? I have seen surface libraries that you can purchase or download so I assume it must be. What am I missing?
ArchiCAD 25 | Cinema 4D R23
12-Core Mac Pro (2 x 3.46 6-Core Xeon, 64GB DDR3)
OS X 11.2.3
AMD Sapphire Pulse Radeon 5700 XT (8gb)
3 REPLIES 3
Barry Kelly
Moderator
It is possible to save a surface as an object without going through BIM Components (in version 19 at least).
The problem is I can't remember how you activate this button as it is not standard (see image below).
Maybe someone else can tell us how to activate it.

In the mean time you can use your Attribute Manager to transfer surfaces from one file to another or you can save them as AAT files that you can use in any other file.

Barry.
save_as_GSM.jpg
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
kittonian
Beginner
Thanks Barry. Pointing me in the right direction allowed me to find a great page

https://www.bim6x.com/blog/new-archicad-19-work-environment-commands-0

and from there I went into my work environment, edited my menu and added in the "enable saving surfaces as gsm" command.

Thanks so much!!!
ArchiCAD 25 | Cinema 4D R23
12-Core Mac Pro (2 x 3.46 6-Core Xeon, 64GB DDR3)
OS X 11.2.3
AMD Sapphire Pulse Radeon 5700 XT (8gb)
Barry Kelly
Moderator
That will do it.
I still can't find the instructions I was given - probably just in a post on this or another forum.
But that is a good blog you have linked to.

I thought it might just have been a 19 feature but it is available in 18 as well.

Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11