David Nicholson-Cole Returns to North America

David Nicholson-Cole is the wizard, sans-pareil, of the GDL world. No one has done more to raise awareness of what is possible with ArchiCAD Object Making Technology, nor has anyone bested his definitive tutorial on the subject - The GDL Cookbook.

I hosted one of David's 2-Day tutorials in 1982 and came away from the event a changed person. What had seemed so impenetrable and daunting started to make sense after the first day and by the end of the course I was convinced that even I - the student banned from the McGill computer labs for being 'most likely to cause an infinite loop on the mainframe' - could do this.

Commitments elsewhere have made it difficult for David to travel in recent years, so it is with great pleasure that we announce a two-day DNC Workshop will be held in Costa Mesa, April 12 & 13.

There is no better way to acquire the skills to make objects of any kind - parametric, well scripted and well-behaved. Functional and beautiful, even.

• Day 1 'Bring GDL to Life'
• Day 2 'Make the Objects You Want'

WHEN: April 12 & 13, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

WHERE: Digital Vision Office & Training Center, Costa Mesa, CA

COST: $295USD per person, one day, $495USD per person for both days.
Additional people from the same firm: $250USD for one day; $400USD for two days, per person



Contact Caitlin Leal at Digital Vision to sign up. More information is available here.

New GDL Object Information Portal

Congratulations to the Architekturbuero and Joachim Suehlo for the creation of a well organized and readable information portal for all things GDL.

Welcome gotoGDL.net

GDL (Geometric Description Language) is the core of intelligent parametric objects inside ArchiCAD - ArchiCAD speak for what Revit refers to as 'Families".

This site is well-categorized, written in English and will point you to free objects, object vendors, object makers, tutorials for making your own, building products and manufacturer sites that provide native ArchiCAD models, etc.

Other GDL links can be found along the right hand side of this page.

ArchiCAD Resources - CADD Magic

Tom Waltz has been an enthusiastic contributor to ArchiCAD-Talk (have you joined yet?), a faithful beta tester, an ArchiCAD manager and integrator for an architectural practise in Philadelphia.

Tom recently launched CADD Magic and has several interesting products on offer. These include GDL objects for the real world, and chapter based training modules delivered as PDFs and video.

Have a look at SuperZone to see what I mean about his real world resourcefulness. The Zone Tool is by far the most powerful reporting tool in the ArchiCAD toolset. Tom takes an existing intelligent label and extends its functionality in a number of ways. Residential designers and large scale firms will find something useful in this tool. $20USD and available online.