topic Re: Apple File Provider - Cloud Storage file paths not working properly with ArchiCAD Publisher in Installation & update

Apple File Provider - Cloud Storage file paths not working properly with ArchiCAD Publisher

Ebatte — Fri, 12 May 2023 09:40:52 GMT

Anyone using a streaming cloud file storage service on MacOS such as Dropbox, Google Drive, One Drive, etc.? Of course you are. Welcome to the 21st century! In our case we use Google Drive, but the issue below would appear to apply to any modern cloud storage provider being used on MacOS.

Over a year ago Apple implemented a standardized way for cloud storage providers to hook into the operating system called “Apple File Provider”. This means that any cloud-based file storage system will now store streaming files in ~/Library/CloudStorage...

As you can see, this path is user dependent which creates a problem establishing a common publishing path for Publisher Sets. Formerly google drive was located in /Volumes/Google Drive. Now it is located in ~/Library/CloudStorage.

/Volumes/Google Drive could be set as a common path which was usable by anyone else in a Teamwork project, but once set using the new path it will obviously not be found by any other users.

Helpful tip for Google Drive users:

- Quit Google Drive for Desktop.

- Run this command in a terminal touch ~/Library/Application\ Support/Google/DriveFS/fp_left_beta

- Start Google Drive and log back in.

This will continue to use the former location for Google Drive and paths will work as they have in the past.

Source

There may be similar options for Dropbox, One Drive, etc.

Will Apple "fix" it? Unlikely. This seems to be caused by Apple's implementation.

Will Google "fix" it? Unlikely. They will point the finger at Apple. Same with all other cloud providers.

Can Graphisoft do anything to "fix" it? Unknown. They are just storing a file path in the project. If the path is broken, then what can they do about it?

Is there anything else we can do as users to fix broken paths like this? Unknown.

I doubt if unix symbolic links, shortcuts, or anything like that would help.
You could publish to BIMcloud instead of the file system. This is not acceptable for me or our staff.

If anyone has any thoughts on this matter please discuss.

Re: Apple File Provider - Cloud Storage file paths not working properly with ArchiCAD Publisher

Lee Hankins — Tue, 07 Feb 2023 22:07:07 GMT

We have a Template configured that has no file paths for publishing defined. One of the first steps when setting up a new project file is to set this publishing file path to the job folder path on our Synology NAS which is accessed on the local network and over VPN. We’ve never had any issues with publishing from Teamwork or solo projects once this path is defined as it never (or vary rarely) changes. If the path is changed then Archicad just recreates the original path which in itself is a bit annoying because you don’t notice until you can’t find your published drawings and realise there are two project folders with ever so slightly different names. This is an internal management issue though. It would be better if Archicad provided an error rather than recreate the path.

Re: Apple File Provider - Cloud Storage file paths not working properly with ArchiCAD Publisher

Ebatte — Tue, 07 Feb 2023 22:46:45 GMT

Right. Although, the issue you describe isn't related to the Apple File Provider framework since you're using a NAS.

Re: Apple File Provider - Cloud Storage file paths not working properly with ArchiCAD Publisher

Lee Hankins — Tue, 07 Feb 2023 22:51:40 GMT

No, granted, but it’s effectively the same thing. There’s no way the software could maintain a link to a location that is user specific. As you say it worked until Apple moved the folder to the user folder. I’m guessing there is no way to use a wildcard for the user so I matter what the user folder is called Archicad can still find the path within.

Re: Apple File Provider - Cloud Storage file paths not working properly with ArchiCAD Publisher

Ebatte — Tue, 07 Feb 2023 22:56:32 GMT

The wildcard for the "user folder" is ~ (tilde).

Dropbox uses this as the path: ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox

Google Drive uses: ~/Library/CloudStorage/GoogleDrive-eric@mgarchitects.com <<<---note my email address in the path. This makes it user specific and would break the path for other users. The way Dropbox does it would work for all users.

Re: Apple File Provider - Cloud Storage file paths not working properly with ArchiCAD Publisher

Karl Ottenstein — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 16:01:14 GMT

@Ebatte wrote:

Dropbox uses this as the path: ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox

...and just to add OneDrive to the mix, it's now also at ~/Library/CloudStorage/OneDrive

Re: Apple File Provider - Cloud Storage file paths not working properly with ArchiCAD Publisher

Ebatte — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 16:05:46 GMT

Good to know, Karl.

I suggested to GS support via email that perhaps the AC developers could add variables to accommodate the non-confirming path(s) so that AC could "translate" them to UNC conforming paths.

Example:

AC Variable A: [GoogleDriveUsername]

Path: ~/Library/CloudStorage/GoogleDrive-[GoogleDriveUsername]

This would allow AC to store the path with the variable and each user would have their variable parameter substituted on demand.

Re: Apple File Provider - Cloud Storage file paths not working properly with ArchiCAD Publisher

KenMcN — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 20:56:32 GMT

Same problem here. We use SharePoint and OneDrive to share files. At the moment we have a local file server with folders that sync to SharePoint, but the Publisher path has to be set to the (local) shared drive. So you still have to connect to the file server (or NAS) using a VPN if out of the office. If you have to connect to the server anyway, the benefit of OneDrive is largely lost.
I spoke to Graphisoft about this and they thought another firm had solved it, but never got back to me with any details. If you can mount the Sharepoint ‘drive’ on your computer it might work, but we use Macs and I can’t find a way to do this without it using the user name as part of the path, as you said Eric.
The v26 launch suggested that remote working was going to be addressed. Sadly, this wasn’t part of their brief.

