topic Re: PMK When is it relevant? in Documentation

PMK When is it relevant?

Thomas Nymann — Wed, 10 May 2023 22:11:10 GMT

Hi guys.

I´m wondering whether using pmk files is still relevant. ( I´ve found most of the post in here are way old)

Let´s say your project has grown big, and "slow" - updating layouts takes time...

Would it then make sence to switch to the pmk methodology, and what if you have 100+ layouts and 150+ active views.

If yes, then;

If one hasn´t prepared the project for this, then you would have to create a new project and setup all Layouts (again) and then link/load and arrange all pmk´s on new the new Layouts from scratch...

Or simply create a copy of the original project, and the delete the model, and the views, leaving only the layouts, and then link/load all the pmk´s into the new Layout-project

If the Project wasn´t prepared to facilitate the pmk method, would it then even make sence to start this process/workflow when you already did layout some 100+ Layouts in the original .pln?

Any tricks to automate the pmk linking process? - In an "empty" project you could browse for views in another project, then drag those onto the layout book of your current project, and have AC create Layouts and place external linked views on them, however they need to be properly arranged - Then one would have to relink the external views to external pmk files....

...Or is there any nice tricks to automate the process, if you want to go with pmk´s after the entire project has been set-up in a main .pln with both model, views and all the layouts?

Hope my question makes sence, at least the final one 😉

By the way, upon a small "Publish pmk test" where views was published as pdf´s, vs. views published as pmk´s The pmk files is 10,5mb whereas the pdf files are only 5,0 MB!?

Any input an comments will be appreciated

Thomas

Re: PMK When is it relevant?

Lee Hankins — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 22:41:15 GMT

I’m not sure if you’ve seen this already but it may be useful to you. Interesting that you can swap the PMK files back to Views. Not sure if you can do the reverse.

https://help.Graphisoft.com/AC/26/INT/index.htm?rhcsh=1&rhnewwnd=0&rhmapid=#t=_AC26_Help%2F070_Documentation%2F070_Documentation-102.htm&rhsearch=Pmk&rhhlterm=Pmk&rhsyns=%20

Re: PMK When is it relevant?

Nathan Hildebrandt — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 22:43:22 GMT

Yes PMK is still a relevant workflow for large projects.

Sadly there really isn't a lot you can automate in the process. You need to plan your project right from the start to be honest with you if you want to go down the PMK route.

I suggest that the PMK methodology doesn't work well when drawing names are changing or being deleted, as the old PMK will still sit there in the layout sheet and you don't realise that it a dead drawing, unless your process is to have a single location where you save your PMK's and you drag all the previous PMK's into a superseded folder, so the file knows that the link is broken. It requires a lot more management, but can be a significantly quicker way to work on large projects.

Personally when I have made the jump in the past is at the transition from Concept Design to Design Development. This is the point where the project file settles and the views will be consistent and further built on as you develop the model and the respective views and layout sheets you create.

I am sorry I don't bring happiness in my post, it can help with file bloating, but requires good management.

Re: PMK When is it relevant?

Rex Maximilian — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 01:05:20 GMT

There is an issue when having a Teamworked view from another file on a sheet in your active file. It is very temperamental about being able to update that view. I believe you can't have both Teamwork files open at the same time in separate ArchiCADs and have it update... for instance, my sheets are all in my building file, but my site plan is in my Teamworked site file.

Anyway, to remedy this situation, I set up a publisher action in the site file to save a PMK of the site plan, and that is laid up in the sheet set in my building file.

So, that's one case where PMKs saved my bacon.

Re: PMK When is it relevant?

William Yan — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 01:17:02 GMT

I am very interested in the collaborative approach to the PMK file format, which I have only recently heard about. I'm not quite sure what advantages PMK has over hotlink modules or PDF?

Re: PMK When is it relevant?

Nathan Hildebrandt — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 16:00:12 GMT

PMK is a more advanced workflow, one I don't suggest for beginners as it requires a lot of discipline and only should be used on large projects where you see lagging in the file.

PMK and hotlink modules are not the same thing. I am guessing you mean linked views not hotlinked modules. Advantage of PMK is that it performs the same way as a view in many ways, where a PDF acts as an external drawing.

Re: PMK When is it relevant?

William Yan — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 05:18:54 GMT

OK, I am doing some big project, and I will look some explaintion in the Archicad manuel about this PMK workflow. Thank you Nathan.

Re: PMK When is it relevant?

Nathan Hildebrandt — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 05:56:53 GMT

Good luck. I don't know how much documentation exists on that workflow anymore as it was a process when Plotmaker existed and the layout book was not in Archicad. Pre Archicad8. I have tried to go digging through my old books and can not find anything on the topic sadly. But @Lee Hankins has pointed out the current content on it in the help section. It might be a good topic to put into my next conference for February next year as it is a topic that is still of relevance to people within practice and there are a lot of pitfalls if you are not aware of them.

Re: PMK When is it relevant?

DGSketcher — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 09:32:17 GMT

I'll just chip in here, but slightly off topic. I don't normally use PMK, but I had an occasion recently where I needed to share my plans with another AC using business. My drawings contain commercially sensitive objects so I didn't want to send the full model and thought being vector based they would be better for the required layout checks than PDF. So I set up Publisher and issued the appropriate views. I was then advised by the recipient that the files were unreadable, reason: They were on AC24 and I was issuing from AC25. Given PMK's are simple 2D drawings I can't see the logic of having them only work in the current or newer version of AC. They should operate like PDF and be readable in older versions of AC. It would certainly take down one of the barriers to collaboration.

