United States site instead?Tools Promote Marketing and E-commerce of Building Products
San Francisco, CA/Budapest — (May 29, 2000) — In a move to speed the adoption of its
Geometric Description Language (GDL) file format in the building and construction
industry, Graphisoft has delivered four new GDL Object Tools. With this robust set of
plug-ins and applications, building component manufacturers can easily publish and
distribute their entire product libraries electronically, and building designers can access
and use those product representations in their designs.
Compared to other standard CAD formats, GDL is the most convenient format for electronic
product representations. GDL objects are magnitudes smaller in size than their ARX and JPEG
counterparts, and they retain their highly parametric features and intelligence even when
translated into other standard CAD formats.
States Graphisoft U.S. President Tamás Hajas. «GDL is a superior object platform for use with
the Internet. It provides clear benefits to information publishers in content creation,
maintenance time, expanded functionality and 3D experience for the designers. We expect the
industry will take full advantage of the flexibility and compatibility of our parametric objects
with this new series of tools.»
The GDL Object Tools include:
The GDL Object Web Plug-in delivers GDL objects via the Internet. The Plug-in works in
conjunction with an Internet browser to provide access to hundreds of thousands of objects,
which users can view, experiment with and download. The Object Web Plug-in is free and
available from Graphisoft’s web site at www.graphisoft.com/gdl.
GDL Object Explorer is designed to broaden product manufacturers’ offerings of digital
catalogs in the form of GDL libraries and to translate GDL objects for use with other CAD
programs. Using Explorer, CAD users can select products from a manufacturer’s product CD,
modify and download objects directly into an Archicad file or translate them into other CAD
formats including DXF, DWG, DGN and IFC 1.5.1. The Explorer is available under a licensing
agreement to product manufacturers and developers.
GDL Object Adapter is an add-on module that allows AutoCAD 2000 and R14 users to access
unmodified GDL libraries and benefit from the full power of parametric 3D objects. The GDL
Object Adapter is currently undergoing rigorous tests and has been submitted for
AutoDesk’s ARX certification. The Adapter is scheduled for release in the third quarter of
2000.
GDL Object Publisher assists product manufacturers and developers in publishing large-scale
GDL object libraries quickly and easily. With Publisher, GDL objects can be compiled and
maintained by product manufacturers for server-side data publication. The Publisher is
available under a licensing agreement to product manufacturers and developers.
Graphisoft R&D President and CEO Gábor Bojár has been invited to speak about GDL Object
technology at the «Industry Leaders Embrace the Internet Age» Keynote session on
Wednesday, June 7 at A/E/C Systems 2000 in Washington, D.C.
Graphisoft is a leading provider of computer-aided design (CAD) software solutions for the
architectural profession and the building industry. Founded in 1982, Graphisoft is ranked
today among the largest AEC CAD software developers in the world, with 12 offices all over
the world in addition to its headquarters. Graphisoft’s flagship product, Archicad, is used by
more than 75,000 architects worldwide and distributed in 25 languages and 80 countries.
Shares of Graphisoft are traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange Neuer Markt under the
symbol GPH. More information about Graphisoft is available at www.graphisoft.com.