Re: Apple File Provider - Cloud Storage file paths not working properly with ArchiCAD Publisher

Ebatte — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 22:30:22 GMT

So far the GS acceptable solution is to put all files in BIMcloud. That is actually not an acceptable solution because BIMcloud is not part of the filesystem as far as the OS is concerned. Files stored in BIMcloud have to be downloaded manually before they can be interacted with, and then uploaded again after modification. So, sure that's a place to store files, but now a place to use files.

In this scenario we have to manually replicate files at the OS filesystem level and at the BIMcloud level manually. Like I said welcome to the 21st century. 😉

Re: Apple File Provider - Cloud Storage file paths not working properly with ArchiCAD Publisher

KenMcN — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 23:49:26 GMT

BIMcloud could work for this if you could mount it on your desktop, back it up and share the files with others. But you can’t.

Re: Apple File Provider - Cloud Storage file paths not working properly with ArchiCAD Publisher

Barry Kelly — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 03:49:09 GMT

@Ebatte wrote:

Anyone using a streaming cloud file storage service on MacOS such as Dropbox, Google Drive, One Drive, etc.? Of course you are. Welcome to the 21st century! In our case we use Google Drive, but the issue below would appear to apply to any modern cloud storage provider being used on MacOS.

Unless you can control when your cloud storage syncs to all the other computers, I believe it is recommended that you do not save from Archicad directly into a cloud storage folder.

Nothing to do with the issue of user file paths, but just because of the way Archicad creates temporary files while saving.

If your cloud storage tries to update while Archicad is saving, you could end up with damaged files.

By all means use cloud storage to sync your files, just save them somewhere else while working on them and then copy (or use a sync program that you can control) them to the cloud folder when you want them to sync in the cloud, if you can't control when the cloud sync occurs.

Have a read of this article... https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Project-Management-articles/Sync-utilities-and-issues-with-Save-operation-in-ARCHICAD/ta-p/303937

So I am just saying, user beware.

It might work perfectly fine - until it doesn't.

And it is definitely not a replacement for Teamwork (BIMCloud).

Barry.

Re: Apple File Provider - Cloud Storage file paths not working properly with ArchiCAD Publisher

KenMcN — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 08:33:51 GMT

You are right Barry, syncing via a file provider definitely isn’t as good for teamwork as BIMcloud. Most of our models are on BIMcloud though layout books (when the file is too large to keep them within the model) and some .PLNs are not. I haven’t noticed this problem but might move these to BIMcloud as well, so thanks for the warning.

The main problem for me (not sure about Eric) is publishing PDFs and hotlinking DWGs. In both cases it is much too difficult to use BIMcloud for file storage as it’s too inaccessible outside Archicad. Hence why we use a ‘local’ folder for the file paths.

Hope that makes sense, but thanks again for the note about sync errors. Appreciated.
Kenny

Re: Apple File Provider - Cloud Storage file paths not working properly with ArchiCAD Publisher

Ebatte — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 11:26:51 GMT

Just to be clear, at my firm we exclusively use Teamwork. I’m referring to the inability to publish to a file system location due to the user-dependent path names that are used by Google Drive after GD was updated to comply with Apple File Provider.

Re: Apple File Provider - Cloud Storage file paths not working properly with ArchiCAD Publisher

aronrica — Sat, 11 Feb 2023 12:03:55 GMT

Hi,

I have communicated directly with Google on this matter and according to them it's a "bug".
Their engineering team "is working hard on a fix" (their words) but they couldn't give an estimate when it will be sorted.
The "bug" refers to the file path issue where the Google Drive is mounted on a User path rather than a generic Volume path as Eric describes.

Personally I think more of this as an "Oops!" rather than a "bug" but nevertheless looking forward to a solution.

For context and people looking to cloud solutions, we (a 25+ strong company running Macs almost exclusively) have been using Google Drive Stream / Desktop since late 2019 with Archicad solo files and linked material pretty much without any issues. We run solo files in many occasions but also use Teamwork extensively.
I did a comprehensive evaluation run back in 2019 with different cloud solutions (OneDrive included) and Google Drive was without a doubt the most stable software for us.
I was actually pretty amazed how well it worked with the streaming solution and that shift from traditional file server towards a cloud solution saved us money.
We have had ZERO downtime on Google Drive / Workspace since December 2019.
Can't say that for our Microsoft Business plans using Teams with Sharepoint.

Fast forward to the File Provider debacle.
As soon as the Google Drive Desktop converted itself to using CloudStorage without any warning a couple of weeks ago the file path issue arose together with corrupted files.
We quickly "opted out" and reverted to the old way. Now the ship sails steady again.

Looking forward we have been planning to start using Teamwork towards 100% in our projects for consistency and QA. But still in tandem with Google Drive.
I sincerely hope that Graphisoft puts a lot of effort in to the further development of Teamwork and cloud storage solutions. Even if it's best in class I think it can be even better; more resilient, even faster and even more secure.

Re: Apple File Provider - Cloud Storage file paths not working properly with ArchiCAD Publisher

Ebatte — Thu, 09 Mar 2023 14:14:26 GMT

Heads-up: Google Drive version 72.x breaks the workaround I posted.

Alternate workaround may be to use user based publisher sets instead of public publisher sets. We’ve always used shared/public publisher sets for obvious reasons, but if we used user based publisher sets the path becomes irrelevant.

One problem with user publisher sets is that we cannot set these up in our project template easily, so company wide consistency becomes difficult to manage (like most things in AC).