MODELPORT 4.5

Released April 2025

USER INTERFACE

• Improved: Significantly faster layout calculation, resulting in:
  – Much less flickering
  – Much shorter wait times when changing selection, especially mesh selection.
• Improved: UI elements are more neatly positioned (both Windows and OSX). For example under OSX some buttons were too close to each other.
• Fixed: (Windows only) Frame-less buttons are shown as normal frame buttons. (Archicad OSX version doesn’t have Frame-less buttons.)
• Changed: Most layout elements (e.g., position, rotation, scale) occupy the full width of the layout.
• Fixed: (OSX only) The spin control misidentifies the up/down arrow clicks, registering clicks on the up arrow side as down arrow actions.
• Improved: Slight speed improvement when clicking inside the ModelPort 3D view. It now pretests if double-clicking is allowed on an item, enabling faster recognition if not.
• Fixed: (OSX only) After changing the docking status of the ModelPort editor palette, its 3D views become frozen.
• Improved: ModelPort 3D viewports now occupy the entire area, with viewport controls (such as ‘Fit scene to view’,’Display mode’,’View Camera’,etc.) located within the viewport itself.
• Fixed: Clicking the Spin control triggers changes twice, resulting in a performance penalty.
• Improved: ModelPort popup dialogs can now be closed using the Esc key.
• Fixed: (OSX only) When the ModelPort editor is docked, some keys or key combinations do not function correctly throughout Archicad.
• Changed: New button icon for opening menus or opening various settings.
• Improved: Material texture parameters are greyed out if texture or texture locator is not attached to the material.
• Fixed: The text of certain UI controls does not appear greyed out when disabled.
• Changed: the button in the ModelPort Pet palette shows the ModelPort logo instead of the text “MP”

BROWSER

• Added: The browser can download from cloud librarie(s), with Sketchfab being the first.
  – User can apply filters to search the cloud library.
  – Thumbnail images are downloaded from the library for better preview of the models.
  – Double-clicking on the thumbnails opens a popup dialog with additional information about the model.
  – In addition to the model information, this popup dialog also displays the model’s license information.
  – From this dialog, users can download and open the model directly in the ModelPort editor.
  – In the Browser options popup, the download folder is customizable.
• Changed: New/Changed icons for the browser: ‘Local Library’, ‘Folder’, ‘File’, ‘Sketchfab’
• Changed: Due to the introduction of numerous new browser options, the previous options ‘Thumbnail size’ and ‘Name filter’ have been removed from the browser palette.
• Added: A new Browser Options popup dialog, accessible from the top left corner of the browser palette, has been added. It has more filters (for filtering files in local folders or for searching models in the cloud).
  – Additional options.
  – Distinct filter and additional options available while browsing in the local library or on the cloud.
• Improved: Thumbnail images are packed more tightly.
• Changed: The browser path indicator now appears in bold font at the very top of the browser layout..
• Improved: When filters are applied to the Local Library folder, the path indicator at the top of the browser layout highlights the filtered status in red for emphasis.
• Added: New browser view mode ‘List’ (default is ‘Grid’).
• Added: Introducing the new ‘Show Files in Bulk’ mode. In this mode, all files, including those from sub-folders, are displayed together. This makes it easier to search for files by name, size, and other attributes.
• Improved: The thumbnail label texts are customizable, so user can adjust it to show the most important information.
• Added: The Local Libraries folder can now be filtered by file size.
• Improved: The thumbnail file size control inside the browser options popup is now step-less and more interactive, allowing the thumbnail size to be set within a wider range.
• Improved: Tooltips over the thumbnails now provide much more detailed information about the item.
• Changed: The ‘Add library’ command on the browser’s root page activates on double-click (not single-click as it was in the previous versions).
• Fixed: User can add the same local library folder to the browser many times.

