Upgrade to version 17 finally processed

I've spent much of the last few weeks desperately trying to get my Wibu key updated, and it finally got done last evening. It's a long and tortured story that began about fourteen months ago but, as I said in my previous post, India finally has a distributor for ArchiCAD and I was probably the first one in line. Now, I can finally concentrate on my actual work again.

Oh, and coincidentally, the latest hotfix for ArchiCAD 17 was also released yesterday. This release, as Jared Banks says in his blog, is unusual in that it actually adds a new functionality.

ArchiCAD India gets its 200th member

This is just a quick post to say that the ArchiCAD India User Group reached 200 members today. Now that we finally have an authorised distributor for our country after a long gap, I hope this will lead to faster growth and some real interaction between users here.

Bamboo chik object - work in progress

The blinds can be translucent

I've been meaning to make this object for quite some time. Today, because I needed it so badly for the ShKo project in Karjat, I finally put my head down and did it. Didn't take much time but it still needs some bug-squashing.

Should I make an .lcf a rather than just single object because the bamboo chik material with its alpha transparency is not part of ArchiCAD's default library.  Tell me in the comments -- and if there are no comments, I'll assume nobody wants the object.

For future reference (and in case it helps someone else) here's the formula for determining the radius of the rolled up portion of the chiks:

I added a looseness factor to this formula, though, because such blinds are never very tightly rolled.

First Steps in GDL

Djordje's post on a Facebook ArchiCAD group reminded me of these old gems. If any of you wants to create your own GDL objects but doesn't know where to begin, these books by David Nicholson-Cole will explain the basic concepts in ordinary language and teach you how to make your first objects.

Introduction to Object Making - [approx. 4.5MB]
http://tinyurl.com/oswp3jd (direct download)

The GDL Cookbook - v.3  [approx. 26MB]
http://tinyurl.com/pkwul2e

The GDL Cookbook - v.4 [approx. 17MB]
http://tinyurl.com/q8rjvp8

Note that the fourth cookbook covers some different stuff from the third, so don't skip the latter.

A new way to search for help in ArchiCAD

Search Results from the
ArchiCAD Help Centre

Almost a year has passed since I last wrote on this blog which is shameful.

I've been posting regularly to the ArchiCAD India Group on Facebook which has slowly grown to just over 150 members, but I really should post my likes and rants here as well.

Version 17 has been launched and, with it, a revamped website from Graphisoft.  One of the interesting things is the new Help Centre that searches not just official GS websites but, much like the search box on this site, others on the web as well. What I absolutely love about it is the way the results are displayed. See the screenshot on the left to get an idea.

I don't know for certain which sites "on the web" the search covers so if it fails to provide me an answer, I find myself falling back to my now-primitive-looking-but-still-effective solution.  I don't know if GS got the idea for such a search from here but I'd certainly like to think so!