How to protect your library?

[Daniel Virtic]

Is there a way to protect your library, if you share it on a BimServer?

[vistasp mehta]

Hi Daniel. Not sure I’ve understood the question.

Do you want to protect your code from being visible? You can password protect your objects. <link>

If, on the other hand, you want to prevent people from overwriting your objects by mistake, you may want to compile them into a Library Container File (LCF). <link>

= v i s t a s p =
bT Square Peg

https://archicadstuff.blogspot.com
https://www.btsquarepeg.com
| 18 INT | Win7 x64 |

[Daniel Virtic]

Hi vistasp,

Thank you for your reply[on both sites]. What I am trying to do actually is to share my custom library on a Bim Server with 2-3 companies. I want to make sure that any user can use my library but it cannot be duplicated.

As long they are working with me, I agree with them to use my custom library. I’ll load it on the Bim Server, but if we don’t work together, they will not have access on my library.

Make sense?

Thank you

[vistasp mehta]

Ok, now I understand. My experience with BIM server is very limited but I do not think you can keep control of your library once you have shared it. In fact, if you look at this page <link> you will see that a user can easily extract a BIM Server library to a location of their choice.

= v i s t a s p =
bT Square Peg

https://archicadstuff.blogspot.com
https://www.btsquarepeg.com
| 18 INT | Win7 x64 |

[Aissa Marie Llanto]

Is there anyone here familiar with legalities involving creating a specific set of objects but password protecting the code?

I’ve been recently engaged to create parametric objects and I password protect so nobody can edit or copy the scripts. Now they’re asking for the password so they can modify (or copy). Anyway, I’ve always assumed that people normally respects the reason why you password protect so I guess I was wrong and learned that the hard way.

Anyway, for independent gdl developers, is there a proper way of explicitly stating in a contract that gdl scripts are not for sale? I’m not familiar with licensing and all that and it would be nice to know whats the current practice with regards to developing objects and libraries.

[Barry Kelly]

I have no idea about the legalities but I would say if you are selling your objects and are prepared to provide support for them (bug fixes, upgrades) then by all means password protect them.
If you are not prepared to support them then don’t password protect. Allow others to maintain them in the future.

I wouldn’t have a problem with all objects having their scripts password protected so long as the parameters were still editable.
A person may make an object and protect it but it will be useless to me as I may use different fills, pens, materials in my template that don’t suit their defaults for the object. I then have no way to edit the default parameter settings as they a locked together with the scripts. (yes I know I can set up favourites).

Please Graphisoft at least allow us to still edit the default parameters even when an object is password protected.

Barry.

Versions 6.5 to 22
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Dell Precision M6800 - i7 4700MQ @ 2.40GHz, 16GB RAM, AMD FirePro M6100 (2GB), Windows 7 64bit

[Aissa Marie Llanto]

Hi Barry,

Thanks for your reply. That was actually my intention. Anyway, I gave away the password because the guy threatened to sue me over that.

As for fills, pens and materials, I agree with you on that. That’s why I code my objects in such a way that there’s a level of customization that can be done by the end user. The object creator should make those parameter values available for edit by the end user.

I just use password protect to keep the Mastescript, 3D Script and 2D Script is hidden from end user.

Anyway, I still hope some long time developers shed some light with regards of legalities on sharing objects but not the scripts involved in creating the object.

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