Re: PMK When is it relevant?

Nathan Hildebrandt — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 10:07:03 GMT

My guess would be that that would be by design that they would not be able to open them up and use them in an older version to prevent people from only upgrading a single license and then keeping the remaining licenses on an old release. It makes sense to me.

Re: PMK When is it relevant?

DGSketcher — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 12:17:30 GMT

Makes sense, but short sighted. Where would we be if Adobe had restricted PDF's in the same way. In my view they should be at least readable in all current supported versions of AC and definitely the previous version. As I said, it's just another barrier to collaboration. If GS want to promote AC they could even stick PMK in the public domain as an alternative to DWG/DWF.

Re: PMK When is it relevant?

Karl Ottenstein — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 16:17:48 GMT

Archicad used to be delivered with a PDF manual called the "Collaboration Guide" in the Archicad xx > Documentation folder. As far as I can tell, the last time this guide was published and delivered was with Archicad 21. The Archicad 20 version (2016) is the only one I found via Google:

http://helpcenter.graphisoft.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Collaboration-Guide-for-ARCHICAD-20.pdf

There was also a more recent document on either the Graphisoft Learn portal or the SSA subscriber content portal that described this same process in detail. I can't find either of those at the moment.

A couple of screenshots of the first 2 pages of the PMK part of the Collaboration Guide:

Re: PMK When is it relevant?

Erwin Edel — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 13:03:49 GMT

One problem we found with PMK files is it breaks autotext placed in the view that pulls information directly from that view (like the name or ID). This may be fixed by now, since we haven't used the PMK method for a number of years now.

Having a publisher set setup for the PMK files was super fast though, but I think Archicad has improved in terms of updating views with all the background processing, since we haven't found the need to use the PMK method for quite a few years now.

Re: PMK When is it relevant?

Thomas Nymann — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 08:23:30 GMT

Hi Everyone. Thank you very much for your contributions. I have been provided with a lot of usefull insight. Always nice to see the community in action 😉

Cheers

Re: PMK When is it relevant?

kb72 — Fri, 10 Mar 2023 01:24:06 GMT

I wonder if anybody have experiences with revisions, using the workflow described in the help-doc, Multiple Project Files, Separate Layout Book, Separate Drawings (PMK Files)

So according to the workflow described I am evaluating generating PMK files from multiple files and putting them on layouts in a separate file. There are two purposes for this for me. One is to have less bloathed setup of the layouts, and the other is to have one drawing list generated with the publisher with an automated process with revisions.

I have made a small experiment where I have created a transmittal issue in the layout file a few times and each time added a layout with an updated PMK file with new revision clouds. The transmittal fills out the layout with the correct revision like a dream. So, this seems fantastic.

I assume that I just need to make sure to manually delete the old revision clouds in the source file between each revision.

Any thoughts?

Re: PMK When is it relevant?

Nathan Hildebrandt — Fri, 10 Mar 2023 01:31:42 GMT

I have always used a workflow where I apply the Revision Clouds to the actual layout sheet, not within the views. This means that you are covering all the details relevant to the revision in a single place, not in 100's of views. If you place Revision Clouds directly on the layout sheets, once part of a transmittal / revision and you apply new revision clouds / revision then there is the option to automatically hide the old revision clouds.

I have my revision workflows documented in this video. https://www.skewed.com.au/media/webinars/archintensive-2020-art-revision-management

Re: PMK When is it relevant?

kb72 — Fri, 10 Mar 2023 02:39:55 GMT

Yes, that is a possibility I guess, with advantages. As you describe it.

However I have found that I prefer do it in model views still, cause then I can do it easily when doing the drawing without switcing to the layour. Particulary when the file is bloathed and the switch to layouts take time. And when you have to switch to the layout which is in another file and the pmk is still not updated, just thinking it might be even more cumbersone.

But will consider, thank you, and see your docs.

Re: PMK When is it relevant?

Rex Maximilian — Fri, 10 Mar 2023 06:12:50 GMT

EDIT: Oh, I see I replied to this already. I'll leave this comment anyway.

I have found that laying up a drawing from a view in an external teamworked file fails most of the time when updating due to various reasons. I simply have a small publisher set for publishing PMKs when these views need to be on layouts in an outside file. It is still very useful.

Re: PMK When is it relevant?

kb72 — Fri, 10 Mar 2023 06:27:26 GMT

This is interesting, but don't quite follow you.. 🙂

We have 4 teamwork files, and thinking of exporting to pmks with the publisher, then put on layouts in one file. Is this what you say are failing? Is it the revisions which fails or the view not updating og...?

Or do you mean that to take the views directly from the teamwork files to one external file tend to fail.. ?

Thank you

Re: PMK When is it relevant?

Rex Maximilian — Sat, 11 Mar 2023 02:13:55 GMT

That's what I'm doing that is working. Exporting PMKs from "other" TW files to lay up in a master layout set file. Using the external view placement seems to fail most of the time. Only placing a PMK seems to be the solution.