topic Re: Relink drawings in bulk in Documentation

Relink drawings in bulk

SZSZ — Tue, 03 Oct 2023 08:59:43 GMT

Hello, we insert a lot of PDF and DWG as drawings in our project files. It is common to move the whole project folder (where all the PDFs and DWGs are) to another path in the server. The drawings now appear as Missing. Everything makes sense. In older versions of Archicad (until Archicad 23) you where able to use de "folder relink" icon and relink all the missing drawings just by choosing the new root folder (where all the files are), and Archicad searched them inside that folder, even if they have differtent paths. It seems that this workflow is broken in Archicad versions 24, 25 and 26 as you have to choose manually each folder or file for every file to relink them. Before it was very easy to relink external drawings (PDFs, DWGs,...) in bulk, now it is a nightmare if you have large number of drawings to relink. Please make this procedure work again (or maybe I am doing something wrong). Thank you

Re: Relink drawings in bulk

Barry Kelly — Tue, 03 Oct 2023 09:17:25 GMT

If you go into the Drawing manager and select those files, do you have an option to "read from..." ?

Then you can select the main folder that contains all of your files and that may work.

Barry.

Re: Relink drawings in bulk

SZSZ — Tue, 03 Oct 2023 09:35:40 GMT

That's my workflow, but only works if the files are in the same folder. Before I was able to select all the files in the same "root project folder" and Archicad searched in the subfolders for the missing files. Worked like a charm and now it doesn't.

Re: Relink drawings in bulk

Barry Kelly — Wed, 04 Oct 2023 02:06:06 GMT

Drawings have a setting for relative or absolute file path.

Does this make a difference (possibly not).

Barry.

Re: Relink drawings in bulk

SZSZ — Wed, 04 Oct 2023 08:11:36 GMT

I have tried changing this setting, doesn't make any difference.

Re: Relink drawings in bulk

Barry Kelly — Wed, 04 Oct 2023 08:16:12 GMT

All I can suggest then is to sort the drawing manager list by file path.

Select all those with the same path and use 'read from' on just those files.

You will need to repeat for each different path of course.

If some files are in the same folder there will be a slight advantage.

Barry.

Re: Relink drawings in bulk

SZSZ — Wed, 04 Oct 2023 08:50:30 GMT

Thank you Barry, that's my current workflow. It's the best I found so far. Hope Graphisoft fixes this issue soon. Thank you for your interest.

Re: Relink drawings in bulk

Barry Kelly — Wed, 04 Oct 2023 09:14:07 GMT

@SZSZ wrote:

Hope Graphisoft fixes this issue soon.

You will need to report it to your local support.

Just because it is mentioned here in the forum, does not guarantee the Graphisoft will read this and add it to their list of things to do.

But a request through support channels at least means it is in the system.

Still not a guarantee it will be done, but you might get a response if it can or can't be done.

And at least then you can follow it up through support (i.e. keep on their back about it).

Barry.

Re: Relink drawings in bulk

SZSZ — Wed, 04 Oct 2023 09:41:01 GMT

Thank you for the advice, I reported it when Archicad 24 came out, because it was the first version where the relink didn't work, but no news since then.

Re: Relink drawings in bulk

BIMadmin80 — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 16:49:28 GMT

This is a horrible regression, makes migrating projects to new hardware a nightmare. How can a bug like this go unfixed for years?

Re: Relink drawings in bulk

JayGarbarino — Thu, 29 May 2025 23:35:50 GMT

I have wanted this functionality for some time.
We have an Energy Notes sheet the is just the PDF of the California Title 24 CF1-R "pasted" on the sheet.
We have it look to the CEC.PDF document that resides in the same folder as the project PLN file,

Setting it Relative or Absolute in the template file does not help.

There is not the option for "Read from.." and the "Link Drawing to..." requires the reselection of both the PDF and the associated page of the PDF.

If it is a 14 page PDF all 14 need to be re selected.

Does anyone have a solution?

Re: Relink drawings in bulk

Barry Kelly — Fri, 30 May 2025 00:50:02 GMT

@JayGarbarino wrote:

Does anyone have a solution?

No, unfortunately not.

At this stage, PDFs must be placed by selecting the PDF and then the individual page, as you mentioned.

So, if the link is broken, you have to establish that individual link again.

As they are the same PDF and it knows what pages you want, it would be nice if you could 'read from' to re-establish it link.

That might be a good wish if it is not there already.

Barry.