GH Tekla Live Link for TS 2024

Hello, There is no Live link yet for TS 2024 on the Warehouse available. Is there a timeline on the release of the new version 1.16 for TS 2024? Or are there any test versions available?

Hi Reint,

Just put up a 2024 test version here today:

Edit: final version in Tekla Warehouse:

Tekla 2024 has abandoned the GAC, so the .gha needs to go into the Tekla bin folder instead. There is a Setup.exe in the package that attempts to automatically move files to the right locations and clean old versions.

Cheers,

Sebastian

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Thanks, Sebastian,

Are there new features that have been added to 2024 Live Link?

BR,

Adi

Hi Adi,

There should be release notes for 1.16 in the zip package that covers fixes and enhancements. Copying info about new components here.

New components
--------------

* New component "Bounding Box" that returns the bounding box of a Tekla object.
    - If the Plane input is left empty, the object's coordinate system will be used.

* New component "Get Object by GUID" that can be used to reference Tekla objects based on their GUIDS.

* New component "Set Phase" that can set the phase of any Model Object
    - Missing phases will get created. Existing phases will be updated with new names, if provided.

* New component "Phase Catalog" that can be used to select from available phases.
    - The output is the phase number.

* New component "Color Display" that can be used to add a temporary color to model objects.
    - Colors can be cleared by updating or redrawing the Tekla view.

* New component "Mesh Display" that draws a temporary mesh (mesh, surface, brep) in the Tekla view.
    - These can be cleared by updating or redrawing the Tekla view, or by deleting the component.
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Hello Sebastian,

I would like to know if there is an approximate official release date for the 2024 version of this plug-in.

Currently considering if it is better to start with Tekla 2023 or Tekla 2024 on a new project. And this plugin is quite important for the work process.

Thank you in advance.

Best regards, Mikhail

Hi Mikhail,

The 2024 version posted above is working and stable as such, and the official release will be asap. It’s just the setup process we’re still fine-tuning so I see no harm in using it already.

As mentioned, for 2024 the .gha must be placed in the TS bin folder rather than in the GH Libraries folder, and then a redirect .ghlink file must be created in the Libraries folder. While this can be done manually, there’s also a GrasshopperTeklaLink.Setup.exe included in the above package that takes care of it.

So installation instructions for the 1.16 link above are basically

  1. Close down Rhino and Grasshopper

  2. Extract GrasshopperTeklaLink.gha and GrasshopperTeklaLink.Setup.exe from the zip package into any location on the disk.

  3. Run GrasshopperTeklaLink.Setup.exe and allow admin rights if asked for.
    This will unblock the .gha and replace any old link version.

Please report about any issues during the setup!

Cheers,

-b

The GrasshopperTeklaLink.Setup.exe is working fine on my system with the alternative C:\TeklaStructures install location.

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Great, thanks for confirming!

-b

Hello again Sebastian.

I would like to know if there is any Grasshopper-Tekla oriented training ?

Thank you in advance.

Best regards,
Mikhail

Hi Mikhail, not from Trimble’s side but I’d recommending checking out https://learngrasshopper.com/. There’s an upcoming first edition of the Grasshopper-Tekla training now in May, but additionally there’s a bunch of free resources on the site. YouTube in general seems to have a fair amount of videos on the topic as well.

Cheers,

-b

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The final version of the 1.16 Live Link which supports Tekla 2024 has been released on Tekla Warehouse:

A good complement is the Grasshopper Component 1.4 with support for Rhino 8:

-b

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Hi Sebastian. I have an issue with Rhino 8. Since we set it up tu use Dot Net framework, other newer plugins that use the latest Dot Net core do not work alongside with Tekla Live link. Do you have any plans to upgrade the link to core? Or do you know any workaround?

Hi Mario,

Tekla Structures is built using .NET Framework and it seems to go deep, so there there’s no way that I know of to make the link work if it using .NET Core.

I did some testing anyway. Starting Tekla 2024, the API is compatible with .NET Standard. Thus I figured if we convert the link to .NET Standard there’s a chance it might work from Rhino using .NET Core. However all I get is exceptions caused by the API not being able to connect to the Tekla model.

I think switching to .NET Standard/Core also would mean we can’t use any of the current winform dialogs, catalogs or message boxes so there’s a fair bit of rework to be done. Which would be fine, but now it seems it wouldn’t work anyway.

Do these newer plugins need to use .NET Core? Rhino recommends keeping plugins targeted at .NET 4.8 so that they can run in either runtime, but there might be downsides to that.

Cheers,

-b

1 Like

Thanks Sebastian for your explanation,
I completely understand why it is not an easy task to move to core.

I am new to Rhino and Grasshopper. I started with Rhino 8 straight away. My intention was to Run Tekla live link and Dlubal RFEM plugin simultaneously. It was working all fine. Initially the Dlubal plugin was installed through an executable file. But then, they released a new version through the package manager that I could not install. We discovered the issue was that setting in Rhino 8 to work with Dot NET Framework. So when I switched back to Core, I was able to install RFEM plugin. However, as you know Tekla link would not show up in Grasshopper. If I switch back to Framework obviously the link works but Dlubal tab does not.

My workaround in Rhino 8 was to rollback Dlubal plugin to the earlier version. However I recently wanted to install Lunchbox plugin, but I encounter the same issue. I worked out that an earlier version of lunchbox also works with framework, but it keeps updating by itself even if I uncheck the option of Auto-Update.

Fortunately, I also discovered that my Rhino 8 licence allows me to install Rhino 7 and it looks like all plugins can co-exist with no problems. So I will work with Rhino 7 for now.

When talking to Dlubal support, they confirmed they moved everything to Core. I also noticed Rhino 8 works faster with core.

I hope this information helps someone else. And thanks again Sebastian for your awesome work with Tekla live link.

2 Likes

Good that you found a working solution, thanks for sharing your experiences so far! I imagine Tekla Structures will move to .NET Core in due time as well, but until then we might be stuck in this middle ground. Will be on the lookout for other workarounds though.

Cheers,

-b

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Hi Sebastian,
i have an issue with the installation of tekla live link 2024.
I have this version of tekla:

Versione: 2024 Service Pack 3 (Build 37355)
Data: 2024-06-03 14:58:21Z
Configurazione: Precast Concrete Detailing
Tipo di licenza: Domestic

And this verison of rhino:
image

I’ve just unpackege the .rar and execute the .exe as an admin.

I see the .gha in the correct bin folder, and the link in the component folder .
When opennign grasshoper it seams works, but the connection between grasshoper and tekla is not working:

How can i solve it?
Any idea?

I add an info, the tekla live link is working with Tekla 2022 but not in Tekla 2024, so could the issue be in tekla?

I solved, i had also installed the component “GrasshopperTeklaDrawingLink_2022.gha” , devloped by olszewski-grzegorz , to automate draiwng creation, this create some issue.
I removed that from the GH component folder, and replaced with “GrasshopperTeklaDrawingLink_2024.gha”.
now it works perfectly.

3 Likes

Good to hear it’s running again! Didn’t know that different drawing and model link versions can cause issues so that’s good info.

1 Like