Moonlight wrote: ↑Tue Feb 11, 2020 12:49 pm
@BRICKLYNE CLARENCE
I see that I wasn't clear in my previous explanations.
.........
2. About Graphical GDL & "reinventing the wheel":
2.01. Many of you may not know that GDL is capped in what is refereed to bi-directional communication data exchange (i.e: the data that is sent/received between library parts and the program is limited), when right now, our practices are in the verge to conversion to adopt IT technologies and data, which is something that is somehow is already/almost solve/WIP solved with Grasshopper... so creating a Graphical GDL will not solve the problem of increasing ArchiCAD's user base........
As an old ArchiCAD user, I have found out that Graphisoft is not that type of company that will do what ever that is asked for to do, but will give you the answer you need, but lately I'm starting to have my doubts
Actually, I think that you also might have misunderstood a little bit why people are requesting such functionality (a graphical user-interface for custom GDL object creation) in ArchiCAD.
It's not necessarily for the purpose of (directly or expressly increasing the user base or number of users that would like to adopt the program.
Certainly not directly in that way.
But when you do this, you make the lives of the people who DO use the program easier, and in turn make them happier with the product they have purchased and justified in the money they have spent in doing so.
And they in turn actually DO play the part in helping increase your user base - indirectly - by either speaking well about it (and indeed about Graphisoft as a responsive company), and recommending it to their colleagues.
There's less of that that happens nowadays than use to happen when I began using this program years ago and most people I know now who know how to use the program only know it either because they were introduced to it in school as a free learning tool (and therefore had little to no choice but to learn it) or because it was what was being used in one of the first jobs they had (and therefore they had little to no choice but to learn it). Not because they heard great things about it from colleagues they respected and decided to try it out for themselves. At least not as much.
Furthermore, a lot of people often complain (justifiably so) about the dearth and scarcity of good third party supplier products and library parts from manufacturers they use in the projects, that are available to download or obtain online (as opposed to Revit library objects or the plethora of stuff on the (formerly) Google Warehouse).
If I'm a third party manufacturer and supplier who would like Architects and designers to use and spec my products in their projects, do you really think I'm going to invest the time to get a person to learn how to code in GDL to create my user library with smart intelligent and well-coded objects for the availability for Architects using ArchiCAD to download (when it is already hard enough for the architects themselves in the industry to find those same individuals to hire them in their firms - let alone learn coding GDL themselves)? Especially compared to how much easier it is for them to find a basic Revit user to create basic Revit family library objects where the learning curve for that (for the average Revit user) is far less steep than learning GDL scripting is for the average ArchiCAD users.
So it's no wonder why it's so much easier to find Revit library objects for products online than ArchiCAD objects.
Even more so for Sketchup objects.
And both of which are lousy when converted to ArchiCAD through the various translators.
And I always return to what seems like the failure to launch of Graphisoft's own BIMComponents online repository idea modeled after Google/ (now) Trimble's Warehouse idea.
Classice Cart before the Horse strategy thinking on Graphisoft's part there, in that they created the Warehouse for people to find the objects before they improved the means by which people can create the objects that they can then put in said Warehouse to share with other users and have that online repository (and save themselves long-term from having to create new (smart) library objects when some of that overhead can by carried over by users themselves. I mean, some of this long-term thinking just speaks for itself).
As it is, a large section of BIMComponent objects now just come with the descriptor "Imported as .SKP object" which basically means its versatility and usability in the ArchiCAD environment wlil be severely limited beyond just being a cosmetic placeholder.
And I don't think this was what Graphisoft had in mind when they created that online repository.
But that's what happens when you approach these things in such a backwards (or as we say here in North America,.....in such an 'A$s backwards' ) way.
So improving the ability of users to create smart GDL library custom objects (with a graphical interface) isn't directly going to increase their user-base.
But indirectly, it will help increase awareness outside of teh direct user base thanks to happy users, as already mentioned (While simultaneously, hopefully preventing others from leaving the program out of frustration and feeling their needs are not being met and that they're not being heard - which also indirectly ties back to how people speak about the program to non-users).
And that can't possibly be a bad thing, can it?