People & More Library with ArchiCAD 8 and later

Written by László Nagy

Certain Library Objects from the People & More Library behave strangely in ArchiCAD 8. These Objects were developed several years ago and have not been updated and tested with the latest versions.
The main problem with many Objects within the PEOPLE folder of the Library is that their 2D Symbol is a hundred times larger than their 3D Model. If you encounter such an Object there are some simple steps you can do to fix it and be able to use it. Here is how to do it:

1. Open the problematic Object for editing (e.g. the 'Mary_walking' Object - MARYKING.GSM in the CHILDREN subfolder of the PEOPLE folder).
   Note: if you edit it in ArchiCAD 8 and save it, you will not be able to use it with earlier ArchiCAD versions. If you wish to do so, save a copy of the Object before modifying it in ArchiCAD 8.
2. Go to its 2D Script and enter the following 2 lines:
   MUL2 1/100, 1/100
   FRAGMENT2 ALL,1
   
3. Save the Object.

Your Objects 2D and 3D will now be the same size.

In case you are ready for some more, here is another way to enhance these Library Objects by correctly setting their 3D Height hotspots. At the time these Objects were written, Objects were not able to be stretched vertically (ZZYXZ parameter of Objects). Here is how to make it so:

1. Place the Object on the Floor Plan, select it and create a Side View of it with Parallel Projection.
2. Select the Object in 3D. You will see its 3D hotspots are at its bottom and at 1 meter height at default.
3. By trying different ZZYZX values, see how tall the Object is. In most cases it will be the default value of the 'C' parameter (1216 in our case). Leave this setting at this value.
4. Open the Object for editing (this example is about the 'Mary_walking' Object).
5. Select the 'C' additional parameter and delete it.
6. Unhide the ZZYZX parameter by clicking it 'Hidden' status button.
7. Set the value found in step 3. (1216) for the 'ZZYZX' parameter.
8. Go to the 3D Script and change 'C' to 'ZZYZX' in the 3rd line so it will be the following:
   MULZ    ZZYZX/121.604751
9. Save the Object in ArchiCAD 8 format under a new name.

Now the Object will have its 3D Hotspots at the correct heights and will be correctly scaleable in 3D. You may modify with the above steps any of the other People Objects so they work well with ArchiCAD 8.

Page last updated: Saturday, December 19, 2009