FORMAT LOADERS

• Improved: (OSX only) The ModelPort plugin service pre-checks the compatibility of ModelPort plugins with the macOS system before loading them, preventing possible loading errors..
• Improved: (OSX only) In previous versions it was not possible to use the ModelPort SketchUp loader parallel the Archicad SketchUp in-out addon. This limitation is removed now.
• Improved: SketchUp loader 2025.0.x uses the latest SketchUp SDK 2025.0
• Fixed: SketchUp Loader: UV is on the wrong scale on some faces.
• Changed: Assimp Loader: All formats handled by Assimp are default to a Y-up base orientation.

IMPORTANT

• Fixed: Modelport doesn’t load the object and it is not editable in the ModelPort editor. This issue arises if Archicad doesn’t load the ModelPort library object into its cache during the project opening.
• Fixed: (Save Mode: ModelPort only) In the Archicad 3D view, mesh instances are treated as normal meshes instead of geometry instances, leading to higher memory usage and reduced performance.
• Improved: Opening complex ModelPort library parts (scene contains a lot of sub-items) can be very slow. This can be much-much quicker now.
  Improvement depends on the complexity, in case of simple scenes it is minimal, but for very complex scenes it can be more than 100 times faster.
• Fixed: (OSX only) Archicad crashes on license activation
• Added: (only for AC24 and above) New Preferences checkbox: ‘Check GDL 3D Script’. When enabled, ModelPort performs an additional check during the import process to verify if the generated 3D geometries can be displayed by Archicad.

