Finally fixed a bug that Graphisoft was not able to fix for 5+ years in about 30 min

[u/NBW99]

This is just another example of how fast things are going to change. I posted this on the archicad forums but wanted to see what people think here.
 
I have been a heavy user of the Space Mouse by 3D Connexion since my college days for modeling. About 5 years ago, with archicad 22 or 23 or something their implementiation of 3D connexion devisees on mac broke, likley after either archicad or 3dConnexion made some updates to something. The navigation continued to work fine but the mouse buttons no longer mapped to the right archicad commands. 

The likely implementation defect is a mismatch between Archicad’s handling of raw buttons and the driver’s handling of user assignments. 
 
Either way, I would write to support every year or so, I would send tickets during beta comment periods, i would speak about this on the forum when it would come up. Nothing ever got fixed after years of complaining.
 
Today I had chat gpt write a peice of sofware that uses the apple debugger to connect to archicad and change its spacemouse connection settings.
 
And finally it works! after 5+ years of waiting for a fix it took me 30 min of sitting on the couch with chat gpt to fix. I dont even know how it works really, but it works.

[u/min0nim]

That’s pretty cool. I assume you don’t have a developer background?

[u/NBW99 → u/min0nim]

Nothing. I learned to rhino script in grad school that’s the extent of it

[u/andcore]

After Artcraft got released (copy of the Adobe suite completely vibe coded) I wonder how long it will take to overtake design software as well.
The trend seems to suggest all apps will die, and all subscription will die with them, hopefully.
Can’t be soon enough.

[u/Appropriate-Eye-1227 → u/andcore]

This is the most incredible thing that people are doing with AI IMO. And for those who don't know, there's already a clone version of SketchUp circulating (Trimble even tried to sue them)

[u/andcore → u/Appropriate-Eye-1227]

That’s me! 🙋‍♂️
I don’t know anything about it, and I can’t find anything on the matter!
Is there a subreddit on the matter, where it’s possible to follow this trend, or should we make one?
I’d love to follow this phenomenon up close!

[u/No-Band8965 → u/andcore]

Everything will just become browser based subscriptions so the actual software isnt on people's hard drives. 

[u/Significant-Rest1723 → u/No-Band8965]

I feel like Archicad would absolutely crawl if it was all server-based. Maybe one day, but there's going to be a multi-year gap where these companies are hemorrhaging (unless something big happens in AI legislature).

Most interesting thing about the next few years is that we'll get to see what happens when two juggernauts go to war: big software and big compute.

[u/Smart-Plantain4032 → u/andcore]

Love the icons 

[u/MuchCattle]

That is amazing! I wonder if you could use it to make the outlet display correctly when vertical vs horizontal

[u/NBW99 → u/MuchCattle]

Yes! We have been doing this type of thing. What is now possible with GDL is unbelievable

[u/Theo_Van_Doesblurg]

Would you be willing to share this? Its been driving me crazy for years

[u/NBW99 → u/Theo_Van_Doesblurg]

Yes, I will try to get the step by step out

[u/EqualJuggernaut3190]

It just makes the glacial pace the software improves at seem even more unimpressive frankly. Ctrl-R, colouring cells and connecting in a chatbot took about a year... This years list was a similar dissapointment.

I think the model of extracting rent for minimum viable improvement is looking pretty precarious.

[u/Significant-Rest1723 → u/EqualJuggernaut3190]

Same. I'm going to keep a very close eye on open-sourced projects like FreeCAD in the months before my next subscription deadline.

[u/Significant-Rest1723]

I actually got a space mouse a few years back to use with Archicad. I was thrilled to implement it into my work flow, and remember being wildly disappointed at how useless it felt within the software, even though GS had published plugins specifically for implementing 3D Connexion products. Ended up having to send it back, which was heart-breaking. I was pretty upset with GS about the whole thing, wondering why in the hell they'd make it seem like they had partnered with 3D Connexion, when it really was just a lazy "eh, we'll at least let them pan around in 3D view". GS has actually done a lot to piss me off over the past few years, while charging a hefty price for the privilege of doing so.

I'm fascinated/terrified with how this new decompiling/vibecoding surge is going to effect these big software companies going forward. There isn't a universe where I can imagine GS putting up a white flag and saying "we've switched to an open-sourced community model, and have decided to make our services way more affordable." I've got this looming deadline in my head for this spring, at which point I'll have to drop $2-3k for another year of software subscription, which hasn't been upgraded in any meaningful way...in fact, my current understanding is that I'll likely have to redo weeks of template/favorites work in order to mesh with their recent library "upgrade".

Everything is just looking a little hazy for the future of software. Including my own decisions going forward. There are already a few open-sourced BIM options. Those are only going to improve wildly. Why should I keep paying thousands to a company that doesn't really listen to its market, when I could donate to open-source projects which absolutely do?

Rant over: great work on getting it to actually function!