macOS CloudStorage (Dropbox) breaking PMK Drawing Links between team members (User Path Issue)

GREJX — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 05:05:22 GMT

Hi everyone!

Our design team is running into a frustrating file-pathing issue with PMK files on macOS using Dropbox, and I’m hoping someone has a solid workaround.

Our Setup & Workflow:

We are all on Macs, using Dropbox for our active project server.
We have a central "Source File" containing our standard construction details.
We use the Publisher to push these out as PMK files to a central Links_MasterLayouts folder on Dropbox.
We then link these PMKs into various "Site Master" files using the Drawing Manager.

The Problem: Because of Apple’s File Provider architecture in recent macOS updates, Dropbox is forced into the local user library: ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox...

When I link a PMK on my Mac, Archicad hardcodes my specific Mac username into the absolute path (e.g., /Users/josh/Library/CloudStorage/...). When a colleague opens that exact same Site Master file on their Mac, Archicad searches for my username on their hard drive, fails, and all the drawings immediately show as "Missing."

The Complication with Relative Paths: We know Archicad prefers relative paths. However, when we get a new site, our workflow is to "Save As" the Site Master into a completely new project folder on Dropbox. Because the "distance" between the new Site file and the central PMK folder has changed, the relative link breaks. Archicad then falls back to the absolute link, which contains my username, breaking the link for the rest of the team. Each staff then would need to link manually via Drawing Manager which is not preferred and will cause issues down the road.

What We Can't Do:

We are using BIMcloud Basic, so we don't have the file-hosting capabilities of the paid BIMcloud SaaS to host the PMKs centrally.
We don't have a local NAS/VPN server with a universal IP address; we are strictly on Dropbox.

The Question: How are other Mac-based teams handling a central library of PMKs/external drawings on cloud drives (Dropbox/Google Drive/OneDrive)?

Are we doomed to have our staff manually batch-relink the Drawing Manager to their local Dropbox path every time they open a new file, or is there a way to force Archicad to understand a universal cloud path on macOS?

Thanks in advance for the help!

Operating system used: Mac Apple Silicon Sequoia 15.7.3

Re: macOS CloudStorage (Dropbox) breaking PMK Drawing Links between team members (User Path Issue)

Lingwisyer — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 06:52:00 GMT

we are strictly on Dropbox

And that prevents you from syncing Dropbox to a central NAS or server? If you are just syncing the PMKs, it should not take much to host. Or is the issue with this external access?

topic macOS CloudStorage (Dropbox) breaking PMK Drawing Links between team members (User Path Issue) in Project data & BIM

macOS CloudStorage (Dropbox) breaking PMK Drawing Links between team members (User Path Issue)

Re: macOS CloudStorage (Dropbox) breaking PMK Drawing Links between team members (User Path Issue)