MISC

• Improved: If a Standard license is reactivated on a new computer, ModelPort provides more detailed feedback regarding the situation.
• Changed: Added new “reason” choices for Standard license reactivation
• Improved: The ‘custom import folder’ control inside the ‘Create Library Object’ dialog does not allow characters that are incompatible with file paths.
• Changed: In the ‘Create library Object’ dialog ModelPort shows the evaluated full path (import folder, texture folder).
  in case of material import it shows the first (max. 5) evaluated material names.
• Changed: Library Creation parameters (in the ‘Create Library Object’ dialog) are saved only if the dialog was not cancelled.
• Added: A ‘Bypass SSL Certificate Verifications’ checkbox has been added to the ‘Preferences’ dialog for instances when HTTPS communication has problem with SSL verification.
• Added: Two now controls to the ‘Preferences’ dialog: ‘Display selected (item mode)’ and ‘Display selected (material mode)’
  With these user can customize how the selected items or materials are displayed inside the ModelPort 3d views.
• Added: A new ‘Modules’ page in the ‘Preferences’ dialog, which appears only if the user has any modules.
• Improved: In the ‘Preferences’ dialog, the preferred GPU list box changes the GPU only when clicked on the left side, not on simple selection..
• Added: A new button located on the top area of the ModelPort editor palette allows users to open external ModelPort pages, such as 3D View, Properties, or Item List..
• Changed: Inside the ModelPort 3d views the button about Viewer/Demo mode status was moved to the top-right corner of the window and its text is bigger.
• Fixed: The Item List does not update the icons of unselected texture/material items after a material or texture change.
• Fixed: Cannot drag and drop material from the Item List onto the mesh if the mesh (or mesh part) has no material assigned.
• Fixed: The plugin warning message about ‘Updating a fully functional library part with a demo mode library part’ occasionally provides incorrect information.
• Fixed: Memory leak after opening popup menus.
• Improved: More detailed error message in case of invalid activation.
• Improved: (OSX only) ModelPort’s ability to detect more host IDs enhances the stability of license identification.
• Fixed: DEMO text was not correctly added to some library objects created in save-restricted mode.
• Fixed: Archicad may encounter issues displaying some library objects created in ModelPort’s save-restricted (or demo) mode within its 3D window.
• Fixed: For Library Objects saved in save-restricted mode and containing numerous instanced meshes, the polygons of the DEMO text are displayed chaotically�disconnected and scattered across different parts and positions.
• Fixed: The Library Object imported with SaveMode set to ‘GDL’ cannot display its geometry in 3D within Archicad if it contains n-gons with more than 30 sides, causing a GDL line error.
• Fixed: Potential memory leaks in several areas.
• Improved: Vulkan SDK version number is displayed inside the about box.
• Fixed: (WIN only) crash during layout change or ModelPort editor dialog close.
• Fixed: Library objects imported in GDL save mode and subsequently modified in the ModelPort editor (e.g., using ‘Freeze Transform’) are displayed with incorrect transform matrices after being updated.
• Improved: Triangulation of n-gons, where smaller polygon segments are linked together using linear polygonal connections�a common characteristic in SketchUp models.
• Improved: From the ‘Licensing: User Portal’ page, you can send a ‘Session Stop Request’ to the owner of a floating license session that is currently in use (online mode).
• Changed: frequency of checking license server in floating online mode was increased to 1check/10mins from 1check/15mins.
• Changed: “Auto start Online Session” is Off by default.
• Changed: With valid activation the ModelPort Browser itself doesn’t check for valid license, so it can be docked to Archicad UI and start by Archicad automatically without checking out the floating or the switch license.
• Improved: ModelPort doesn’t start floating license automatically (even if auto-start is ON) until ModelPort doesn’t check the license. So it won’t check-out and occupy floating/switch license until it is necessary.
• Improved: With valid activation ModelPort doesn’t check license for simple commands started from the ModelPort menu (Open About, Open Manual, Change Detail Level in Archicad, Open/Close Browser and Open Preferences).
• Changed: ModelPort About Dialog doesn’t show the license owner and the license status.
• Improved: Enhanced handling of complex transform matrices that include additional information, such as shear transformations.
• Added: Button on the Tranforms properties to show and clear (if needed) the Remain Matrix of the transform.
• Fixed: In rare instances the loaded 3D scene may include transforms that ModelPort cannot handle correctly.
• Fixed: Re-parenting Mesh object in the Hiearchy with method “Keep World Transform(s)” can not always preserve the original world transform.
• Fixed: After opening older ModelPort files (saved in ModelPort 2.x versions) opens up a Warning Dialog with a message about missing item types.
• Fixed: Warning dialog about ModelPort scene loading problem can freeze Archicad.
• Fixed: If a library part was imported in GDL format and the material was set to use Archicad material, ModelPort still imports it with the Internal material.
• Fixed: (OSX only) if ModelPort SketchUp loader is not active (because Archicad SketchUp importer is active) ModelPort sets the status of the SketchUp loader as Failed instead of the more correct Disabled status. As a result ModelPort shows sometimes misleading error message at the start.
• Fixed: (OSX Sequoia only) ModelPort can not indentify the machine host id if “Private Wi-Fi address” is not off.
• Changed: “Material popup style” default changed to “Modern”
• Changed: Preferences > GPU selection list shows the actually used GPU with bold font.
• Fixed: Preferences > GPU selection list has a small visual issue on the non-selected items
• Changed: Layout mode selector is now a popup menu
• Improved: Inside a ModelPort editor session the UI remembers the expanded/collapsed state of the ui roll elements.
• Improved: ModelPort gives Warning message if scene contains unknown item type.
• Changed: The warning dialog text has been updated for the dialog which opens up in case the file was made with a newer version of ModelPort.
• Fixed: Dragging inside the ModelPort 3d viewport can crash Archicad in case it is an empty Scene.
• Fixed: using “UV Adjust” “Scale to World” button on a mesh which has no uv map crashes Archicad.
• Fixed: ModelPort opens error dialog if it can not find a valid Host ID.
• Improved: There is a new 4 x 3d view layout mode
• Improved: The window splitter controls have been streamlined to provide more space for 3D views and other elements, resulting in a sleeker overall appearance.
• Fixed: (OSX only) ModelPort does not convert TGA files to PNG when importing into the embedded folder.