topic Re: How to 'force open' a pln file into Plan view in Modeling

How to 'force open' a pln file into Plan view

Anonymous — Thu, 25 May 2023 16:04:45 GMT

Hi,

I have a .pln file that has a few issues in elevation view (too many trees basically) it was last calculated to take 236 minutes to update. I keep trying to stop the elevation from generating/updating but ArchiCAD becomes unresponsive. If I could open it directly into Plan view, the program should respond and I could fix the issue, however after many attempts I cannot find a way to open in plan view instead of the last view window which was elevation.

Any suggestions?

Thank You

Re: How to 'force open' a pln file into Plan view

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 07:16:24 GMT

When the elevation is updating you should be able to stop it. The cancel button on the progress window is not always responsive (it's hard to trap for interrupts during intensive processes) but if you hold down the command (Mac) or control (Win) and the "." (period, full stop) key it will keep sending continuous cancel commands until the interrupt is recognized. Then you should be able to adjust your layers or trees or whatever you need to do.

Re: How to 'force open' a pln file into Plan view

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 14:33:04 GMT

Unfortunately is didn't work. As soon as the elevation starts to update, I get the "balloon" (mac loading icon) and ArchiCAD becomes unresponsive.

I'm going to try it on my Brother's PC and see if that makes any difference (he can run x64)

Thank You

EDIT: just realised that I can't use it on another computer as it's not an archive file, so the parts I made with OBJECTiVE will not be read. (I tried it anyway, and it opens without crashing, just all my parts are missing)

Re: How to 'force open' a pln file into Plan view

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 16:14:26 GMT

It sounds like it may be the library parts that are giving you the problems. Go ahead and open it without the libraries, close the elevation and/or change your layer settings and then reopen with the libraries. The parts will still be there. Without the libraries loaded they will just be placeholders without the associated data to display them, but no data is lost.

Re: How to 'force open' a pln file into Plan view

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 16:31:26 GMT

Matthew wrote:
It sounds like it may be the library parts that are giving you the problems. Go ahead and open it without the libraries, close the elevation and/or change your layer settings and then reopen with the libraries. The parts will still be there. Without the libraries loaded they will just be placeholders without the associated data to display them, but no data is lost.

How do I go about opening it without libraries? (I think it's ArchiCAD trees, there are about 50!) The library parts that are essential were all made with OBJECTiVE. Upon opening the file, I have literally no interaction with it... it becomes unresponsive pretty much as soon as it's opened

Thanks for your help, this is quite crucial!

Re: How to 'force open' a pln file into Plan view

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 18:33:17 GMT

Move the libraries to a place where ArchiCAD can't find them, then open the project. After you're done put the libraries back where they belong.

Re: How to 'force open' a pln file into Plan view

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 19:26:05 GMT

Matthew wrote:
Move the libraries to a place where ArchiCAD can't find them, then open the project. After you're done put the libraries back where they belong.

Worked just fine, thanks you very much.

Re: How to 'force open' a pln file into Plan view

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 23:47:32 GMT

Great. Glad to hear that it worked out.

Re: How to 'force open' a pln file into Plan view

owen — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 04:15:23 GMT

NStocks wrote:
... I keep trying to stop the elevation from generating/updating but ArchiCAD becomes unresponsive. If I could open it directly into Plan view, the program should respond and I could fix the issue, however after many attempts I cannot find a way to open in plan view instead of the last view window which was elevation.

I actually have a real problem with this behaviour / 'feature' of ArchiCAD - that is opening windows other than the Plan window when opening a file. Why does ArchiCAD do this?

We have a highrise model that will 100% guaranteed give an 'Out of Memory' error if you try to generate a 3D of the whole building at scales below 1:100 (extensive use of highly detailed scale-sensitive objects). Repeatedly we find ourselves in the situation where upon opening the TW2 project, after waiting a good 10 minutes for TW to load the file we get an 'Out of Memory' error caused by ArchiCAD opening the 3D Window in the background and attempting to generate a view of the building as part of the opening process. It is infuriating as the only way to stop it is to have a shortcut setup for 'Close All Background Windows' and start spamming it the moment the 6-stage TW open progress bar appears. If you are lucky AC might get your command and close the 3D Window before it gets around to attempting to generate it.

IMO it is totally unnecessary for ArchiCAD to open ANY windows other than the Floor Plan when opening a file. The default should be floor plan only, or at least give us a preference to be able to set this ourselves on an application install basis (do NOT save it with the file!)

Re: How to 'force open' a pln file into Plan view

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 19:30:16 GMT

I feel vindicated....
See this thread.

Re: How to 'force open' a pln file into Plan view

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 22:35:43 GMT

owen wrote:
IMO it is totally unnecessary for ArchiCAD to open ANY windows other than the Floor Plan when opening a file. The default should be floor plan only, or at least give us a preference to be able to set this ourselves on an application install basis (do NOT save it with the file!)

Couldn't agree more, in this respect ArchiCAD is pretty 'dumb'. Maybe We'll see it in release 18

Re: How to 'force open' a pln file into Plan view

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 02:52:13 GMT

NStocks wrote:
owen wrote:
IMO it is totally unnecessary for ArchiCAD to open ANY windows other than the Floor Plan when opening a file. The default should be floor plan only, or at least give us a preference to be able to set this ourselves on an application install basis (do NOT save it with the file!)
Couldn't agree more, in this respect ArchiCAD is pretty 'dumb'. Maybe We'll see it in release 18

As I recall this was once how ArchiCAD did behave (opening in plan only to start) and the feature of remembering the state of open windows) was added along the way.

I agree that bringing back at least the option to "open in plan view only" would be very desirable. While I haven't had such major problems, it can be annoying having it open to a 3D view when I have no need of it. The more extreme problems others are having really seem to be a serious functional issue.

FWIW Revit has the same problem. I have received Revit models that open to a view that instructs the user to always return to that view and close all others before saving the model. This instruction is usually in BIG letters and rather forceful language.

Re: How to 'force open' a pln file into Plan view

Barry Kelly — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 04:38:31 GMT

The trick is to shut down all the other views before you save the PLN.
If sections, elevations, layouts, etc are open when you save the jobe then they will all regenerate when you open the file.
Turn them off before saving and there is no problem as they can't regenerate (rebuild).
Barry.

Re: How to 'force open' a pln file into Plan view

Barry Kelly — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 04:45:43 GMT

In fact Archicad even has a "Close all background windows" option in the Windows menu.
Use this before saving the plan.
Barry.

Re: How to 'force open' a pln file into Plan view

owen — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 08:40:30 GMT

Barry wrote:
The trick is to shut down all the other views before you save the PLN.
If sections, elevations, layouts, etc are open when you save the jobe then they will all regenerate when you open the file.
Turn them off before saving and there is no problem as they can't regenerate (rebuild).
Barry.

Whilst this is relatively easy to manage with PLN's I have not figured out how these 'last open windows' are handled on TW2 files - are they stored with each users Send Changes, or only certain users, or ..?

The problem we have is a team of 15+ people all working in 1 Model and ~8 Publisher files ... inevitably someone will have forgotten to 'Close All Background Windows'. Or someone might crash and next time they try to reopen the file it has stored all these background windows as they did not have the opportunity to tidy up on exit.

Re: How to 'force open' a pln file into Plan view

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 19:15:38 GMT

Perhaps we need an option to open a file in "safe mode" which would open only the plan view with all layers hidden.

The TW issues seem like they may be a bit more complex though.