The door is already in the building. Since Archicad 24, Graphisoft has shipped an official way to drive the model from Python, and it keeps it in good repair: on 7 October 2026 the company published version 30.3000 of its archicad package on PyPI. Graphisoft describes the package there as a “Python binding for the Archicad JSON command interface”. Per the PyPI listing, it requires Archicad 24 beta 3 or later and Python 3.7 or later, and it is released under the Apache licence with Graphisoft SE as author. It costs nothing beyond the Archicad licence an office already pays for.

That is the essence, and it is worth saying first. Automation in Archicad is a maintained, public interface that ships today, built and kept current by the developers at Graphisoft SE whose names rarely reach a project meeting.

The interface has been easy to start with for a while. In Graphisoft’s own tutorial, “Getting started with Archicad Python connection” (14 December 2020), Tibor Lorántfy writes that “the goal of the Automation API is to support workflow automation”, then counts every wall in a project with one call. The same page states something every scripter learns early: “The collection may vary by Archicad versions.” Documentation that honest is a gift. It also tells you that the command set changes from release to release, so you need a working map of it.

Most offices still rename zones, recount doors and recalculate areas by hand. They have the door, but nobody has walked them through what lies behind it. That is the gap our self-study course Archicad Python: Von Dokumentationslücken zu smarter Automatisierung is named for. The name points at the distance between a reference page and a Monday-morning workflow. It is not a complaint about anyone’s docs.

←TODAY: Graphisoft’s archicad package reached 30.3000 on 7 October 2026 and still runs against Archicad 24 onwards.
→3012: In Zurich 3012, an office’s real archive is its scripts, and each one records a decision a person made once and never had to make again.
Fulcrum: The interface is the easy part to obtain. Knowing which chores deserve it is the part a school can teach.

One arc in three rooms

The course is built as one line of travel. Übersicht sets out what the Archicad–Python interface can and cannot do, with the “Dos and Don’ts” that save hours of trial and error. Grundlagen starts from zero, and the course page puts it plainly: “Keine Python-Vorkenntnisse? Kein Problem für diesen Kurs!” You learn only the Python commands Archicad work actually needs, then read and adapt finished sample scripts. Skripting von A bis Z builds practical scripts step by step, with AI assistants helping to write them. The course page promises that these assistants can halve your scripting time (“Skripting-Zeit halbieren”). Treat that as the course’s own claim. Your first project is where you measure it.

The practical terms are simple. If you already have Archicad, there is no extra software cost. Lessons are short and built for the working day. Access lasts two years. Questions go to a Q&A, an expert project review is included, and the page links a 30-minute consultation you can book before deciding. A 14-day guarantee covers the start. The course is listed on our workshops page under “Warteliste! Start in 2026!”, and the full outline is on the course page.

If you are still deciding whether Python belongs on your desk at all, start one step earlier. Our 15 October piece, Python for Architects: Where to Start, and Where a Coin Toss Says Stop, recommends starting with data you already own, such as schedules exported from Archicad. This course is the Archicad-specific next step.

There is one trade-off to name clearly. A script repeats a mistake as quickly as it repeats a correct rule. A badly named zone set that would cost one person an afternoon can spread across a whole project in a second. The discipline has to come before the code.

Hack: Count what is actually in a live model before you automate anything. With Archicad open and Graphisoft’s binding installed (pip install archicad), ask the project directly. The count tells you where the repeated hours sit.

from archicad import ACConnection
conn = ACConnection.connect()
walls = conn.commands.GetElementsByType('Wall')
print(len(walls), 'walls')

Swap 'Wall' for 'Zone' or 'Door', and you have the first line of your office’s own automation ledger.

Atelier: For a 12-person Zürich studio adopting AI, the real exposure is assistants writing scripts against chores nobody has defined. Monday move: in the next team meeting, each project lead names one weekly Archicad chore, and those names go onto a shared list before anyone writes a single line of code.

From where we write, late in the 2070s, the offices that came through the automation decades well had something in common: they wrote their rules down before their machines did. Write yours down today.