December 7, 2020
by Viktor Kovacs

Archicad Extension and Automation Technologies

Archicad has several ways to extend its functionality or automate your workflow, so you have to choose the tool that best fits your needs. This article will summarize the possibilities to make you easier to choose. Add-On API (C++) The Add-On API is the ultimate tool to extend Archicad. You…


November 20, 2020
by Viktor Kovacs
modified at December 9, 2020

Getting started with Archicad Add-Ons

The goal of this tutorial is to show you how to write an Archicad Add-On from scratch. Archicad Add-On Basics The programming language of Archicad Add-Ons is C++, so you have to be familiar with this language to start. Archicad is extensible in several ways: creating new menu commands and…


December 17, 2020
by Viktor Kovacs
modified at January 5, 2021

Archicad Maze Generator Add-On Tutorial – Part 3

In the previous parts of this tutorial series we’ve learned how to create BIM elements, and a very simple dialog. The annoying thing about the dialog is that it keeps using the default data, and doesn’t remember the previous settings. In this part we will solve this issue. The code…


December 14, 2020
by Tibor Lorántfy

Getting started with Archicad-Python Connection

This tutorial shows you how to write a Python script from scratch based on the Archicad Automation API. Archicad Automation API Basics The goal of the Automation API is to support workflow automation. A Python wrapper is provided by Graphisoft, but you can use any programming language to access this…


December 8, 2020
by Viktor Kovacs
modified at December 17, 2020

Archicad Maze Generator Add-On Tutorial – Part 1

This tutorial series will guide you through the process of creating an Archicad Add-On. The goal is to write a fully functional Add-On for Archicad that generates a random maze using real BIM elements. The code for this tutorial is available here. The tutorial is divided into multiple parts: Part…


December 3, 2020
by Viktor Kovacs
modified at December 17, 2020

Archicad Maze Generator Add-On Tutorial – Part 2

In the previous part of this tutorial series we’ve learned how to create BIM elements in Archicad, but we used hard-wired values for settings. In this part we will create a user interface to allow users to define maze generation settings. The code for this tutorial is available here. The…


October 5, 2020
by Viktor Kovacs
modified at November 5, 2020

CMake Template for Archicad Add-Ons

We are happy to announce our latest development to make Archicad Add-On developers’ life easier — a CMake template for C++ Add-On development. With this solution you can easily generate IDE projects for Archicad Add-Ons, so you can work in your favorite environment. CMake supports Visual Studio and XCode projects,…


March 16, 2020
by Tibor Lorántfy
modified at June 23, 2021

How to get MDID for my Add-On?

All add-ons must have a resource named ‘MDID’ with a resource ID of 32500. This resource defines the unique ID of the add-on.The ‘MDID’ is composed from two parts: Developer ID: the ID of the developer, given by GRAPHISOFT after a successfull registration. Local ID: the ID of the add-on,…


November 27, 2019
by Ákos Somorjai
modified at February 2, 2022

Notarizing add-ons for macOS Catalina

When you download anything on macOS from the internet, the download mechanism adds extra info to the downloaded file (called the quarantine flag; you can check for it with ls -lA@ [you_add-on].bundle). This informs the operating the system that the downloaded file may contain malicious code, and so the operating system…


September 11, 2019
by Tibor Lorántfy
modified at June 23, 2021

Browser control in ARCHICAD and JavaScript connection

Since ARCHICAD 23 the Dialog Manager modul was extended with a Browser control. The Browser control uses the Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF). Using this control an embedded browser can be implemented inside ARCHICAD, which can load any site from a given URL. Using JavaScript the loaded site can communicate with…