topic Re: can I prevent .lck files? in Installation & update

can I prevent .lck files?

Dave Brach — Thu, 02 Jan 2025 13:30:36 GMT

Is it possible to prevent archicad from creating .lck files? The reason I ask is that they do not work with our cloud file storage system. Our cloud service creates "Versions" of files. So every time I alter and save a new version is created in the cloud and I find this extremely useful. But the .lck files appear to prevent this from functioning. And anyway I have never found the .lck files useful. Half the time when somebody at our company gets the message about a file being open for editing by another user it's a false alarm

Re: can I prevent .lck files?

runxel — Mon, 11 Sep 2023 20:33:08 GMT

That's what the BIMCloud is made for...

If you want to have a snow mobile, you can't drive without snow. So in other words: No, you can not prevent Archicad from doing this safety measure.

Re: can I prevent .lck files?

Patrick M — Mon, 11 Sep 2023 22:42:58 GMT

you may just need to adopt a workflow of manually deleting all .lck files after closing. You definitely don't want to prevent .lck files while the project is in use

Re: can I prevent .lck files?

Lingwisyer — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 09:09:25 GMT

Are you sure the .lck files are the issue? Pretty sure there are several threads around here of people wanting to prevent this versioning caused by read statues verse cloud syncing and I would assume they did not somehow accidentally disable the creation of .lck files.

Re: can I prevent .lck files?

Dave Brach — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 17:20:09 GMT

Lingwisyer, I honestly have no idea. But if I am working on a .pln and I modify it and save it then then versioning in box.com does not work. If I save a modified copy to my desktop then drag & drop into box, then it creates a version. The only difference I can see is that in form situation there is .lck file.

Re: can I prevent .lck files?

Scott Boyd Turner — Wed, 13 Sep 2023 01:30:25 GMT

Dave,

I believe that Graphisoft have advised against the use of a cloud synching solution as it may cause model corruption. You should download the file to your local PC / server, work on it there and re-upload to cloud service when finished editing.

Re: can I prevent .lck files?

Barry Kelly — Wed, 13 Sep 2023 01:33:16 GMT

The LCK file should have no effect.

That just means someone else trying to open the file will get a message to say the file is already open.

But it is recommended not to work directly on a file in a cloud based folder.

Sometimes it works fine, other times there can be problems.

It may depend on the cloud storage you are using and its settings.

When you save in Archicad, it will create a scratch file (that you don't always see) while it deletes the existing BPN then saves the current PLN to BPN and then saves the scratch file as the latest PLN.

This should all happen quite quickly, but may interfere with the way your cloud folder backs up.

Your cloud storage may start backing up files that Archicad is still saving.

If you can, set a delay so it doesn't try to backup straight away.

Or better still, work in a standard folder on your local hard drive or network, and copy the file to your cloud folder only when you want to preserve or distribute a copy of it.

Or if you are wanting to share the file with other people maybe look into BIMCloud Basic (free) or the paid for version where you will have more backup options I believe.

Barry.

Re: can I prevent .lck files?

Dave Brach — Wed, 13 Sep 2023 18:17:46 GMT

Thanks Barry for that explanation, it's actually the first time I fully understood how that works and I'm sure that has something to do with my issue. We are a firm of 5, mostly working on separate projects but need to be able to share files. We have Bimcloud basic set up for projects where people are working at the same time, but it is slow and there are connectivity issues from some remote locations. Box Drive on the other hand is incredibly simple and effective. The moment a file is saved it automatically syncs to all computers within seconds. I feel Bimcloud is just a bit clunky by comparison. It works great when everyone is in the office and on the same network but otherwise not great.

Re: can I prevent .lck files?

Barry Kelly — Thu, 14 Sep 2023 01:50:53 GMT

@Dave Brach wrote:

It works great when everyone is in the office and on the same network but otherwise not great.

So I assume you have a shared network drive you can all access while in the office?

That is what we do, and we save directly to that server.

Nothing is kept on out local hard drives (except the actual programs).

We all have access to the files from where ever we are in the office/s.

Even when we are working remotely from home, we can connect to the office network and work just the same as if we are in the office.

Saving to the network is a little slower from home.

We have no need for people working on the same file at the same time, so have no need for BIMCloud.

So I am not sure why that would be slow or you would have connection issues.

Barry.